Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Announces Support Contest for 'Art Enterprises and Cultural Arts Social Economy Enterprises'

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 10th that it will conduct the ‘2021 Arts Enterprise and Social Economy Enterprise Support Contest’ to discover arts management centers, arts enterprises, and social economy enterprises and provide support according to their growth stages.

This year, reflecting the increased interest in the arts field, where last year’s contest competition rate reached 10 to 1, the number of selected enterprises has been expanded from 62 to 90, and the support budget increased from 5.8 billion KRW to 8.3 billion KRW. Selected enterprises will receive a total of 4.3 billion KRW in commercialization funds according to their growth stages, along with various programs such as customized education by sector, consulting, and investment attraction opportunities.

In this contest, the support targets are divided into ‘arts enterprises’ that create revenue models in arts management and ‘social economy enterprises’ aiming to realize social values in culture and arts, conducting the ‘Arts Enterprise Contest’ and the ‘Cultural Arts Social Economy Enterprise Contest’ respectively.

In the Arts Enterprise Contest, a total of 60 enterprises will be selected across the stages of pre-startup, early, and growth. ▲Pre-startups can apply for ‘Startup Process Support (15 places, up to 15 million KRW)’ ▲Early startups under 3 years can apply for ‘Early Enterprise Business Foundation Support (30 places, up to 50 million KRW)’ ▲Enterprises over 3 years old can apply for ‘Growth Enterprise Business Leap Support (15 places, up to 100 million KRW).’

In the Cultural Arts Social Economy Enterprise Contest, a total of 30 enterprises will be selected. ▲Pre-startup teams with ideas to realize cultural arts social purposes can apply for ‘Seoro, Sijak (Together, Start) (10 places, up to 15 million KRW)’ ▲Early startups under 3 years can apply for ‘Seoro, Seum (Together, Build) (10 places, up to 50 million KRW)’ ▲Enterprises meeting qualification conditions aiming for growth and investment attraction can apply for ‘Seoro, Seongjang (Together, Grow) (10 places, up to 100 million KRW).’

Entrepreneurs wishing to participate can apply online through the Arts Management Support Center website by 5 p.m. on March 11. After the first document screening and the second presentation screening, the final supported enterprises will be selected by the end of April.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism started this project in 2019 to revitalize the arts market and create an arts industry ecosystem, discovering a total of 95 innovative enterprises. Representative successful arts enterprises include ▲‘Ttomo,’ which produces classical music videos with fun and familiar themes and has 470,000 YouTube subscribers ▲‘Pineapple Code Co., Ltd.,’ which created real-time responsive electronic scores for piano ensemble education to help people achieve their musical dreams ▲‘Yeolmae Company Co., Ltd.,’ which used blockchain technology to create an online market (platform) for fractional ownership sales of artworks and attracted 2 billion KRW in investment.

Successful cases of social economy enterprises include ▲‘Hobbyful,’ a social venture that operates online cultural arts hobby classes and employs homeless people over 60 to produce and deliver hobby kits ▲‘Dance Planner Co., Ltd.,’ a preliminary social enterprise supporting young people, career-interrupted women, and retired dancers to continue their activities ▲‘Aidrun,’ a preliminary social enterprise that developed dialogue-centered art education for children in childcare facilities and sells children’s art products to donate the profits.

A policy official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, “We will strive to strengthen the management capabilities of arts enterprises struggling due to COVID-19 and to spread excellent arts management cases,” adding, “We will implement policies to enhance the market competitiveness of arts enterprises, such as expanding the budget supporting arts enterprises and organizations in the future.”

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