President Park Jong-won emphasizes integrated education, artists’ contribution to society


This summer a pool of Korean violinists took European audiences by surprise by making up one-quarter of the 12 finalists at the Queen Elisabeth competition in Belgium, regarded as one of the world’s three most acclaimed contests alongside Russia’s Tchaikovsky and Poland’s Chopin competitions.

At that time, Belgium’s national broadcaster RTBF aired a documentary series dedicated to exploring the secrets behind the success of young Koreans, including Queen Elisabeth’s third-prize laureate violinist Shin Hyun-su.

“I think featuring Shin on the series just exemplifies the quality of artists we’re nurturing here,” said Park Jong-won, the president of Korea National University of Arts, or K-Arts.

The 25-year-old Shin began playing violin at age 4, and she was 10 when she joined pre-school training at K-Arts. At the age of 17, she became a full-time student at the university.

“We’ve been developing programs for young artists, discovering their talents at early age, and providing them intensive and specialized training,” Park said.

The president said that the school’s continuous investment and support blended with the zeal of young artists are the reasons for their distinguished success.

He cited pianist Kim Sun-wook as another example of the school’s successful young artist program. In 2006, Kim, then an 18-year-old student at K-Arts, won the prestigious Leeds Competition, becoming the competition’s youngest winner in 40 years.

K-Arts was established in 1993 as the country’s only higher-education institute for nurturing artists. It first started with only the School of Music, and not much could be said about the facilities at the start of its program.

But throughout the years, K-Arts has revamped the facilities and completed in 2007 new buildings, including a 526-seat theater, an exhibition hall and a new headquarters building in Seokwang-dong, northern Seoul.

It currently has 26 departments in six schools, including music, drama, film, TV and multimedia, dance, visual arts and Korean traditional arts. 

Park, 52, is a renowned director, having made such classic films as “Our Twisted Hero” and “The Eternal Empire.” He started teaching at the school in 1995 and was named president of K-Arts in 2009.

Although classical music was not first among his interests when Park first took the office, he said he now enjoys Mahler’s symphony, and also is very much into all different arts.

“It’s one of good things about what you do here. You have great opportunities to get into all different arts.”

“This year will be another building year with a few big projects along the way,” Park said.

The school is marking its 20th anniversary with an international symposium in collaboration with the University of the Arts London and the European League of the Institutes of the Arts.

Under the theme of “The role of the arts for a better world,” the ELIA-ASIA Symposium will be held at the school from Oct. 4-6.

It is expected to bring more than 100 delegates from all over Asia and Europe to share their knowledge and experience on the theme, Park explained.

He said that it is the first time the ELIA, which represents some 350 higher arts education institutions in Europe, is hosting the annual symposium in Korea.

“It wasn’t easy to bring the event here,” Park admitted.

He made a couple of trips to meet the board members and also invited them over for an inspection at the school earlier this year.

“They are curious to see how Korean artists develop a career here, and they are convinced that building a Europe-Asian network benefits both sides,” Park said.

He noted that he is working hard to prepare the international symposium with another purpose in mind. During the three-day event, the participants will discuss the possibilities of establishing an association of Asian arts institutions, he said.

“The ELIA was established in 1990, but there is still no equivalent association in Asia. Considering the growing importance of the continent, it’s high time for us to establish our own networking.”

On the final day of the event, the participants will hold a meeting to set up the Asian League of the Institutes of the Arts. And once it is established, K-Arts will take a leading role in building a network with members across Asia through biennial conferences and specialist focused symposia, seminars and workshops, according to Park.

The aim of building networks is to enhance integration of students across departments, schools and countries, Park added.

Since his inauguration, Park has been working hard to create an educational environment where students can cross over to different genres and take on bold new artistic challenges.

At the start of his presidency, he admitted, K-Arts’ departments were not fully collaborating with one another. So he brought up the idea of having a common core curriculum that provides students with a wide range of courses across the departments.

“We encourage, for instance, students majoring in piano to take a film course, because it’s my philosophy that artists need to understand how all arts complement one another,” Park said.

The filmmaker-turned-professor also spent the first year of his tenure forming global partnerships for education cooperation.

K-Arts is currently in partnership with over 90 institutions in more than 35 countries around the globe.

He also implemented projects like a global volunteer program, in which students participate in volunteer work in developing countries, as well as joint projects with local communities.

“Since 2010, we have dispatched students twice every year to countries such as Nepal, Mongolia and Malawi,” Park said.

The aim of the program is to help students develop not only their artistic expertise, but also the understanding of how to make contributions to society through arts, he added.

Park noted that he believes globalization and the technological revolution have created a more favorable environment for Korean artists.

“Look at Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style,’ for example, and how it became a YouTube sensation overnight. It shows that although we don’t have a rich tradition in arts, we can make it into the mainstream if we have talent,” he said.

Park added that he believes K-Arts has already become a leading art school in Asia, producing many talented graduates, including pianist Kim and violinist Shin over the past years.

“I think we’re on the path toward being a world-leading arts institution, and now our mission is to produce artists to create changes, evolution of arts,” he added. 

Park Jong-won

- Park was named president of K-Arts in August 2009. He has worked as a professor at the School of Film, TV and Multimedia since 1995. He also served as a committee member of the Korea Council for Performing Arts Promotion from1997-1999.

- Park is a renowned director with films such as “Our Twisted Hero,” and “Eternal Empire.” He won the Best Director Award with “Our Twisted Hero,” in 1992 at Daejong Film Awards and also at the Blue Dragon Awards.

- He graduated from Hanyang University in Seoul with a bachelor’s degree in Theater and Film in 1984, and earned his master’s of Fine Arts and Film Directing from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in the United States.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)