Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture Supports Artists with 'Seoul Arts Awards, NFT, and Public App'

Lee Chang-gi, CEO of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, is making a presentation.

The Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture aims to diversify its art support policies to assist outstanding artists. As part of this effort, it will establish the ‘Seoul Arts Award.’ This initiative moves beyond the previous simplistic approach of merely providing grants, aiming instead to actively support artists (and groups). The classification of artists, which was previously divided into emerging, promising, and mid-career categories, will be expanded to include youth and veterans, thereby creating a more diversified creative environment.

Additionally, the Seoul city support projects, which were previously conducted on a per-project basis, will be integrated and carried out sequentially under the ‘Seoul Arts Support Project.’ The scale of funding is planned to increase by 10% annually until 2025. This year’s support amount is a record high, with 20 billion KRW allocated across 30 projects.

Through NFT (Non-Fungible Token) technology, the foundation will launch the country’s first ‘Artist NFT Platform’ targeting artists in the pure arts field. A dedicated project team has been formed to explore strategic partnerships with various companies. The foundation also plans to actively participate in virtual platforms such as the metaverse, which are part of the ‘Digital Culture City’ project led by Seoul city.

Creative spaces will also be expanded. The ‘Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture Daehangno Theater QUAD’ (QUAD, 122 Dongsung-gil, Jongno-gu) is scheduled to open in July this year after remodeling. It has a total seating capacity of 372. The ‘Jamsil Creative Studio’ (31 Daehak-ro 12-gil, Jongno-gu) has relocated from Jamsil to Daehangno and is set to reopen in September. The ‘Seoul Theater Center’ (3 Daemyeong-gil, Jongno-gu) has also completed remodeling and is preparing to reopen. At a press conference held on the 26th, Lee Chang-gi, CEO of the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, explained, “These three creative spaces will become key hubs for Seoul’s performing arts ecosystem and will be reborn as representative cultural landmarks.”

A public app for artists will also be developed. The ‘Seoul-type Art Support Public App,’ which provides customized support results for artists based on their major, areas of interest, age, and detailed categories, will be launched in July.

CEO Lee stated, “As the foundation approaches its 20th anniversary, it has achieved significant success both quantitatively and qualitatively. Through increased support for the arts, we will create cultural policies that foster an environment where artists can produce better works and citizens can enjoy excellent performances.” He added, “This strategy prepared by the foundation will lead the new Daehangno era and serve as a starting point for building the foundation of cultural arts that will guide future art.”

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