Busan City Opens Animation Culture and Industry Development Platform 'Anirang Busan'

10:30 AM Old Film Processing Lab 'Hwashin Color' Reborn as Animation Culture and Industry Development Platform

Over 100 Attendees Including Mayor, City Council Members, Hwashin Academy Chairman, and Busan Social Economy Network Chairman

Busan City will hold the opening ceremony of ‘Anirang Busan’ (hereinafter ‘Anirang’), Busan’s first animation content platform, at 10:30 a.m. on the 30th in Dong-gu.

In December 2021, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety selected the project to establish and operate a platform for fostering animation culture and industry as an excellent resident-led regional New Deal project. The city, together with Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, Busan Gyeongsang University, Busan Social Economy Network, and Busan Animation Association, completed the construction of ‘Anirang Busan’ over about one and a half years and will officially open it on the 30th.

About 100 people, including Mayor Park Hyung-joon, city council members, the chairman of Hwashin Academy Foundation, the president of Busan Gyeongsang University, the chairman of Busan Social Economy Network, the president of Busan Animation Association, and general citizens, will attend the opening ceremony to celebrate the launch of Busan’s first animation content platform.

On the same day, the opening of ‘Anirang Deulraknalrak,’ a complex cultural space for children in Busan aimed at realizing the 15-minute city goal of the 8th mayoral term, and the ‘Jisanhak Cooperation Branch No. 62’ center, which promotes a startup finance city led by government, industry, and academia, will also take place.

Anirang is a cultural and industrial development platform that combines a children’s complex cultural space featuring play, digital experiences, and learning functions on the 1st and 2nd floors of Hwashin Color, Busan’s old film processing lab (covering 1,022㎡), with business functions such as animation screenings by local companies, character merchandise sales, and talent development.

1st Floor Facility Status: Animation Screening Room (Animaru), Immersive Content Media Hall (Silgam Maru), Ani-rang Come and Go (Play Maru), Animation Goods Exhibition and Sales Area, etc.

The first floor consists of ▲‘Animaru,’ an animation theater for the whole family to enjoy ▲‘Silgam Maru,’ a digital experience zone featuring virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) ▲‘Nori Maru,’ a play area with board games, reading, and digital learning. The second floor includes ▲an education room for animation production training ▲a consulting room for graphic-related employment and entrepreneurship ▲a ‘complex cultural space’ for exhibitions and meetings.

In particular, the first floor of Anirang has been developed as ‘Deulraknalrak,’ a new-concept playground and children’s complex cultural space where parents and children can enjoy advanced future technologies and culture, which the city is focusing on. It features about 1,000 books, including over 250 children’s storybooks donated by BNK Financial Group as part of their social contribution project, 13 types of board games, and various digital learning activities.

The animation theater ‘Animaru’ and the immersive content media hall ‘Silgam Maru’ will operate as experiential spaces where families can enjoy content produced by Busan companies, and as a testbed for local companies to verify the potential of their own intellectual property (IP).

Additionally, Anirang will provide animation production education to diverse users such as university students, workers, and local residents, and will serve as a hub for nurturing animation talent in collaboration with ‘Corner Studio,’ a specialized company located on the 3rd floor of the same building at Jisanhak Cooperation Branch No. 62.

Operating hours for Anirang’s first-floor children’s complex cultural space ‘Deulraknalrak’ are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., open daily except Mondays and public holidays. The second-floor education rooms and consulting rooms operate on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., excluding weekends and public holidays.

Mayor Park Hyung-joon said, “I hope many children will nurture their dreams at ‘Deulraknalrak,’ the children’s complex cultural space on the first floor of Anirang, Busan’s only animation platform.” He added, “Furthermore, we will spare no support to foster animation as a new regional-based job industry so that local talents can grow into animation experts and connect to employment and entrepreneurship.”