South Korea's Resilience for the Performing Arts and Culture Sector and Policy Response to COVID-19

South Korea has been battling the coronavirus pandemic since January 2020, and it has affected so many sectors in the country including the performing arts.

Arts sector

The South Korean performing arts sector saw a decrease of 38.8% from January to June 2020 after all shows were canceled. The decline has caused the associated cultural industries to suffer, according to the statement released by Korean Culture Information Service or KOCIS.

But now, the performing arts sector has slowly returned to life after experiencing a slump, but the pandemic has prevented the sector from going back to normal.

According to the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System or KPOIS, aggregate ticket sales of musicals, classical concerts, theatrical plays, and other performances reached 95.24 billion won or $79.3 million in the first six months 2020.

The system is managed by the Korea Arts Management Service that is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The revenues for the first two months of the year totaled 59.9 billion won, accounting for 63% of the entire first-half sales.

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However, the monthly tally declined to 9 billion won in March 2020, and 4.6 billion won in April 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic started to spread in South Korea.

The government was fast in implementing strict COVID-19 rules to slow down the spread of the virus. Because of this, the performing arts scene saw its sales rise to 10 billion won, and 11.8 billion won for May 2020 and June 2020.

Due to a series of cancellations, however, the number of audience members decreased, from 1.25 million in January it went down to 120,000 in April and 230,000 in May, according to a report by the Korea Arts Management Service.

The sector's alternative

Many public arts companies have opened online platforms to stream their shows and concerts. The Korea National Dance Company premiered its production online, and the Korea National Opera has streamed its projects on its social network channels.

However, most online projects did not do well, as new cash cows for art troupes as they failed to garner the interest of South Korean fans.

The concert of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra live-streamed on May 30 and was watched only by hundreds of people. An official from a production company said that they doubt if online performances can make a profit, but they have no other alternatives.

Meanwhile, musicals are doing better than other performing arts sectors as many high-profile musicals have been held in person for almost a month. But organizers are not letting their guard down to protect the members of the cast and staff from infection.

QR codes are used to survey the health conditions of audience members, the temperature checks are strengthened, and audience members are asked to wear face masks at all times.

Insiders are worried that the performing arts industry won't be able to rebound in the latter half of 2020, citing weaker sales and a recent spike in coronavirus infection in the country.

South Korea went into lockdown again back in June after the daily cases increased. The Performing Arts Management Association of Korea released a statement asking the government to immediately give financial support to the sector.