Mecenat Council, K-Auction support junior artists

The Korean Business Council for the Arts has kicked off a four-day art camp for underprivileged, artistically gifted children starting Tuesday in collaboration with K-Auction, the country’s leading fine arts auction house.

“The K-Auction Junior Artist Summer Art Camp is designed to offer talented children a chance to achieve their dreams under the guidance of established artists. The camp consists of various programs to help them expand their perspectives and challenge conventional ideas,” the council said in a statement on Wednesday.

The camp, currently taking place at Aicorea’s Training Institute in southeastern Seoul, offers a wide range of art programs including drawing, sculpture, cartoon drawing and fashion design.

Participating children will learn ways to understand others through a series of drawing lessons and build a miniature of a town to have logical understanding of structure and space, the council said.

Acclaimed Korean artists, including Lee Wan, Lee Sang-sun, Lee Jung-bae and Chung Eun-se, will work with the children.

The Junior Artist Camp, now in its third run, has invited 30 elementary and middle school students. The participants are mostly from low-income and single-parent families as well as children in orphanages.

The camp is a part of a year-long project aimed at fostering children’s artistic talent. In May, the junior artists received 10 million won ($8,800) worth of scholarships from K-Auction and will receive more support from the Mecenat Council after the camp.

The program participants will work with their art mentors on various types of projects including mural painting and book art. A group exhibition will be held later to showcase their works, the council added. K-Auction donated 183 million won in January toward the year-long project.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)