A drawn conversation with Tor Vutha. He is an artist and cofounder of Phare Ponleu Selpak, an art and circus school in Battambang, Cambodia.
The organisation started in 1994 and has its roots in a refugee camp during the Khmer Rouge era, where art first became a tool for healing and survival. Today, the school empowers more than 1,200 vulnerable young people through circus, visual arts, and music, offering free education with a strong focus on disadvantaged children. Vutha believes in changing lives through art, using education to restore identity and dignity in communities that have suffered from violence and trauma.
Cambodia, February 2026