Chairman Yoon Young-dal: "Government Budget for Arts Support Matching Fund Should Be Increased"

Inaugural Meeting for the 12th President of the Korea Mecenat Association

"The government budget for the arts support matching fund has been cut. I don't know the reason why it was cut, but I think the (policy) direction might have been set incorrectly."

On the 12th, Yoon Young-dal, chairman of Crown Haitai Confectionery Group and newly inaugurated as the 12th president of the Korea Mecenat Association last month, expressed regret over the government's reduction in cultural and artistic support at an inauguration commemorative press conference held at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.

The arts support matching fund is one of the representative projects of the Korea Mecenat Association. It is a project that helps artistic groups' creative activities by providing additional support from the Arts Promotion Fund at a maximum one-to-one (1:1) ratio proportional to the amount companies support artistic organizations.

The Korea Mecenat Association and the Korea Arts & Culture Education Service have jointly operated it since 2007. The government supported a budget of 24 billion KRW until last year, and combined with the amount matched by companies, about 87 billion KRW was supported to cultural and artistic organizations until last year. The corporate support has produced about three times the effect of the government budget.

Chairman Yoon Young-dal [Photo by Korea Mecenat Association]

Chairman Yoon emphasized that cultural and artistic activities have tremendous effects beyond simple arithmetic calculations and stressed the need to increase the government budget again.

Chairman Yoon said, "The power of culture and arts played a big role in the growth of Crown Haitai Confectionery Group," adding, "Employees have become very creative through cultural and artistic activities." He continued, "Although not everyone, many employees are happy through cultural and artistic activities."

In other words, cultural and artistic activities can lead to increased creativity and job satisfaction among employees, resulting in higher productivity.

Yoon Young-dal is a well-known art enthusiast, especially with a deep affection for Gugak (traditional Korean music). He has proposed "Haneum" as a new name for Gugak and is working hard to promote it. The "Youngjae Haneumhoe," held weekly to discover Haneum prodigies, marked its 200th meeting in November last year, and the Seoul Namsan Gugakdang "Crown Haitai Hall," located in Namsan Hanok Village, was renovated with new equipment in 2017 through sponsorship from Crown Haitai Confectionery.

Chairman Yoon also expressed his affection for sculpture, saying, "Snacks are also sculptures."

He said, "I believe culture and arts play a role in strengthening the roots of companies," and added, "As the president of the Mecenat Association, I will work on how to connect companies and the arts and how to strengthen solidarity going forward."

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