Art is sometimes underappreciated and its benefits to society can go unnoticed. Art is language agnostic, meaning you don’t need language to understand its genius. Art can make you laugh, contemplate, or simply bring you joy for reasons unknown.
Importantly, art is also something that stretches far beyond the confines of traditional galleries. From its impact on nurturing creativity to its importance to the economy, art is a time capsule with the ability to capture the essence of a time and place unlike any other medium or form of expression.
Therefore, efforts to preserve and promote the arts are integral to societies across the globe. The business community is utilizing art in myriad ways to improve people’s lives, and Samsung C&T is no different.
This article explores some of the ways Samsung C&T’s Fashion and Resort groups are infusing art outside the gallery into our lives and adding value to society.
Art You Can Wear
Samsung C&T Fashion group’s womenswear brand LEBEIGE recently teamed up with renowned modern artist Seo-bo Park to unveil a new collaborative collection that intertwines fine art with high fashion.
Seo-bo Park, widely considered one of the leading figures in contemporary Korean art, became famous for spearheading the ‘Dansaekhwa’ movement – ‘Korean Monochrome Movement’ – which helped popularize Korean art in overseas markets. In 2015, Park was the first Korean artist to hold an exhibition at the UK’s most prestigious art gallery, White Cube Mason’s Yard.
LEBEIGE is one of the first clothing lines in the industry to showcase a true fusion of fine art and fashion, motivated by their customers’ high interest in the world of art. This fusion of artistic expression and clothing provides a novel opportunity to purchase fine art through fashion, which is an exciting prospect for its core customers.
Additionally, LEBEIGE stores were transformed into quasi-art galleries themselves by hanging some of Seo-bo Park’s most famous pieces of art on their walls. This collaboration between Samsung C&T’s Fashion group and Park is a perfect embodiment of bringing art into everyday life, outside of traditional galleries.
Creative Art For a Greater Cause
Set deep within the heart of one of Seoul’s most fashion-forward neighborhoods is ‘Heartist House’ (heart + artist) – a lifestyle and clothing shop with a twist.
The store is run by a dedicated team of volunteers and relies upon the generosity of rising designers, customer donations and purchases, as well as product & clothing donations from other businesses to maintain its supply of trendy offerings.
Heartist House organizes several programs and campaigns throughout the year, including art galleries displaying pieces created by disadvantaged children.
One unique program saw experts from the fashion, art, sculpture and photography fields work with children from the Hanbit School for Visually Impaired Children to help the students explore their creativity and produce more than 50 pieces of clothing, painting, photographs, amongst other pieces, which went on display at Heartist House.
Unlike other boutique lifestyle stores in the area, Heartist House’s reason for existence is not driven by profit. Rather, the store exists to enrich lives and improve communities by building bridges between those in the worlds of art, fashion and design and groups in need of a helping hand, including low-income households and children with visual impairments.
What makes this place so unique is that all the money raised by Heartist House is given to ‘Heart Campaign’, Samsung C&T Fashion Group’s CSR program. The program provides assistance in several ways, including sponsoring visually impaired children with scholarships and medical expenses, in addition to providing art and design education for low-income families.
Additionally, 100% of the proceeds generated by the copyright fees from sales of the LEBEIGE x Seo-bo Park collaborative line of clothing will be donated to Heartist House.
Capturing Time Through Art
Injecting a healthy dose of art into society is not only done through the promotion and creation of new art; preserving existing national treasures is just as important.
All across Korea stand incredible ancient buildings, palaces, and tombs, combining for some of the most unique stone and wood structures on the planet.
However, these wooden structures require special care to maintain, for if they are left unattended, vegetation and roots can spring through the stonework, and termites and other parasites can eat their way through wooden support columns and beams.
To combat these natural hindrances to building longevity, Samsung C&T’s Resort group is lending the country a helping hand.
In 2007, the company signed an agreement with Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration to oversee all preservation and restoration work at 60 historical sites around the country.
And to help preserve these 5,000-year-old structures, Samsung C&T employed trained detection dogs who seek out and identify damaging insects such as termites before their impact can be seen.
Exploring Art in New Ways
Samsung C&T’s Resort group is also finding new ways to add a touch of modern art into our daily lives. By leveraging LED light technology at its Everland theme park, park visitors can experience the incredible sights of the unique ‘LED Water Graffiti’ show, which fuses water, music and LED lighting for a modern twist to art.
To make things more hands-on, park-goers can also partake in an interactive art experience with special brushes where they can ‘paint’ their own unique shapes onto water, which will then be illuminated onto a 23m x 2m LED screen.
Park visitors can also feast their eyes on replicas of historic architectural marvels such as the Taj Mahal and buildings inspired by French-Brittany, amongst several others.
By offering of some of history’s finest architectural designs all in one place, the park creates a unique visual experience for millions of people each year.
Art Without Borders
Samsung C&T has long been embedding art outside the gallery into people’s lives in several ways. From creating unique spaces and collaborating with artists to leveraging technology for an interactive twist, the company is bringing beauty to the world by adding value to the spaces we cherish most.
