New Korean Performing Works Shine in Arko’s Annual Festival
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
The Korea Arts & Culture Education Service’s flagship support program ‘Creative Performing Arts Workshop: New Works of the Year’ returns for its 18th season, staging 34 new productions across six genres (theater, original musicals, dance, music, contemporary opera, and traditional arts) at venues including Arko Arts Theater between January and March. With a 6.5 billion won budget, the festival selects works based on contemporaneity, diversity, excellence, and experimentation; themes this year range from virtual reality and gender to climate crisis, surveillance, democracy, migration, and community. The program began in 2008 (as ‘Creative Factory’) and was rebranded in 2013, with national administration unified under the Korea Arts Council (한국문화예술위원회) in 2014. The festival also expands a second-stage production support to help successful shows develop repertory runs and tour nationally — and potentially abroad. Actor Kim Shin-rok was named festival ambassador and will promote the program through June next year; she emphasized the program’s value in supporting artists from the first experimental steps through risk-taking and possible failure.
