[Name] Foundation
Some things still take a hundred days to make.
[Name] Foundation begins with its purpose: to preserve and advance Vietnamese culture, in Vietnam and wherever Vietnamese culture is lived, made and shared.
Motion is off. The finished object is shown.
Colour laid in
The colours go on first: vermilion, gold leaf and eggshell, each laid where the painter wants it found. The Foundation's purpose is built the same way, one field at a time: music and the performing arts, the visual arts, traditional and contemporary crafts, food and culinary heritage, the distinctive products of Vietnam and the know-how behind them, and cultural heritage generally.
- Music
- Traditional and contemporary music, its performers, teachers and instrument makers.
- Performing and visual arts
- Theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, lacquer, photography and the artists who practise them.
- Crafts
- Pottery, weaving, lacquer, woodwork, bronze and paper, and the workshops that still make them.
- Food and culinary heritage
- Regional cooking, its ingredients and the knowledge of the cooks who hold it.
- Products and know-how
- Things made only in Vietnam, and the methods behind them.
- Heritage
- Buildings, archives, languages, festivals and the practices around them.
Coat upon coat
Each coat is thin, and each has to dry before the next; a finished piece may carry a dozen or more. The Foundation intends to work in four ways:
- support for musicians, artists, artisans and cooks;
- education and training;
- exhibitions, performances and programmes open to the public;
- grants to cultural organisations.
Sanding under water
The surface is sanded under water until the colours of the lower coats come through. The Foundation's work is for Vietnam, and for wherever Vietnamese culture is lived, made and shared.
Drag across the surface to sand a layer away.
The polish
The last polish is done by hand, and a board just finished has not yet been hung. [Name] Foundation is newly established: its programmes have not begun, and this page will describe them as they start. The Foundation is governed by an independent board of directors.
In the light
A lacquer surface shows its depth only when the light moves across it. For enquiries from cultural organisations, practitioners and others, please write to
[email]If you write to us, we use your name, email address and message only to reply. We do not add you to a mailing list or share your details with anyone else.