The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister YU In Chon, MCST) and the Korea Disability Arts & Culture Center (Chairperson KIM Hyeong Hee, KDAC) opened an “art market” event dedicated to artworks created by artists with disabilities for one week from May 23 (Thur) to 30 (Thur) at Gallery 4 of the Hangaram Art Museum at the Seoul Arts Center. Entitled “A Very Special Exhibition of Gifts from Disabled Artists,” the art market is aimed at promoting the ministry’s priority purchase program for creative works by artists with disabilities. Minister YU plans to attend the opening ceremony on May 24 to encourage artists with disabilities and help them sell their works.

Launched in March last year, the priority purchase program requires the central government, local governments, and public institutions to purchase creative works produced by artists with disabilities first to promote creative activities and market access by artists with disabilities.[1] In this art market, the MCST will display 200 works by artists with disabilities and help the central government, local governments, and public institutions purchase artworks on the spot as required by the program.

At the end of this year, a distribution platform for creative works by artists with disabilities will be established to improve user experience and accessibility

In addition, the MCST and KDAC pursue various policies to help the priority purchase program consolidate its presence early on. Through the Priority Purchase Support Center on the official KDAC website (www.kdac.or.kr), the ministry intermediates transactions between artists with disabilities and organizations covered by the priority purchase program while helping the organizations register their purchases. By the end of this year, the MCST plans to establish a distribution platform for creative works by artists with disabilities and provide related information in a more systematic manner to increase user experience and accessibility.

Minister YU stated, “I hope that this art market for artists with disabilities will raise awareness of the priority purchase program for creative works by artists with disabilities and revitalize the program itself even further.” He added, “The MCST will continue to implement various policies to expand opportunities for artists with disabilities to access the market.”