[Editorial] Arts Council Korea, a Banquet for the Leftists

The second elected Chairman of the Arts Council Korea (ARKO), professor Kim Jung-heon (Kongju National University, Department of Fine Arts Education), received a special award during the First Gwangju Biennale and has been a member of ARKO for the past two years. His career or activities are not particularly disqualifying in nature. However, considering that he is a representative leftist artist as well as a former director of the Korean People Artist Federation, and the joint chairman of the National People’s Artist Federation, concern about the government’s support tilting toward leftists is being raised.

The Arts Council for Korea is a government institution that supports cultural and artistic activities with taxpayers’ money. It should inevitably embrace both fine arts and participatory arts, as well as various cultural paths and institutions. Even the ARKO labor union assesses that “(Chairman Kim is) opinionated toward one side,” which makes others wonder and worry about discrimination and estrangement of ‘the other side.” If a person that represents a certain school of arts that roots itself on a particular ideology becomes the chairman, and thus causes a biased flow of support funding to one side, it may bring about a distortion in the artistic realm.

Without having to consider this appointment, the arts community is buzzing with discontent about ARKO’s funding 110 billion won to the Korean People Artist Federation. ARKO replaced the existing Korean Culture and Arts Foundation (KCAF) to guarantee a politically neutral organization, but the current concentration of funds to leftist artists has caused dissent that the current organization is even less functional than the former one.

It would be very unfortunate to witness politics taint even in the arts. The current administration has introduced a striking unbalance of ideology among the institutions that influence our minds, including historic and cultural ones, and these institutions were as good as overwhelmed by leftists. A prolonging of such a phenomenon may degenerate the values and ideologies that our society seeks, and may also damage the diversity of our culture.

The appointment issue of Chairman Kim is also being considered from a sense of shame, let alone ideology. Professor Kim was requested to step down from the ARKO Committee by the ARKO labor union on grounds of erratic committee operation, and was directly and indirectly involved in the stepping down of former Chairman Kim Byeong-ik. The second chairman will replace the first committee member that sent the first chairman out of office. It seems to me that this is just a revelation of bitter “politics” in the arts community.