The 2nd Seoul Arts Awards Ceremony on the 28th at the National Theater's Haneul Theater

The Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture announced on the 26th that the "2nd Seoul Arts Awards" will be held on the 28th at 3 p.m. at the National Theater of Korea's Haneul Theater.

The Seoul Arts Awards is a pure arts award system established last year to select outstanding works among those chosen in the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture's arts support projects. In 2023, a total prize money of 180 million KRW will be awarded to 12 teams receiving the Grand Prize and Porsche Frontier Award, 4 works in the newly established Special Award category, and 1 disabled artist. The awards target artworks that contribute to the development of the arts community through high-quality artistic creation and enhance cultural enjoyment for Seoul citizens.

This year, the "Seoul Arts Awards" expanded the categories from the existing five genres?drama, dance, music, tradition, and visual arts?to six by adding the multi-disciplinary field. Additionally, instead of an Excellence Award, the "Porsche Frontier Award" was newly established, and a special jury award was created for works presented in Seoul last year and for disabled artists who have been actively working, beyond the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture’s supported projects.

The "Porsche Frontier Award" was established to focus on "young artists' works" that possess artistic quality and creativity while showing new attempts and potential for development. Prize money is funded by donations from Porsche Korea, and support is provided for the re-performance or re-exhibition of one of the six selected works. Porsche Korea, together with the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, has been practicing social contribution (mecenat) through steady arts support, including the "Porsche Do Dream Saichaeum" project, which supports the performing arts sector suffering from reduced ticket revenue due to social distancing during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, and the "Porsche Dreamers on Media Art Project" supporting young artists.

To select the winners of the 2nd Seoul Arts Awards, the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture formed a panel of 54 evaluators by field and conducted a comprehensive evaluation of 326 nominated works out of a total of 526 projects selected in the 2023 Arts Creation Support Project. Subsequently, an operating committee composed of evaluators and cultural arts professional journalists was separately organized to recommend candidates for the special jury award and to carry out preliminary, main, and final evaluations through a strict process to finalize the awardees.

One grand prize-winning work will receive 20 million KRW, six genre-specific top awards will each receive 15 million KRW, and six "Porsche Frontier Awards" will each receive 10 million KRW. Among the six top award-winning works, the grand prize winner will be announced for the first time at the awards ceremony held at Haneul Theater on the 28th. Four works in the special jury award category and one disabled artist will each receive 5 million KRW.

The ceremony will feature a congratulatory performance by Professor Heo Yoon-jeong of Seoul National University’s Korean Traditional Music Department, who won the grand prize at the 1st Seoul Arts Awards with "Akgaakmu: Jeoljeong (絶瀞)." Master Heo Yoon-jeong, a designated holder of Intangible Cultural Property No. 16 for Geomungo Sanjo, is dedicated to the preservation and education of traditional music.

The awards ceremony will be broadcast live from 3 p.m. on the 28th on the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture’s YouTube channel SparkTV and this year’s media partner Hankyung arteTV’s YouTube channel. Detailed schedules and information can be found on the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture’s website.

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