Kids less depressed and more creative after ‘Hanwha Art Plus’

Children who received art and culture education supported by a local company became less depressed, aggressive and self-critical, while becoming more creative, curious, humorous and content with life, according to a recent survey.

Researchers including Kim So-young, professor of business administration at Sookmyung University announced such results after conducting in-depth interviews and surveys of 100 participants of the “Hanwha Art Plus” program.

Hanwha group has been offering the “Hanwha Art Plus,” an arts education program aimed at underprivileged children, to 860 kids at 45 community children’s centers and nursery schools throughout the country since March 2009. Most of the participating children were raised by a single parent or grand parents, or came from a multicultural family.

The three-year-program was systematically organized ― kids learned the basics of art and visited classic music concerts in the first year; received more in-depth lessons on different fields of art in the second year; and held exhibitions and staged plays and Korean music concerts this year, the third year.

The level of depression dropped to nearly half of what it was when measured before the start of the program. Level of aggressiveness or self-criticism also decreased while that of creativity, life satisfaction and confidence increased.

The result also showed that not only kids but also Hanwha employees who volunteered for the program experienced emotional growth and became more loyal to the company. More than 3,500 employees participated in the program.
“It is an eye-opening result which illuminates how art and culture education offered to children of vulnerable families in the low income group leads an improvement in their mental health and emotions also has positive effects on the participating employees,” said Kim.

Hanwha Group and Korean Business Council for the Arts jointly held a symposium on Thursday at the Plaza Hotel in central Seoul to announce the results and further discuss why companies support culture and art education. Korea Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Hanwha Group, won the grand prize in November at the 2011 Mecenat Conference and Awards for the “Hanwha Art Plus” program.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)