About

I am a PhD student in Cultural Policy Studies. I hold two master’s degrees —one in Art History from Hongik University in Korea and another in International Cultural Policy and Management (with Distinction) from the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies, University of Warwick—as well as a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from Korea University. Before pursuing my PhD studies, I gained professional experience in the public sector as a project coordinator for a government-funded public art organisation, as administrative staff at the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture managing visual arts projects, and as a manager at the Korean Arts Management Service organising a national visual arts event. I also contributed as a research assistant at the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, a government-affiliated organisation. These experiences inspired my interest not only in the intersections between policy, arts institutions, and artistic practice, but also in the broader context of cultural labour, working conditions, and welfare policy.

Research Projects

My research project examines the collective action and active political engagement of artists in addressing policy and institutional challenges within Korea’s visual arts sector. Recent Korean arts policy has prioritised individual artists, which has inadvertently intensified competition for subsidies, fostered neoliberal self-entrepreneurship, and enhanced individualisation. However, a new trend has emerged, countering these changes, in which artists address issues for themselves, their peers and the broader art ecosystem. In this context, this project seeks to explore the gaps between the policy and institutional environments that prioritise individual artists and the collective practices of artists grounded in normative values through a case study of visual artist groups. To this end, this project analyses the issues these groups addressed within the context of the state-led policy landscape, focusing on the concept of ‘artist policy’. The study will identify the new normative values that drive artists' collective responses to these issues and their opposition to these environments, while also examining their activities and strategies within the context of the policy process. Furthermore, by identifying challenges and limitations in the process of collective action at the policy, institutional, and individual levels, it will aim to propose a more inclusive framework to support artist-centred policy development based on the potential inherent in these collective endeavours. My project is supervised by Professor Chris Bilton and Dr Heidi Ashton