Culture ministry selects seven Our Neighborhood Project designs

The culture ministry said on the 24th it selected seven winning designs for its Our Neighborhood Project, with a public vote helping settle the visual identity for a scheme bringing culture to regional communities.

The project seeks to spread performances and exhibitions concentrated in the capital region to other parts of the country while identifying regional cultural assets and widening residents' access to culture.

The contest received 118 entries between June 15 and July 24. An expert panel chose 10 finalists on July 31, and 2,937 people took part in online voting from Aug. 3 to 13 to select the seven winners.

The top entry came from Yoo Gwang, whose proposal received 1,797 votes. Yoo will receive a ministerial award and 3 million won. The design combined an arrow representing cultural programs coming to a neighborhood with a magnifying-glass motif for discovering local cultural assets.

Huh Min and Kim Yong-jin received excellence awards for entries that won 1,228 and 1,133 votes, respectively. Four more designs by Son Mi-young, Kim Hyeong-su, Choi Ji-hyeon and Choi Chang-min received encouragement awards. Excellence-award winners will receive 1 million won each, while encouragement-award winners will receive 500,000 won each.

The ministry will use the winning entries to set the project's final brand image and distribute guidelines in September to local governments and public and private cultural institutions.