GS Caltex wins Grand Prize of Mecenat Awards

GS Caltex, a South Korean energy and chemicals company, received the Grand Prize at the 2024 Mecenat Awards for promoting regional culture with its multipurpose cultural and arts space in South Jeolla Province.

GS Caltex has been operating GS Caltex Yeulmaru for 12 years. Designed by the architect Dominique Perrault, Yeulmaru has hosted over 1,800 performances, along with 2,300 exhibitions and educational programs, attracting approximately 1.33 million visitors as of mid-2024. Additionally, the nearby Art Island Jangdo, which GS Caltex connected to Yeulmaru in 2019, has drawn around 1.75 million visitors in five years, establishing itself as a key cultural tourism spot in Yeosu.

Organized by the Korea Mecenat Association, the Mecenat Awards, now in its 25th year, has been recognizing companies and individuals who contribute to the development of arts and culture in Korea. Awards are given in five categories: the Grand Prize, Cultural Contribution Award, Mecenat Person Award, Creativity Award and Arts & Business Award.

The Cultural Contribution Award went to the World Youth & Culture Foundation, established in 2007 by the Daekyo Group to support youth education in culture, arts and sports. The foundation has organized numerous initiatives to foster young talent, notably the Daekyo International Sculpture Symposium -- formerly the National University Students and Graduate Sculpture Competition -- now in its 25th year. The event has supported 379 students to date.

The Mecenat Person Award, which recognizes individuals contributing to the promotion of arts and culture, was awarded to Cho Seong-je, chairman of Wonkwang Construction. A businessperson in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, and a photographer of over 30 years, Cho has supported disabled artists for two decades. He established a cultural arts fund for disabled artists in the region and organized exhibitions to support them, such as publishing a poetry collection for a poet with cerebral palsy and sponsoring a solo exhibition for a photographer with a severe disability. Since 2008, Cho has supported the Gyeongnam International Photo Festival and championed the Dongseo Art Award, a private art award in South Gyeongsang Province, for over 30 years.

The Creativity Award went to Jong Ie Nara, a company dedicated to preserving and developing Korea's traditional paper culture and paper-folding arts since 1972. Through institutions like the Korea Origami Association, Jong Ie Nara Museum, Korea Paper Culture Foundation and the World Paper Folding Union, the company actively promotes paper culture and has held the Korea Paper Culture Art Competition for 17 years to nurture new artists. In an effort to establish "paper-folding" as a Korean term rather than the Japanese term "origami," Jong Ie Nara has set up 55 educational centers in 24 countries worldwide and continues its efforts to list traditional Korean hanji on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

The Arts & Business Award was jointly awarded to Pernod Ricard Korea and the National Gugak Middle and High School. The Korean subsidiary of global beverage company Pernod Ricard has provided scholarships for 22 years to support students of traditional Korean music and the advancement of gugak culture. In alignment with the founder Paul Ricard's belief that "Art is in our DNA," the company has supported a total of 695 scholarship recipients to date, along with additional support for both domestic and international performances by gugak talents.