Gyeonggi-do Sees End of 'Artist Bias' After Introducing Art Work Review System

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has seen a significant improvement in the concentration of artists after introducing an art review system for buildings.

The art review system for buildings requires building owners to use a certain percentage of the construction cost for installing artworks or to contribute to the Culture and Arts Promotion Fund (70% of the artwork installation cost) when constructing or expanding buildings with a total floor area of 10,000㎡ or more.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 18th that as part of improving the building art system over the past year, operating a review committee and a quality control artwork inspection team has led to results such as the improvement of artist concentration issues.

Previously, Governor Lee Jae-myung of Gyeonggi Province directed improvements in November 2018 to protect artists' creative environments and guarantee residents' cultural enjoyment rights after problems such as unfair artwork selection and monopolization by specific artists occurred during the building art review process. Accordingly, the province newly organized the review committee last year.

The province reported that after the system improvement, there was not a single artist who submitted more than five artworks.

To dispel negative perceptions about the building art review, the province prohibited review committee members from submitting artworks to Gyeonggi Province during their term. Additionally, meeting minutes were made public so that anyone could understand the review process. In particular, a pool system of 56 review members was operated, with the governor appointing the chairperson and vice-chairperson who participate regularly in the review committee to ensure accountability.

Furthermore, the province has been operating a team of 69 inspectors with a certain level of expertise for quality control of artworks since September last year, the first of its kind nationwide.

Shim Sang-yong, chairperson of the Gyeonggi Province Building Art Review Committee, explained, "The improvement of the building art review system in Gyeonggi Province acts as a positive signal leading to change among building art agencies and artists, and it is becoming a meaningful model for local governments nationwide."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.