Daejeon City Expands Cultural and Arts Viewing Support for High School Students

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is expanding the target of the student cultural arts viewing support project from middle school students only to include both middle and high school students. The project was first introduced nationwide by Daejeon last year and operated on a pilot basis.

Based on the results of the pilot operation, the city announced on the 21st that it will expand the scale of the student cultural arts viewing support project this year.

The pilot operation was carried out from October last year to February this year, with 12,917 middle school students viewing 56 works.

This year, the project will be expanded to include high school students as well as middle school students. The project budget has also increased from 1.2 billion KRW last year to 2.1 billion KRW this year.

Above all, this year the city plans to enhance the project's effectiveness by implementing ▲ integrated operation system ArtKium ▲ additional support for viewing fees ▲ linkage with financial institutions ▲ use of call counseling ▲ big data analysis ▲ strengthened monitoring.

First, ArtKium (app) will serve to conveniently allow youth, who have a high smartphone usage rate, to apply for desired viewing works via a smartphone app.

The city will provide 20,000 points per person to youth as a basic support, and depending on the project budget usage, additional points will be granted only to those who reapply.

Also, when students apply for viewing and points are deducted, a payment system linked to the city’s own website and financial institutions will be established to promptly convert points into cash and settle with art organizations.

In line with this, the city explained that it will operate a call center to improve satisfaction with offline counseling functions such as project guidance, point management, and information on art works.

Additionally, the city will analyze project implementation data such as regional, school, and genre status, artistic quality of participating works, and online system operation to prepare improvement measures, and strengthen on-site monitoring to check feedback on art works and field inconveniences.

Moon In-hwan, Director of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the city, said, “The project will serve as a stepping stone to provide performance culture experience opportunities to youth tired from studies and to help revitalize the local arts community,” adding, “We will strive to create an environment where youth can encounter various art works in their daily lives.”