By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee
The 2025 Korea Traditional Arts Festival, a festival that reinterprets traditional arts with a contemporary perspective and connects cultural values between East and West, past and present, was held at the Calligraphy Museum of the Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul through March 18, hosted by Korea Traditional Arts Inheritance Association (Chairman Kim Moo-ho).
The event rediscovered the beauty of Korean traditional culture and demonstrated how art can be reinterpreted and expanded in the modern world as an artistic platform where tradition and modernity, the past and the future, come together in an artistic fusion of tradition and modernity.
The theme of the 3rd Korea Traditional Arts Festival was “Sawangtongo,” which means the fusion of tradition and modernity, and is meant to revisit the value of traditional arts, inherit and develop them in a modern way.
Various programs were held, including exhibitions, art fairs, and magnificent and unique performances created by various artists in collaboration with each other, to communicate with visitors about the roots of traditional Korean art, and to inherit and develop the value of art for future generations.
The unique aesthetic of Korean paintings, with its ink and coloring, and the rich colors of Western paintings, are combined to create a special beauty that can be felt through the aesthetic appeal of both East and West.
“This festival will be a valuable opportunity to showcase the beauty and value of our traditional arts, and as this year marks the 10th founding anniversary of Korea Traditional Arts Inheritance Association, we will continue to do our best to popularize traditional arts and promote their social value, just as we have been striving to preserve and pass on Korea's traditional heritage to future generations under the supervision of Korea Heritage Service for the past decade,” said Chairman Kim Moo-ho.
As an association of five sectors - gukak (Korean classical and traditional music), dance, fine arts, costume, and creation - Korea Traditional Arts Inheritance Association is a non-profit corporation under the administration of Korea Heritage Service that was established to contribute to the preservation and cultural creation of Korea's excellent traditional arts through the development of programs for the inheritance, expansion, and convergence of traditional cultural arts, cultural development, branding of performances. It extends the value of collaboration to all artists and audiences with a message of inclusion and diversity.
