Local cultural foundations in Korea established for the purpose of promoting cultural art encounter difficulties in securing financial resources since financial resources are not actively secured from the private sector and budgetary support from loca...
Local cultural foundations in Korea established for the purpose of promoting cultural art encounter difficulties in securing financial resources since financial resources are not actively secured from the private sector and budgetary support from local governments is increasingly reduced. Moreover, economic crises of the country also affect national support for cultural art. As the management environment is changing in the said manner, local cultural foundations try to find schemes for securing financial resources. Therefore, it is increasingly necessary to research into how to secure financial resources because local cultural foundations in Korea just depend on contributions from the central government and local governments.
At this juncture, with a view to seeking schemes to secure financial resources for local cultural foundations, this research is aimed to, firstly, investigate into the current condition of the operation and budget of local cultural foundations and to, secondly, derive suggestions after analyses are made of the conditions of the schemes and cultural donations. To do that, various documents have been considered and previous researches have been reviewed with a focus on cases in foreign countries, the present state of financial resources has been investigated, and in-depth interviews conducted with experts including personnel in charge of the budget at local cultural foundations, managers, officials charged with cultural policies, and raisers of financial resources. Then the results of the interviews are analyzed and are turned into statistics for use in this research, so that schemes for extensively securing financial resources from the private sector may be proposed to help local cultural foundations secure an ability to stand on their own.
The findings of this research are listed in the following.
First, it is necessary that the funds of the foundations should be less used so as to avoid crises caused by a reduction in the cultural budget. It is because the funds will be exhausted and the continued existence of the foundations will dwindle when they are used up to meet financial difficulties.
Second, it is necessary that financial resources should be secured from the private sector. Currently, local cultural foundations secure resources for their operation from national subsidy, donations from local governments, interest income, financial resources of their own, and profits from businesses commissioned by the government. However, experts contend that it is more important to secure financial resources from the private sector like local enterprises, social contribution activities, mecenat activities, individual sponsors rather than from the public sector.
Third, it is necessary that diverse programs should be developed so that environments for cultural donations may be promoted and the recognition of donation cultures may be improved among ordinary citizens, companies, institution workers, etc. In other words, opportunities shall be offered for enterprises to disperse the value of cultural arts and experience cultural arts so that their recognition of cultural art donation may be enhanced.
Fourth, it is necessary that legal grounds should be set up for local and cultural foundations. Revisions and/or establishments need be made of tax incentive laws in order to secure cultural art financial resources like cultural art promotion law, local culture promotion law, special tax treatment control act and mecenat law. Tax benefits need be provided so that cultural foundations may independently and automatically secure financial resources from the private sector including enterprises, with which communication networks shall be intensified and to which opportunities shall be given to participate in cultural art programs. Based on such laws, the values of cultural art can be disseminated and the joy of sharing can be facilitated to activate cultural art donations.
In this research, schemes have been sought from various perspectives to activate securing financial resources for local cultural foundations. The schemes suggested in this research will be possibly utilized as basic materials for related researches in the future. Furthermore, it is proposed that future researches shall develop relevant programs to secure financial resources for local cultural foundations.