Exhibit on Greensboro’s Cambodian community to open at WFU Anthropology Museum

Photograph by Cedric N. Chatterley“Across the Temple Gate: The Cambodian Side of Greensboro” will open Sept. 3 at the Wake Forest University Museum of Anthropology.

The exhibit runs through Oct. 30.

With color photographs by Cedric N. Chatterley and text by Barbara Lau, the exhibit explores the history and culture of a Cambodian Khmer community established in Greensboro in the early 1980s by people forced out of their homelands by war and economic devastation.

Text and photographs of the group’s largest celebration of the year, “Chhol Chhnam” (New Year’s Festival), demonstrate the traditional Khmer and contemporary American influences that make up the primary dialogue of their community life.

Lau began documenting the folklore of the Greensboro community of Cambodian refugees in 1992. Chatterley has been photographing the groups New Year’s festivals since 1995.

Lau, the exhibit’s curator, will present a public lecture on Greensboro’s Cambodian Khmer community at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 29 at the museum. Admission is free.

The traveling exhibit is sponsored by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University with support from the North Carolina Humanities Council.

Admission is free. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For information, call 336-758-5282.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Community, Events