The Korea Mecenat Association has released the ‘2023 Survey on Corporate Support for The Arts’. According to the survey, 515 Korean corporates provided a total of 288 billion KRW in support to 1,570 cultural and arts projects last year. This is the highest amount of support since 1996, when the association started the survey.

“It is fortunate that the amount of support has increased despite the prolonged economic downturn,” said a representative of the association, “but the trend over the past decade has virtually plateaued.”

Regarding support categories, the highest proportion of support went to infrastructure, such as theaters and museums, while art and exhibitions received about 200 million KRW less than the previous year. On the other hand, funding for non-mainstream and multidisciplinary arts increased by 66.2% year-on-year. This is analyzed as a reflection of corporates’ strong interest in convergence arts.

By corporate cultural foundations, Samsung Foundation of Culture continued to receive the largest amount of support in 2022, followed by LG Yonam Culture Foundation and LOTTE Foundation for Arts.

References

• 한국메세나협회 (Korea Mecenat Association)
• 연합뉴스, 기업들 작년 문화예술에 2천88억원 지원…1996년 이후 최다, 2024.07.02