The traveling exhibition, Mekong Lifeways: The Stories of Six Communities, concluded three months at the Can Tho Museum in August, before moving home to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME) in Hanoi where it opened at the end of September. The multi-year Mekong Lifeways program, a partnership among the Center, VME, and An Giang University, trained 33 Vietnamese museum professionals from the Mekong Delta in a range of research skills and museum practices, with primary funding support from the Rockefeller Foundation and additional support from the Ford Foundation.

In August Frank Proschan and Richard Kennedy joined Connecticut College colleague Prof. Lan-Lan Wang in a trip to the Mekong River region to follow up with scholars and officials who had participated in the Center's April conference on "The Mekong River: Connecting Culture" project. Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, the trip enabled staff to meet with government officials and institutions in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Yunnan, China, connected with the project. 

"The Mekong River: Connecting Cultures" project draws on the previous work of Center scholars and others to research and present the cultural traditions of the region at the 2007 Festival. Relationships developed out of Proschan's long-standing research and advocacy work in Vietnam and Thailand, and Kennedy's role as curator of the 1994 Thai Festival program and his work with Cambodian Americans, coupled with Prof. Wang's deep commitment to Yunnan have brought together a strong group of officials and scholars committed to the project. This trip was particularly critical in cementing the government support necessary for the success of the project and in engaging cultural institutions that will carry out the research and production of the program. And it laid the groundwork for a larger meeting of officials and scholars in Bangkok in October.

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