There were two things. First, I miss my life in Yangon, where I never knew what face might be behind the knock on the door. With communications there so poor (we had no phone until recently) few bother to make a date, whether visiting from Yangon or the countryside. And people would just send their friends without telling us, or people would hear about us and just show up. It got so that anyone looking foreign who was wanding in our street in downtown Yangon looking lost might be ushered up our staircase by well-meaning neighbours. There were a few people who were looking for someone entirely different.
They might just be friendly, or might be there to look at our library, to talk business, to look at art, to chat about their field.
Second, Chiang Mai, a city with several universities, many intellectuals, and a large number of expats working, retired, or other who in their own countries would be going to public lectures. Or giving them. Thai lectures are inaccessible to many of us, but there is a big enough English-speaking community that there should be plenty of interest in talks and readings.
Also, I wanted to do something to support humanitarian work. So … Art and Ideas, talks and readings in the gallery, with profits to Cultural Canvas or to provide medical treatment for those who need it at a hospital where one of my friends is working.
Check here on Pansuriya for dates and topics. I’ve just started and I already have Amporn Jirittakorn talking about Shan migrants from an athropological point of view, three writers reading from their work, and Alexandra Green on temple paintings, and Bryce Beemer on Siamese war captives in the Burmese sphere.
And that’s before I really started trying. Have any ideas you’d like to see? People you’d like to see talk? Email me or leave comments.
Check this blog for events planned.
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Is it possible to purchase your gallery art via your website?
Comment by Philip Sharp 6 November 2012 @ 07:24We have been working on a website for a long time, but have been distracted by exhibitions. Now we will get on it again, but meanwhile, look at our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pansodan, or contact me as inkish at gmail and we can send images of what interests you.
Comment by pansuriya 6 November 2012 @ 11:45