Most people can’t feel the connections between us and culture and art easily.  However, watching movies or reading books at home are also one of the closest way of culture and art.  As a university student, busy with studies and personnel schedules, you cannot always find the time to visit an exhibition or go to a performance.  However, there is an amazing club that creates projects related to culture and art and even shares its projects with people who have little chance to get close to culture and art.  The Sookmyung Times interviewed, Kim Suhyeon, leader of Art & Sharing, to hear about their activities.

What motivated the club’s creation and what is the meaning of the club’s name, ART & SHARING?

In our early days, Seoul National University students, who were the only club members in the past, used to have informal activity gatherings related to culture and art.  However, as the gatherings gradually increased, founding members considered spreading to the public their work.  Therefore, in 2009, the club ART & SHARING was established after uniting students from several universities.  After then, ART & SHARING cooperated with even more than 300 artists from 67 different projects.  The club name, ART & SHARING details our club’s two founding factors: 'art' and 'sharing.’  We not only value art activities, but we also value volunteer effort and sharing.  We pursue enjoyment of art and share our projects with society, not just amongst ourselves.

What remains as the most meaningful and impressive club activity until now?

Earlier this year, we started the project, <One Fine Day; Steal Your Everyday Life> for high school students who find it hard to connect with culture and the art.  We implemented two projects: ‘樂king on a SCHOOL’s door’ and ‘For Those who Forgot the Night.’  The former one was a project in which students could paint messages freely on the banner, and the latter one involved illustrative lights on the high school garden.  The lights were adaptions of students’ stories on the topic: “What makes you forget the night?”  Although we all face hardships, through performance art and the installation of light, we felt rewarded when high school students made comments like, "From this, I realized the pleasure of culture and art."

What is the toughest thing the club has encountered doing its club work?

Club activities are fairly easy and fun; however, there are a lot of hang ups trying to contact places to host our events or artists who are willing to donate their time.  For example, this year’s project <Guess; Theift of Korean Beauty> required a special configuration as it involved three different concepts: plays, bands, and drawing portraits.  Therefore, we had to contact three different types of artists and manage their collective work well.  Although cooperation with officials from outside is never easy, we divide up the work amongst club members and each person does his/her best, so we can complete projects well every time.

What does the future hold for ART & SHARING?

ART & SHARING's goal is to achieve more social empathy under two fundamental ideology concepts: the 'value of culture and art,’ and the 'sharing of culture and art.’  First, in terms of value, the club hopes to increase respect for culture and art and double its value by sharing. Second, in terms of sharing, the club hopes to trigger social changes by sharing our projects. We hope our small effort can result in the nurturing of a positive perception of culture and art and bring about positive changes both internally and externally.  With these two conceptual plans, the club aims at expanding our goals and sparking passion in today’s youth.