Historical background
In pre-colonial times a master-apprentice training system was sponsored by the Lao kings; promising individuals were selected from the surrounding villages to learn music, dance or handicrafts from master artists of the court, thereby perpetuating the skills necessary to perform the rituals surrounding the king's presumed status as a demi-god or to produce high-quality art objects to decorate the royal palaces.
Meanwhile in the countryside, music and dance functioned at an amateur level for entertainment, social integration and spirit propitiation, and handicrafts were produced mainly for domestic use. In this context skills were passed down from generation to generation within the family.
The first arts training school in Laos was the School of Arts, set up by Prince Phetsarath in 1932 in the grounds of Vientiane’s
Wat Chanthaburi (Wat Chan). Concerned with the teaching of Buddhist art, this school came under the direction of the Pali School (forerunner of today's
Sangkha College) at Wat Ong Tu. However, it closed in 1936.
In 1940 a private applied art school was set up by French expatriate painter Marc Leguay (1910-2001) at Sala on Khong Island in Champassak Province. Here he taught traditional drawing, metalwork and graphic art from 1940 to 1945, when he was briefly imprisoned by the Japanese. Two years later Leguay decided to move the school to Vientiane, but in 1949 it too closed due to lack of funds. Leguay subsequently found employment as an art teacher at the Lycée de Vientiane, a job which he held until he left Laos for Thailand in 1975.
In 1959 a decree was passed by the Royal Lao Government establishing a National School of Fine Arts (now the
National Faculty of Fine Arts) and a
National School of Music and Dance under the Ministry of Education, Sport and Religious Affairs. Both schools originally opened in 1962 at Ban Anou in central Vientiane, offering secondary and intermediate or higher secondary programmes of study.
A small School of Music and Dance was also set up in 1970 by the Pathet Lao at Samneua in Houaphanh Province, mainly to train performers to entertain troops at the front. After 1975 the staff of this school were transferred to Vientiane, where they joined the National School of Music and Dance.
Following the establishment of Provincial Schools of Fine Arts at
Luang Prabang (1975) and
Savannakhet (1978), the four-year intermediate or secondary level programme in Fine Arts was extended to the provinces.
A
National Mass Media Training Centre was established in 1980 at Ban Simuang in central Vientiane, offering print and broadcast journalism training programmes ranging from one-week in-service courses to three-month intensive courses, leading to the award of a certificate.
Established in 1982, the
National Arts Teacher Training School is the only teacher training school in Laos dedicated to the teaching of arts subjects. Run by the Ministry of Education, it trains primary and secondary school teachers of fine art and music and dance.
In 1998 the National School of Fine Arts was relocated to a larger campus at Ban Phonpapao on the outskirts of Vientiane, and two years later the National School of Music and Dance was also moved here.
In 2004 the National School of Fine Arts was redesignated as the National Faculty of Fine Arts, in anticipation of the proposed establishment in 2005-6 of a University of Arts comprising three faculties – Fine Arts, Music and Dance (currently the National School of Music and Dance) and the Mass Media (currently the National Mass Media Training Centre at Ban Simuang). However, at the time of writing both the National School of Music and Dance and the National Mass Media Training Centre continue to use their old names, pending a final decision to establish the new institution.
At present both the National Faculty of Fine Arts and the National School of Music and Dance offer intermediate or higher-secondary level programmes (of three years' duration for Music and Dance and of four years' duration for Fine Arts) leading to the award of a certificate. Unlike the National Faculty of Fine Arts, the National Faculty of Music and Dance also offers a four-year secondary (foundation) programme. Since 2002 the National Faculty of Fine Arts has also offered a five-year tertiary level programme leading to a Diploma.
In the future, as part of the University of Arts, the National Faculty of Fine Arts will cease to offer four-year intermediate or higher secondary programmes, focusing only on the five-year Diploma programme. Thereafter intermediate programmes will be available only at the Schools of Fine Arts in Luang Prabang and Savannakhet. Under the new University of Arts it is also planned that the existing four-year secondary (foundation) programme currently offered by the National School of Music and Dance will be discontinued in Vientiane and transferred instead to two new Schools of Music and Dance which will be set up in Luang Prabang and Savannakhet respectively. There are however no plans to establish a Diploma programme in Music and Dance.
A range of tertiary culture-related programmes are also offered by the
National University of Laos (NUOL). These include a six and a half-year Bachelors degree programme in Architecture, a five-year Bachelors degree programme in Lao Language and Literature, and most recently five-year Bachelors degree programmes in Tourism and in Mass Communications (Journalism).
