Gyeonggi-do Invests a Total of 3.2 Billion Won to Support 'Artists' Creative Activities'

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will provide 'Artist Creation Support Funds' to some cities and counties within the province as early as April.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 4th that it plans to implement the 'Artist Creation Support Fund Project' in five cities and counties within the province this year and will start distributing support funds to those cities and counties with secured budgets from April.

The Artist Creation Support Fund is financial aid aimed at helping artists who have been struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic to continue their creative activities stably.

The pilot project targets five cities and counties selected by the province last year through a demand survey: Seongnam-si, Uiwang-si, Yeoju-si, Dongducheon-si, and Yeoncheon-gun.

The recipients are artists active within the province who are registered with the Korea Artist Welfare Foundation under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, with support amounting to 1 million KRW per person.

The support funds will be paid once in local currency, and the total project cost of 3.2 billion KRW (for 3,200 artists) for supporting artists in the five cities and counties will be shared equally, 50% each, by the province and each city or county.

As of the end of December last year, the number of eligible artists by region is 2,485 in Seongnam-si, 387 in Uiwang-si, 177 in Yeoju-si, 117 in Dongducheon-si, and 34 in Yeoncheon-gun.

This pilot project is being implemented at the proposal of the Gyeonggi Provincial Council, which allocated 1.6 billion KRW of provincial funds for the project during the review of the 2022 provincial budget last December.

Due to the late allocation of provincial funds, the respective cities and counties will include their own matching funds in their upcoming supplementary budgets.

In the case of Seongnam-si, it plans to secure the city’s share of approximately 1.24 billion KRW through the supplementary budget by the end of next month and begin the application process to distribute the funds as early as early April.

A Seongnam-si official explained, "Last year, the city provided disaster relief funds of 300,000 KRW each to 959 artists, totaling about 280 million KRW, but this year, the number of recipients and the amount will increase through the Gyeonggi Province creation support fund pilot project. Once the budget is secured, we plan to distribute the funds immediately."

Yeoju-si also plans to secure its share of about 80 million KRW through the supplementary budget at the city council next month and start payments from April. Uiwang-si has a supplementary budget review scheduled for April, but if that is not feasible, it expects to be able to distribute funds around June.

A provincial official stated, "While the results of the pilot project need to be analyzed first, we are considering expanding the participating cities and counties next year and changing the payment method from a one-time payment to a quarterly allowance system."

Meanwhile, Suwon-si, which is not participating in this project, will allocate its own budget to provide a 'Suwon-type Disaster Relief Fund' to artists within the region.

The disaster relief fund is aimed at artists whose activities have been restricted due to COVID-19 and amounts to 500,000 KRW per person. Eligible recipients are artists residing in Suwon whose total household income is 150% or less of the median income.

The city plans to receive applications and necessary documents via email (yoon1234@korea.kr) by the 14th of this month and complete the distribution of the artist disaster relief funds by mid-month.

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