The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) will join forces with Gwangju Metropolitan City, Busan Metropolitan City, and Seoul Metropolitan City to host the ‘Korea Art Festival’ in the fall of 2024.
 
The Korea Art Festival 2024 will organize and promote various art events in Gwangju, Busan, and Seoul this September, turning the entire country into a colorful art festival. While last year’s ‘Korea Art Week’ focused on unified promotion of art events run by local governments and the public and private sectors, as well as discounts for visiting exhibitions, this year’s festival will promote closer cooperation between organizations and link the contents and schedules of various exhibitions and events to become Korea’s representative art event and a global festival.

Gwangju and Busan each hold biennale. Kiaf Seoul and Frieze Seoul, which have been co-hosted for the third year, have established themselves as outstanding tourism contents, not only in terms of increasing overseas tourist arrivals but also in terms of the high level of average tourist spending, so the tourism effect of the 2024 Korea Art Festival, which brings together big events in the art world, is expected.

In addition to local government-led visual arts events and large-scale art fairs such as the Busan Biennale, Seoul Art Week, and the Gwangju Biennale, the 2024 Korea Art Festival will feature a number of special exhibitions at national, public, and private museums and galleries.

On September 4 (Wednesday), the MMCA will open “Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists” and host various public participation events through nightly openings, as well as exchange events for domestic and international artists. Inbound promotion programs are also organized to promote Korean art by inviting overseas museum officials and journalists. Kiaf Seoul, Frieze Seoul, and the Korea Arts Management Service will host the ‘Korean Art Discourse Conference’ from September 5 to 7 at COEX Studio 159.

Together with related organizations, the MCST will also expand the tourism infrastructure so that visitors can enjoy the various visual arts events and exhibition contents of the 2024 Korea Art Festival. A combined biennale admission ticket connecting the Gwangju and Busan biennales will be sold for KRW 23,800, a 30% discount from the regular price (KRW 34,000). During the Gwangju-Busan Biennale (Aug. 17-Dec. 1), the ticket will also provide discounts on paid exhibitions or free admission to major museums.

For rail travelers, the Korea Railroad (Korail) is selling a high-speed rail (KTX) tourism product that includes a biennale ticket. Media art exhibitions are available at Incheon, Gimpo, and Gimhae airports so that air travelers can also enjoy the Korea Art Festival. The Korea Tourism Organization will map art facilities by region to guide tourism courses and sell walking art tours, develop and sell tourism products linked to various events of the ‘Korea Art Festival’, and promote ‘luxury tourism promotion trips’.

It will promote various art events under the name of ‘Korea Art Festival’. Various media and spaces such as online websites and social media networks (SNS), outdoor billboards owned by the government and local governments, airports and stations are used to publicize the festival, and the Korean Cultural Center and Korea Tourism Organization overseas offices are also used to provide information to foreigners. Special English-language issues are published in collaboration with Korea’s leading art magazines, Monthly Art, Public Art, and Art in Culture, and distributed by Kiaf Seoul and Frieze Seoul to promote Korean art to foreigners in a professional manner.

References

• 문화체육관광부 보도자료 (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Press Release)