Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young has effectively rejected calls to revoke the appointment of Eo Yeon-sun as the first head of the National Children and Youth Theater Company, saying he would "keep a close watch on whether she is doing what people expect."
Speaking at the fourth meeting of the theater subcommittee of the Culture and Arts Policy Advisory Committee, held on the 17th at the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, Seoul, the minister said: "It would have been better for me too if she had been someone everyone agreed on and supported, and I feel responsible for the fact that it did not turn out that way, whatever the circumstances." He added that Eo had been appointed because she was "highly regarded as an administrative expert" for the task of building up a theater company in its early stages.
On the 11th, the minister appointed Eo, former head of the Gwangmyeong Cultural Foundation, as the first director and artistic director of the National Children and Youth Theater Company, which was established last year. The Korean center of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People issued a statement the same day calling for the appointment to be withdrawn, saying that "nowhere in her career can any expertise in performing arts for children and adolescents be found." As of the 16th, 10 associations including the Korea Playwrights Association and the Korean Women's Theatre Association, along with 383 individuals and organizations, had signed on in support.
As it happened, Bang Ji-young, chair of the Korean center of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People, attended the meeting as an advisory member and repeated the demand, saying she was "once again gravely requesting that the appointment of Director Eo be revoked." The minister replied that while he regretted the lack of support and would give it further thought, "once an appointment has been made, there has to be a basis for it."
Eo has worked in arts administration, serving as head of the performance planning team and deputy head of the arts troupe cooperation team at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, as head of the theater company Hyeonjang, and as head of the Gwangmyeong Cultural Foundation.
The meeting also introduced new programs drawn up in response to proposals from the theater community, including support for long-running productions through collaboration between theater companies and venues and expanded assistance for overseas expansion, and discussed the details of how the support will be directed. The ministry's budget for next year is 9.6349 trillion won ($6.9 billion), up 1.779 trillion won, or 22.6%, from this year's initial budget. Culture and arts alone were allocated 3.8545 trillion won, a 44.6% increase from this year.
