Better and brighter future for the Cambodian children.
In 2008, Small Art School (SAS) started as a self-financed art school, founded by a Japanese art teacher - Tomoko Kasahara, with the aim to provide free art education to underprivileged Cambodian children, especially to those children who have the will to learn but lack the opportunities to learn. We continue to dream and strive for a better and brighter future for the Cambodian children.
The school and its staff help Cambodian children to experience the happiness of creative learning. By providing free education, SAS actually gives the children an opportunity to step into the world full of shared happiness and joy of being a child. The School also shows the children and their families a new way of personal development and gives a chance to start a career outside of typical work opportunities in Cambodia.
Tomoko devoted her life to children and had a lifetime goal of making art accessible for children who live in hard conditions. When she was a high school student, she dreamed about "providing an educational opportunity for underprivileged children. At the age of 40, she came back to the dream and started saving money for her future school. Her long search for the location brought her to Cambodia. She heard that most of the country’s artists and teachers were killed there during the Khmer Rouge regime and there’s a strong need in her skills and experience. This is how the SAS story has started.
Art lesson at Angkor Krau village
The current School funding is based mostly on Tomoko’s personal savings.
For the last 20 years, Tomoko has been saving funds to open and run an art school for Cambodian children. The school construction started in 2007 and, ayear after, in 2008, she finally has a chance to open the doors of her Small Art School for the children who have a strong desire to learn but lack opportunities to do it.
It's been around 9 years now and SAS is proud to teach art to about 350 children along with running its own exhibitions in Siem Reap and internationally on a regular basis.
After the art lesson at the local elementary school
Celebration 10th year Anniversary of Small Art School in 2017
With many things achieved and many young lives settled, Small Art School has a lot to develop. Tomoko has been and is financing not only her own living costs, but also all School-related projects, staff salaries, facility's cost, logistics and many more important things that the students can't go on without.
The main challenge that the organization faces is raising funds to support the current and future SAS programs and activities that help us expand our reach and help more underprivileged children of Cambodia.
Art lesson at the nursery class room at Oh Village
Social Enterprise helps to raise funds for SAS and help students.
In order to raise more funds to support the Khmer children, we established a venue for more people to recognize the talents and abilities of Khmer Children. Thus, the Khmer Kids Art gallery was born.
Khmer Kids Art Gallery is managed by our social enterprise, Anacott Artiste, to help raise funds for Small Art School and the students. In addition, we also encourage that our young artists are able to make a living through the arts. So, we employ local artists to assist our art program and work at the gallery. We provide opportunities for students to improve their technical abilities and also gain experience in the “business-side” of art. We also collaborate with international artists and art educators from all over the world to provide enriching workshops and to encourage a broader, global understanding of the visual arts.
The profits from each original art sale will be shared in the following way:
50 % : To the artist
30 % : Operating cost for social enterprise
20 % : Operating cost for Small Art School
We define success as being able to spark positive change in the lives of people, and we believe it can be measured by how we are able to enhance the quality of life of our beneficiaries.
We believe that through our programs and activities, we are progressively achieving success by giving children an opportunity to learn creatively, while encouraging them to achieve their dreams. Hopefully, we would like the organization to grow for us to have a chance to reach out and help more children.
A couple of SAS advanced artists have achieved a lot and are an example for the younger students. Some of our graduates became art teachers and currently work in local NGOs, local and international schools in Cambodia. At SAS, we teach our students to develop their imagination and individual art style.
In December 2008, SAS started as a self-funded art school and Tomoko paid for all the school facility, art supplies, employment cost for staff etc from her own saving. The number of students has been growing rapidly, therefore we started to seek for other resources. Thanks to individual supporters and foundations, we have received some financial support since 2013. To continue our free art lesson and support students and artists financially, we need $8,000 to cover for our costs for art supplies, educational support, employment costs and operating cost for a half year.
The Small Art School is a very special social organization. Through the art, we help children learn new things about themselves and the world around them. Thank you very much for your support!
SAS is registered in Cambodian Ministry of Education. No. 1484.
Website : www.smallartschool.org
FACEBOOK : Small Art School in Cambodia
Instagram : Smallartschool
