Mokwon University and Young Artists to Host Nation's First 'Metaverse Art Festival'

Metaverse Art Festival Promotional Poster. Provided by Mokwon University

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Mokwon University is holding a metaverse art festival with young artists. The metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual space mixed with reality, and this is the first nationwide case of creating exhibition and performance venues in the metaverse to hold an art festival that combines performances and exhibitions.

Mokwon University announced on the 17th that it will hold the "Future Art Festival with Metaverse" on the metaverse platform "Gather Town" until the 19th of this month.

Gather Town is a type of video conferencing service developed by an American company, where animated characters (avatars) representing users can meet and communicate remotely in a virtual world.

The metaverse art festival is hosted and organized by the cooperative Korean Young Artists. Korean Young Artists was established last year, centered on Mokwon University students majoring in music, fine arts, webtoons, and architecture. Its main purpose is to support the activities of young artists inside and outside the university.

To hold the metaverse art festival this month, the organization collaborated with Mokwon University, the Daejeon-Sejong-Chungnam (DSC) Regional Innovation Platform, and the Industry-Government-Academia-Research Metaverse Forum to build a fusion art performance venue in Gather Town that combines fine arts, webtoon exhibitions, and classical performances.

The exhibition and performance venues implemented in the metaverse consist of Mokwon University Art Exhibition Hall, Webtoon Exhibition Hall, Music Hall, music/fine arts/webtoon consultation booths, a large auditorium, and a game zone. Users can move through each space to explore young artists’ Korean paintings, Western paintings, webtoon animations, webtoons, and artist profiles.

Additionally, visitors to the metaverse art festival have the opportunity to meet with field-specific representatives at the consultation booths to ask questions and receive answers directly.

Exterior view of the music hall in Gather Town. On the 19th, a classical concert by members of the Music Education Department at Mokwon University will take place in the music hall. This concert will be held in a hybrid format, both online and offline, with the offline event taking place at Plan A, a complex cultural space inside Golfzon Joymaru located in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. Provided by Mokwon University

At the Music Hall in Gather Town, a classical performance by members of Mokwon University’s Department of Music Education can be viewed at 4 p.m. on the 19th. This performance will be conducted in a hybrid online-offline format, with the offline event held at Plan A, a complex cultural space inside Golfzon Joymaru in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. The live concert held on-site will be broadcast live in the Gather Town Music Hall.

The exhibition and performance venues within Gather Town will remain open even after the metaverse art festival ends, allowing users to experience various content directly.

President Kwon Hyuk-dae of Mokwon University said, “The metaverse art festival is meaningful in that a local university and young artists joined hands to create future-oriented art content using Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies,” adding, “We expect the metaverse art festival to open new horizons in exhibition and performance culture not only for local young artists but also for artists worldwide.”

He also added, “Mokwon University will continue to actively discover and implement activities that contribute to the local community by utilizing our university’s strengths in music, fine arts, webtoon animation, and game content.”

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