Busan Cultural Foundation starts art project to clean up city’s beaches

The Busan Cultural Foundation announced a “beachcombing project” on Tuesday to increase awareness about trash on the city’s beaches.

Busan’s artists and other members of the community will pick up trash from the beaches, and will then work together to turn that trash into art.

With this upcycling project, the foundation hopes to emphasize the importance of protecting the environment. Upcycling means using discarded materials to make high-value items.

“As the delivery industry expands due to COVID-19 and also as the number of one-person households increases, the use of disposable items is surging as well. Environmental pollution is becoming more serious due to that waste. In particular, there are tons of marine debris on the beach,” an official from the foundation said in a statement.

The project will run at five beaches -- Yikidae Beach, Gamji Beach, Gudeokpo Beach, Dadaepo Beach and Gwangalli Beach -- every month from May to October, except July.

According to the project organizer, artists specializing in diverse fields including macrame, woodcraft, ceramics and painting will take part in the project.

Up to 20-30 people can sign up to take part at each location. Detailed information will be provided on the foundation’s website, www.bscf.or.kr.

The foundation added that the resulting works will be displayed at an exhibition in October.

Founded in 2009, the Busan Cultural Foundation supports various cultural and artistic activities to turn Busan into a city of the arts. It also organizes festivals and projects for residents of Busan. The organization also envisions Busan, Korea’s second-largest city, as a culturally open and cosmopolitan city.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)