{"id":16346,"date":"2026-06-01T23:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sinbidays.com\/korea-arts-welfare-foundation-critique\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T18:28:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:28:27","slug":"korea-arts-welfare-foundation-critique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sinbidays.com\/en\/korea-arts-welfare-foundation-critique\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udfdb\ufe0f A Reflection on the Korea Artists Welfare Foundation’s Review: Beyond Obsolete Standards, Embracing the True Value of Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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“Artist Certification Rejected?! Seojun’s Fact Bomb!”
“Oops..!” \/ “Haha.. Seojun is angry again..”<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Today, after completing a 30-hour intermittent fast, I was just about to grill raw meat to flush out sodium when a text message arrived. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[Korea Arts & Welfare Foundation]<\/strong> “Your application for artist activity certification has been rejected. Please check the reason.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

‘Huh? Why was it rejected? If I’m not an artist, who in this world is?’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After putting the meat into the air fryer, I accessed the website with a bewildered mind to check the reason. The long rejection reason and notes they sent were as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udccb Rejection Reason Sent by the Foundation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u203b The evaluation committee determines approval through a qualitative review of the nature and content of the work, regardless of minimum qualifications or criteria. Therefore, even if all required documents are submitted, completion is determined by the committee’s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[\u25bc Main Reason in Literature] \u2981 Based on current submitted materials, it is difficult to judge this as continuous professional creative activity in the literature field. \u2981 It is deemed necessary to supplement activity materials such as debut works in literary journals or published single-volume books in the literary category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

o [Notes]<\/strong> Non-fiction, non-professional artistic activities, hobbies, lifestyle arts, volunteer work, simple publishing, works published through writing classes, educational activities, liberal arts books, educational books, self-help books, project-based works, biographies, classic adaptations, study guides, travelogues, non-literary genres, non-professional arts, self-publishing where “nuguja” (anyone) can publish works, blog-type platforms, etc., may be difficult to approve in the committee evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

o Operating Guidelines Article 2 (Basic Principles)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2460 An artist under the law refers to a person who engages in professional artistic activity. Professional means assuming substantial knowledge, experience, and standard, not as part of a hobby or leisure activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2461 An artist under the law must have a clear identity recognizing oneself as an artist, and objectively demonstrated activity history must be sufficient to be recognized as an artist.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\uddd0 Doesn’t that tone sound like they’re mocking me?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Even though I submitted a book perfectly assigned an International Standard Book Number (ISBN)\u2014a mandatory condition\u2014they hid behind the invincible cheat code called ‘qualitative evaluation’ and rejected my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What on earth constitutes literature then? Simple publishing isn’t allowed, works published through classes aren’t allowed, and even ‘travelogues’ containing human life and reflection cannot be literature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weirdest part is this right here: “Self-publishing where anyone can publish a work”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They claim self-publishing is an easy task that anyone can do. Planning, editing, design, distribution, marketing\u2014doing it all alone to pioneer a market in independent publishing requires immense effort. Have those committee members ever tried it even once?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Curious about the process of self-publishing a physical book yourself?<\/strong>
Check out my record of preparing my first paperback book through multiple rejections and revisions all the way to actual publication in the article below! \ud83d\udcda<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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How to Publish a Book? My First Book with Bookk \u2013 The Story of ‘My AI Friend Ittippy’<\/a><\/blockquote>