KONNECT ASEAN connects Korea-ASEAN through arts and culture
ROK and ASEAN share a long history of multilateral relations and cooperation. Over the past 30 years, ROK and ASEAN have capacitated flourishing exchanges in areas such as economics, sciences, education and cultural diplomacy. Marking 30 years of diplomatic relations, KONNECT ASEAN was launched in January 2020. KONNECT ASEAN is a three — year long regional arts and cultural programme that is managed by the ASEAN Foundation with support from the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund.
The ASEAN Foundation’s KONNECT ASEAN programme was created in honour of Asian artists and aims to bring greater awareness to regional artistic expressions. The programme celebrates the arts using different platforms, through various scopes and aims to engage with a diverse range of stakeholders over the programme’s lifetime.
Although a young program, KONNECT ASEAN has an exciting line — up of initiatives and partnerships. This includes feature stories of Southeast Asian artists during the pandemic. The initiative highlights the power of arts and culture in establishing connections between communities, especially as we are starved of human — to — human connections due to social distancing. The arts have become more than just a medium of expression, they act as a memory that reminisces life before COVID-19, and a catalogue of collective human action during crises.
The ASEAN Foundation is partnering with the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) to roll out an online residency series — the Virtual360 Konnect program. Virtual360 Konnect targets early career arts professionals from ROK and ASEAN. The program serves as a platform to build virtual connections and to support online collaborations for young artists in the region through cultural exchange.
There certainly is something magical about the arts and culture that connects humanity. No matter how different our cultures, languages, social makeup and worldview may be, art transcends those boundaries to facilitate people — to — people communications. And because of that, the arts are a true celebration of diversity and inclusivity given the multitude of art forms that yield different creative outlets.
That being said, the ASEAN region is just as colourful and as diverse as the greatest of art forms. By empowering regional artists, the ASEAN Foundation’s KONNECT ASEAN program, together with the support of the ASEAN Secretariat and the Republic of Korea, paves the way for an arts renaissance that showcases our arts and cultures to the world.
As a korea.net Honorary Reporter from Thailand, a program intern under the ASEAN Foundation, and an Online Supporter for the Mission of the Republic of Korea to ASEAN, I am driven to seek even more opportunities to share my experiences of South Korea and ASEAN. Anticipating the magnificent work of KONNECT ASEAN, I am proud to be a #PeopleofASEAN and a part of the effort to promote greater cultural exchange between my ASEAN Community and South Korea!
