The number of art activities by artists with disabilities has increased by 40%, with an annual income of just over 9 million won.

6 out of 10 Feel Lack of Opportunities, 30.3% Active in Art Field
Half are Full-Time Artists… ‘2024 Survey on Disabled Artists’ Cultural and Artistic Activities’,
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Art Created by Foot
(Seoul=Yonhap News) On April 19, 2018, a day before the 38th Day of Persons with Disabilities, Kim Kyung-ah, a mouth and foot painting artist, is drawing at the ‘2018 Songpa District Disabled Festival’ held at Songpa District Civic Center in Samjeon-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. [Yonhap News Archive],
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, ‘ (Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Im Soon-hyun = A government survey has found an increase in the number of art activities conducted by artists with disabilities.’,
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, ‘ It was found that 6 out of 10 artists with disabilities earn less than 5 million won annually, indicating a weak economic foundation.’,
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, ” According to the ‘2024 Survey on Disabled Artists’ Cultural and Artistic Activities’ released on the 19th by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in collaboration with the Korea Disability Arts & Culture Center and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, disabled artists had an average of 16.8 opportunities to present or participate in art activities from 2021 to 2023.”,
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, ‘ This is an increase of 40% compared to the previous survey conducted in 2021, where the average was 12 times from 2018 to 2020.’,
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, ” The survey is conducted every three years as mandated by the ‘Act on the Support for Cultural and Artistic Activities of Disabled Artists’. It aims to understand the conditions of creative activities and cultural and artistic activities of disabled artists, and to explore policy support measures.”,
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, ‘ The recent survey was conducted on 1,300 disabled artists from October to November last year.’,
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Survey Results on Participation in Cultural and Artistic Activities by Disabled Artists (2021∼2023)
[Provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. No resale or database storage],
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, ” While creative activities have increased, the majority of disabled artists still express a ‘thirst’ for more opportunities. About 61.2% of disabled artists replied that ‘there is a lack of opportunities for cultural and artistic activities’.”,
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, ” Additionally, factors hindering cultural and artistic activities of disabled artists were identified as ‘lack of creative support funding’ (26.7%), ‘lack of practice and creative space’ (19.3%), and ‘difficulty in renting space’ (15.6%).”,
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, ‘ The percentage of disabled artists working as full-time artists was found to be 50.4%, a decrease of 11.8 percentage points from the 2021 survey result of 62.2%.’,
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, ‘ The most common types of employment were temporary, contract, and part-time jobs (38.8%), followed by part-time and hourly jobs (25%), self-employment (18%), daily wage work (12.7%), and regular employment (8.9%).’,
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, ‘ It is estimated that disabled artists face significant economic difficulties.’,
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, ‘ A survey limited to 2023 showed that the average annual income of disabled artists was 9.095 million won, with the median income being 2 million won. It was found that 62% of disabled artists earn less than 5 million won a year.’,
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Survey Results on Full-Time Status of Disabled Artists (2021∼2023)
[Provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. No resale or database storage],
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, ‘ The main field of activity for disabled artists was art at 30.3%, followed by Western music (23.1%), literature (11.5%), pop music (9.7%), and Korean traditional music (5.8%).’,
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, ‘ In terms of types of disabilities, physical disabilities accounted for the largest proportion at 30%, followed by intellectual disabilities (23.1%), autism (14.4%), visual disabilities (14.3%), auditory and speech disabilities (6.6%), and brain lesions (5.4%).’,
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, ” In a perception survey conducted with representatives of 200 cultural facilities such as libraries, museums, and art galleries, 57.7% responded that ‘cultural and artistic activities by disabled artists are possible at our facilities.’ This is an increase of 22.5 percentage points from the previous survey. The most cited difficulty for disabled artists was ‘lack of accessibility facilities for disabilities,’ which was identified by 81.3% of respondents.”,
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Survey Results on Average Annual Income of Disabled Artists in 2023
[Provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. No resale or database storage],
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, ‘ The response that cultural facilities regularly host cultural and artistic events involving disabled artists was 14.0%, which is a 7.6 percentage point increase from the previous survey. The response that they are developing cultural and artistic events related to disabled artists increased by 25.4 percentage points to 55.8%.’,
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, ‘ The government stated that policies for disabled artists are yielding results and announced plans to expand support.’,
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, ‘ A representative from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, “Through this survey, we were able to confirm some achievements of our national projects regarding disabled artists’ cultural and artistic activity accessibility,” and added, “We will further strengthen support for cultural and artistic activities by expanding the scope of beneficiaries of creative support funds, and by increasing practice and creative spaces regionally.”‘,
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, ‘ hyun@yna.co.kr’,
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