The Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts) student council said a bill submitted to transfer the school's campus to the integrated special self-governing body for South Jeolla and Gwangju (tentatively named Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Metropolitan City), which is set to launch in July, would amount to a "shell transfer."

In the afternoon on the 28th, at the Seokgwan-dong campus of the Korea National University of Arts in Seongbuk District, Seoul, Bang Se-hee, president of the student council, delivers a statement of student opposition to the bill proposing a Gwangju transfer. /Courtesy of Kang, Jeong-a

The K-Arts student council on the afternoon of the 28th issued a "statement opposing the bill to transfer K-Arts to Gwangju" at the university's Seokgwan-dong campus in Seongbuk District, Seoul. About 100 people, including students and professors, attended.

Yoon So-hyun, K-Arts vice student council president, said, "This campus transfer bill does nothing more than say it will move K-Arts to Jeonnam-Gwangju and specifies no additional support," adding, "A transfer pushed ahead for political purposes without a long-term blueprint is bound to fail and will become a shell transfer."

The controversy flared after Chung Joon-ho, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker representing Gwangju Buk-gap, on the 22nd led the submission of the "Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Korea National University of Arts," which includes transferring K-Arts to Jeonnam-Gwangju.

In the afternoon on the 28th, students watch a statement of student opposition to the bill proposing a Gwangju transfer at the Seokgwan-dong campus of the Korea National University of Arts in Seongbuk District, Seoul. /Courtesy of Kang, Jeong-a

Bang Se-hee, K-Arts student council president, said in the statement, "Far from working to improve treatment for workers in the arts amid the K-content boom, the National Assembly is driving Korea's only national arts university into a more difficult situation."

The K-Arts student council stressed that because the school aims to train professional artists, it needs infrastructure that can interact with the cultural and arts ecosystem. With the Korea National Ballet, Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, National Theater Company of Korea, Myeongdong Theater, and Seoul Arts Center located in the Seoul metropolitan area, moving only K-Arts to Jeonnam-Gwangju would inevitably lower the quality of education.

Vice President Yoon said, "In Seocho-dong, there is location-based infrastructure essential for the School of Music, such as instrument shops and lesson rooms, and in the Daehangno theater district, students at the School of Drama have a foundation to experience contemporary theater," adding, "Students at the School of Visual Arts continue their studies and work while encountering special exhibitions at major galleries and museums in the city." Yoon added, "This is how the arts ecosystem and students interact."

In the afternoon on the 28th, at the Seokgwan-dong campus of the Korea National University of Arts in Seongbuk District, Seoul, Professor Jeon Gyu-chang of the Department of Broadcasting and Acting speaks during a statement of student opposition to the bill proposing a Gwangju transfer. /Courtesy of Kang, Jeong-a

Not only students but also professors and the school opposed the transfer. Chun Gyu-chang, a K-Arts professor in the Department of Broadcasting and Acting, said, "From the student community, including the student council, to the faculty and the entire school, we oppose this bill and believe we have ample justification for doing so."

K-Arts also issued a statement in the morning, saying, "Debate on a transfer that does not fully consider our particularities carries a high risk of weakening the competitiveness of arts education in Korea."

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