Minister Hwang Hee: "We Will Actively Support Young and Disabled Artists"

Hwang Hee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee has promised support for the activities of young and disabled artists.

On the 25th, Minister Hwang held a meeting with young artists at the complex cultural space 'Ttomohouse' in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, stating, "If you honestly share your voices from the field, we will strive to actively reflect them in policies."

The meeting was attended by eight young artists in their 20s and 30s, including Inarae, the vocalist of the band Nara Lee known for the popular song ‘Beom Naeryeonda’, poet Choi Ji-eun who won the 2013 'World Literature' Newcomer Award, and Hwang Ye-eun, director of the art enterprise ‘Ttomo’, which has gained great popularity on classical YouTube.

At the meeting, Minister Hwang conveyed that the government’s supplementary budget passed by the National Assembly that day included urgent support measures such as ▲support for the performance industry as a crisis sector under the Small Business Support Fund (2.5 million KRW per business) ▲support for personnel in the performing arts sector (33.6 billion KRW) ▲support for digital jobs in performance works (6.75 billion KRW).

Minister Hwang promised, "We will continue to make every effort to support artists struggling due to COVID-19," adding, "We will sustain policy support so that young artists can continue their creative activities with peace of mind through programs such as the New Artist Creative Preparation Fund and the Young Artist Creative Support Project."

A young artist attending the event said, "Many emerging young artists face difficulties due to limited opportunities despite having outstanding artistic potential," and requested, "We ask the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to support young artists so they can be more active."

Following this, Minister Hwang visited the rehearsal space of the disabled artists’ performance group ‘HandSpeak’ to listen to the opinions of disabled artist members. He emphasized, "We will work together to support and help outstanding disabled artists like you to develop further."

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