Kep International Art Week · Edition 01
Ten Boats +
21 hulls. 21 artists. One shore. 11 to 14 December 2026.
Year-round
Art Week is four days. The rest is twelve months.
Recurring giving, legacy giving and grant contacts sit with the long programme — residencies, school work, marine partnerships and the archive. See year-round ways to give.
The project
A boat that was going to be firewood becomes a work of art.
Art for Kep is a Cambodian not-for-profit organisation working with the fishing families of Kep, with Marine Conservation Cambodia, and with artists from Cambodia and abroad. We give the objects and the craft of this coast a second life, and we make the shore itself the place where the work is shown.
Kep is a small town of fishing boats and the remains of French colonial villas on the southern coast of Cambodia. Its shore was once a place of leisure, then of war, then of quiet.
21 retired wooden fishing hulls, given up by the families who can no longer sail them, will pass through the hands of 21 artists. Some will keep the hull whole and transform it. Others will take it apart and re-author it. In December 2026 the fleet lands on the shore at Knai Bang Chatt, Kep West and the Sailing Club, and Kep holds its first International Art Week.
The fishing families who give up the hulls are paid for them, the boat-builders of Kep are paid for their hands, and every artist receives the boat, the materials, travel, board and accommodation. Nobody on this project is asked to work for exposure, and the artist retains artistic ownership of the work.
The ask, in short
Four ways to take part.
Each tier is tied to something you can point at. You fund the week itself, or one named hull, or your own stand on the shore, or you give what you wish. Nothing overlaps, and nothing is sponsored in the abstract.
One
Title Sponsor
USD 25,000
Kep International Art Week in its entirety, 11 to 14 December 2026: three exhibitions, the whole public programme, and the fleet’s life after December. Named with the week itself.
Twenty-one
Boat Sponsor
USD 2,500
One named hull, end to end: its purchase from the fishing family, its preparation, the artist’s travel, board and accommodation, the materials and its plinth on the shore.
Limited
Shore booth
USD 1,000
Your own stand on the shore for the four days of Art Week, among the fleet and the crowd it draws. For galleries, makers and businesses of the coast.
Open
Donation
From USD 1
Any amount, from anyone. It goes to the development of art, culture and conservation in Kep. Art for Kep issues a formal receipt for every contribution.
A hull costs on average USD 2,500 to make, to show and to document. A berth covers it, exactly. The 21 berths are held for four kinds of maker, and a sponsor may state a preference: invited international artists and galleries, Cambodian artists and collectives, the fishing families, youth groups and schools of Kep, or a museum or foundation partner.
The fleet · Edition 01
21 hulls, each with a passport.
Boats are matched to sponsors in the order commitments are received. Your name stays attached to that specific object — on the shore label, in the project book, and wherever the work travels afterwards. No logo is ever applied to a work of art.
Sponsored
A4K001
Sothea Tang
Sponsored by BUN & ASSOCIATES
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting in the O’Krasar community, then to carry catch from larger boats onto Angkorl Beach.
This berth is taken
Available to sponsor
A4K002
Julia Higgs
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting in Kep’s sea. It sat sunk near White Horse Market for a year before Art for Kep recovered it.
Available to sponsor
A4K003
Calvin & Angelo
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting in Kep Fishing Village, then to carry catch from larger boats onto Angkorl Beach.
Available to sponsor
A4K004
Bonrotanak Rith
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Phum Thmey. It had been sunk there for a year before recovery.
Available to sponsor
A4K005
Nguyen Xuan Hoang
USD 2,500 · open berth
Still in service with a fishing family for crab traps and nets around Phum Thmey when Art for Kep acquired it. Built at Phum Thmey in 2019: seven seasons of crab traps and fish nets off Kep, ashore for the last time on 21 August 2026.
Available to sponsor
A4K006
Olga Cuxart Oriol
USD 2,500 · open berth
Still in service with a fishing family for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Kep’s sea when Art for Kep acquired it.
Available to sponsor
A4K007
Kris Marko
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Kampong Trorlach before it sank and was recovered for the project.
Available to sponsor
A4K008
Alexandra Maul
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Phum Thmey before it sank and was recovered for the project.
Available to sponsor
A4K009
Justina Edwardsen
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Phum Thmey and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K010
Thun Dina
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Phum Thmey and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K011
Nout Daro
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Phum Loak and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K012
Mohd Jayzuan / Joni Mustaf
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for crab-trap collection and fish netting around Phum Loak and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K013
Can Manh Tuong
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for fish netting around Phum Loak and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K014
Michael Klinkhamer
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for fish netting around Phum Loak and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K015
Ha Van Coung
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for fish netting around Phum Loak and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K016
Alain Peyrun-Berron
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used for fish netting around Phum Loak and Angkorl Beach before it sank and was recovered.
Available to sponsor
A4K017
Dương Quý Dương
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used by a fishing family along Kbal Romeas Canal, and raced in Kep, before it sank and was recovered for the project.
Available to sponsor
A4K018
Nguyễn Đăng Ninh
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used by a fishing family along Kbal Romeas Canal before it sank and was recovered for the project.
Available to sponsor
A4K019
Bui Hoang Duong
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used by a fishing family in the Kampong Samaki and Tropeang Sangke communities before it sank and was recovered for the project.
Available to sponsor
A4K020
Voon & Tan
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used by a fishing family in the Kampong Samaki and Tropeang Sangke communities before it sank and was recovered for the project.
Available to sponsor
A4K021
Tony & Herman
USD 2,500 · open berth
Used by a fishing family in the Kampong Samaki and Tropeang Sangke communities before it sank and was recovered for the project.
The shore is waiting. 21 hulls, and room for more if the tide brings them. Hull A4K001 is already taken by BUN & ASSOCIATES. 20 berths remain open.
Recognition
What a boat sponsor receives.
Every tier carries the following, scaled to the level taken.
On the shore
Your name on the label that stands beside the work at Kep West, for the whole of Art Week and for as long as the boat remains in the flotilla afterwards.
In the book and archive
A full credit in the project book of Edition 01, an edition of 1,000 copies, and in the digital archive, where each boat holds a permanent record with the coordinates of the coast it worked.
A credit that travels
When a boat goes on to a museum, the label and the catalogue entry travel with it. Unlike a banner at an event, this credit does not come down when the week ends.
Opening and the Yard
Invitations to the opening on the shore at Kep West, with hospitality at Knai Bang Chatt, VIP dinners and events at The Wave, and an introduction to the artist who made your boat. A private visit to the Yard during the November production period, for your team, your clients or your family.
Photography and press
Photography and film of your boat from the project’s documentation crew, cleared for your own use, and named acknowledgement in the project’s press and social channels and in the international coverage of the week.
No logo is ever applied to a work of art. Your name sits on the label beside the boat, in the catalogue and in the archive, never on the hull itself. Sponsors who have done this before understand why: the credit is worth more when the work is taken seriously.
One principle
Why a boat is worth taking
Scarcity. There are 21 hulls. A boat sponsor is one of 21 names, not one of hundreds.
First edition. This is Edition 01, and the companies named on it are named on it permanently.
Reach beyond Cambodia. The works are built to travel. A credit taken in Kep in December appears wherever the fleet is shown afterwards.
The boat is not scenography. It is the co-author of the work.
Ten Boats +, curatorial statementAfter December
The fleet does not end when the week ends.
Afterlife I
A flotilla
Selected hulls stay along the Kep shoreline as an outdoor collection, cared for by Art for Kep, carrying the Art Week into every season that follows.
Afterlife II
A dispersal
Selected works travel on. SOSORO in Phnom Penh is confirmed as the first venue after Kep, and one day a work from this fleet ends up in a museum collection. The artist retains artistic ownership throughout, and any sale is shared equally between the maker and Art for Kep.
Afterlife III
A return
Some hulls are scanned in three dimensions and then returned to the sea with Marine Conservation Cambodia, where they begin a third life as reef in the Southeast Asia Ocean Gallery off Kep.
The whole week
What the Title Sponsor holds.
One position only. It carries Kep International Art Week itself, from Thursday 11 to Sunday 14 December 2026, rather than any single boat. The 21 berths pay for the fleet, and nothing else. The Title Sponsorship pays for everything else.
What the week contains
- Three exhibitions running in parallel: Kep-Expo, the architectural exhibition of Kep’s 1950s French colonial villas with its gallery booths; the Residency Exposition of some twenty artists; and the Watercolour Exposition of twenty Cambodian and international artists, curated with the Cambodian Watercolour Association. All three stay open a further two weeks after the closing.
- The fleet of 21 on the shore, the coastal installations along the promenade, the waterfront light work that activates at sunset, and the illuminated work standing offshore.
- The Kite Festival with ACDK, some three hundred kites from Kep and Kampot across government and school categories; the “Oceans Connect” panel, recorded in full and released for the Kep Ocean Talk Series; guided coastal walks and closing artist talks.
- Contemporary dance and live music on the pier, four evening films on the roof of the Wave programmed by Cambodia International Film Festival 360, a daily signature cocktail built on a Cambodian ingredient, the Satcha handicraft space, and an accredited press preview under embargo.
Name and standing
- Named with Kep International Art Week in every announcement, on the shore map and the site signage, in the printed programme and the daily menu, on the roof screen and across all four days, then through the two-week extension as well, so the name stands for eighteen days rather than four.
- Named on the released recording of the “Oceans Connect” panel, given a full page in the project book, and named permanently in the digital archive alongside the fleet.
- Named in the Khmer materials as well as the English, including the websites, so the Cambodian audience reads it too.
- The right to describe itself as Title Sponsor of Kep International Art Week, Edition 01, in its own communications for twelve months.
The week itself
- A speaking place at the official opening on The Deck at Kep West on the evening of Friday 12 December.
- A table at the private dinner on Thursday 11 December, and two seats on the host’s table at the opening reception on the Friday.
- Hospitality across the four days at Knai Bang Chatt for the sponsor’s guests, as part of the week itself. Any additional use of the resort outside Art Week is a separate commercial arrangement with Knai Bang Chatt at its own terms, disclosed as a related-party transaction in our accounts. It is not part of the donation.
- Two booths at no charge, invitations across the four days for guests, clients and staff, a private curator’s tour of the 21, and access to the Yard during the November production period.
The work, and afterwards
- Photography and film of the whole week from the documentation crew, including the drone material, cleared for the sponsor’s own use.
- One work on long loan for its own premises, and first sight of some of the works offered for sale at the close, in each case by agreement with the artist, who retains artistic ownership of the work.
- When the works go on to SOSORO museum in Phnom Penh and to venues beyond, the Title Sponsor of the edition that made them travels with the catalogue entry, and holds first refusal on the same position in Edition 02, December 2027.
Transparency
Where the money goes.
Art for Kep publishes its costs transparently. This is the working budget for Edition 01, per hull across a fleet of 21.
| Production, per hull | USD |
|---|---|
| Hull, purchase from the fishing family, collection and preparation | 330 |
| Materials: paint, primer, marine sealant, tools and sculpting | 215 |
| Plinth, mounting hardware, signage and label | 100 |
| Artist travel, board and accommodation for the residency | 800 |
| The project book, 20 copies of an edition of 1,000 | 500 |
| Documentation, photography, opening and press | 150 |
| Transport to Phnom Penh, insurance, coordination and logistics | 180 |
| Contingency at ten per cent | 225 |
| Production, one hull | 2,500 |
| Production, fleet of 21 | 52,500 |
Studio and workshop space, the grounds at Knai Bang Chatt, curatorial time and the technical hands of Kep’s boat-builders are given in kind by Kep West and Art for Kep, and are not charged against the budget above. The artist retains artistic ownership of the work in every case.
What USD 25,000 pays for
Exhibition build-out across the three spaces, and the coastal and marine installations along the promenade and offshore, including the rental of tents and equipment. Technical and site: sound, lighting, staging, the pier and the roof screen, signage, the shore map and stewarding. The public programme: support for the Kite Festival, the panel with its interpretation and recording, the dance and the music, and the four evening films. Press and print: the accredited preview, the documentation crew, the bilingual printed programme, and the marketing that brings people to Kep. Insurance and the fortnight after: care of 21 wooden works standing outdoors, and the three exhibitions staffed for two weeks beyond the closing. The onward life: crating and freight to SOSORO and beyond, the scanning and placement of hulls as reef, and the seed of Edition 02.
How to take a berth
Four steps, and one date.
A conversation
A call or a coffee in Kep or Phnom Penh. We will tell you which hulls are still open and which artists are attached to them.
You choose
Choose your tier, and where relevant your boat. Boats are matched to sponsors in the order commitments are received.
A short agreement
Setting out the contribution, the recognition and the position of your name.
December on the shore
You meet your artist, and we see you on the shore in December.
To appear in the project book and on the shore map, a commitment is needed by 31 October 2026. Production begins in November.
Take part
Write to us. We will match you to an open berth.
Donate privately by phone or email, or write to us to arrange a SWIFT transfer. Our team will contact you to assist. Art for Kep issues a formal receipt for every contribution.
Art Week sponsorship
Peter Brongers, Vice President
Art for Kep Organization
General Art for Kep
Ms. Monikeo Kol
Krong Kaeb, Kep Province, Cambodia
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