People of K-Arts Named Artists of National Merit 2024

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST) of South Korea announced 31 nominees for Artists of National Merit 2024. They include 15 for Order of Culture Merit, 5 for Presidential Citation, 8 for Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism’s Citation, and 3 for Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism’s Appreciation Plaque.

Professors and alumni of K-Arts were bestowed “Young Artists of Today” (Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism’s Citation). The prize selects 8 young artists in literature, music, gugak (traditional Korean music), theatre, dance, fine art, design, and architecture.

The awardees are the following: cellist Han Jaemin (School of Music) in music, geomungo performer Park Woo-jae (School of Korean Traditional Arts) in gugak, ballerina Park Se-eun, the étoile (principal dancer) of the Paris Opera Ballet (School of Dance) in dance, and assistant professor Jun Sojung (School of Visual Arts) in fine art. Each was honored with a medal and prize money of 5 million KRW.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yu In-chon addressed, “I’d like to pay my respect and congratulations to the 31 awardees who contributed to the advancement of Korean culture and arts. The MCST will continue to support the sustainable growth of arts comprehensively across literature, music, performing art, and fine art. We will intensively support the next generation of Korean artists to help them become world-class. We’ll also politically support them to create works that represent Korea.”