[Exclusive] Andong City, which scrapped 'Cultural Foundation' establishment last year... "Foundation merger to launch early next year"

'Andong Cultural Foundation Establishment' Service Final Report Meeting Virtually Confirmed
Mental Culture Foundation, Festival Tourism Foundation, and Imaco 3 Organizations Merged
City Council "Difficult to Support Private Organizations Without Leg

Dancers performing a spectacular show at the opening ceremony of the '2019 Andong International Mask Dance Festival' and the '48th Andong Folk Festival,' held at Andong Talchum Park on September 27 last year.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] An integrated cultural foundation that will serve as the command center overseeing various cultural events and festivals in Andong City, Gyeongbuk, is being established.

This foundation will be formed by merging the existing Korean Spiritual Culture Foundation, Andong Festival Tourism Foundation, and IMACO (World Mask Culture and Arts Federation). The name is likely to be 'Integrated Spiritual Culture Foundation.'

This plan was included in the final report of the 'Detailed Plan for Establishing Andong Cultural Foundation' service, held at Andong City Hall at 2 p.m. on the 9th. It is also reported that Andong City has internally established a plan and schedule to launch the (tentatively named) Integrated Spiritual Culture Foundation in the first half of next year based on the service proposal.

The personnel composition of the Integrated Spiritual Culture Foundation will proceed by inheriting the employment of employees from the existing three organizations. Changes to the existing Spiritual Culture Foundation will be finalized after city council deliberation once the related ordinance is prepared. The rapid progress in promoting the establishment of this integrated foundation stems from Andong City's judgment that continued support for private consignment institutions such as the Festival Tourism Foundation and IMACO is no longer feasible due to the lack of clear legal grounds.

Last year, Andong City, which spent 22 million KRW on another service to prepare for the establishment of the 'Andong Cultural Foundation,' initially scrapped the foundation establishment after accepting the existing organizations' stance that more consideration was needed regarding their unique identity and role.

However, in February, when the Andong City Council reviewed the ordinance on private consignment, it halted support for the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation and the World Mask Culture and Arts Federation due to the absence of legal grounds, posing an urgent challenge for Andong City to find a solution.

According to the Regional Culture Promotion Act enacted in 2014, regional cultural foundations must have the legal status of a civil law foundation established with local government funding to be established and maintained. Although the Andong Festival Tourism Foundation and IMACO have functioned as de facto subordinate organizations of Andong City, they are merely informal bodies lacking the legal requirements of the Regional Culture Promotion Act.

In this situation, Andong City hurriedly commissioned a service for the establishment of a cultural foundation through a private contract (service fee of 18 million KRW) in May, and after the mid-term report in August, effectively finalized the direction for establishing the cultural foundation at the final report meeting on this day.

Andong City's decision to merge around the Korean Spiritual Culture Foundation instead of establishing a new cultural foundation appears to be due to the narrow scope of the Spiritual Culture Foundation's existing work and the considerable costs and time required for establishing a new foundation.

An official from Andong City's Tourism Promotion Division stated, "Considering the public opinion favoring the name of the merged foundation to reflect Andong City's identity through the Spiritual Culture Foundation, the final name will be selected accordingly," adding, "We will make every effort to ensure smooth employment succession during the merger process of the three organizations to avoid discord."

Meanwhile, the Korean Spiritual Culture Foundation has only five employees, including the chairman. The Andong Festival Tourism Foundation and IMACO have 14 employees (including 3 contract workers) and 6 employees, respectively.