A combination of exhibitions, participatory booths, and street performances filled the streets in front of the school on Nov. 1 as part of the Ewha Art Road Festival.
The event was organized by Seodaemun-gu Office in hopes of bringing together all constituents of the community including students, local merchants, residents and people from other countries via art. It was also part of Seodaemun-gu’s effort to increase the floating population of the area and ultimately enliven the local businesses by branding Ewha Road as a place with art and culture. Colleges and departments of the school also contributed to the festival.
Before the opening ceremony, several teams put on a variety of performances. A classical guitar club from Ewha, Ewha Yeyul, participated in the pre-opening performance with four songs including “Ice Pond” and “Happy Bossa Nova.” “The selected songs are selected in hopes for the audience feel the fall and the festivity of today’s event while listening to our performance,”said Kim Seong-hye, a club member of Yeyul and a sophomore of Department of Philosophy.
The ceremony officially began with a congratulatory address by Seodaemun-gu mayor Mun Seok-jin.
“Through this festival, we hope that Ewha Road will become a place where culture and art flourishes and also foster a special cultural climate as a unique college town,” the mayor said.
Professor Cho Sang-mi of the Global School of Continuing Education, district delegates, and local businesspersons’ representatives also spoke briefly to commemorate the newly started festival.
Following the speeches, a brass quintet composed of students from Ewha’s Department of Orchestral Instruments performed to celebrate the beginning of the festival.
This was followed by a senior fashion show, which took place at the stage in front of the main gate. All of the models were Ewha students from the Global School of Continuing Education.
Between the main stage and the park, 49 booths in the flea market lighted the streets. Crafters exhibited their unique works such as puppets made out of wool and hand weaved adornments.
Jay Chloe, a Macramé artist who managed the booth Handmade: Weaving Studio shared her thoughts about the festival.
“I used to visit shops surrounding Ewha, and it is nice to see how the floating population increased thanks to festivals like this. I hope more events like these take place around this area,” Jay said.
“I think this festival really integrates youth. It’s nice that we got to participate,” said calligraphy artist YINI CALI, who opened a booth to sell self-designed stationery.
The installations that filled the road on the day of festival were provided by College of Arts & Design. The name of the artwork was “A Creepy Gaze,” and was composed of matrices of plasters with some broken or colored.
Additionally, participatory booths were set up. The Millennium Workshop, a youth culture and arts planning group sponsored program by Seodaemun-gu Office managed booths under Newtro concept, as a hint about their upcoming main event, which will take place Nov. 22.
“The second Millennium Workshop’s upcoming event that will be held later in November, is called “It feels good to have fun like this, New-tro festiva” and will be held at Sinchon Parang Kore. The booths are teasers of events we have planned,” Jang Eun-ji of Millennium Workshop said.
While some students came to watch the festival, being aware of its schedule through SNS, others said that they had not noticed the event coming up.
“I never knew there was a festival. It was there before I knew it,” said Ko Ju-eun, a freshman of Computer Science and Engineering.
A number of Ewha student shared a positive account on the upbringing of the event.
“I think the best part of this festival is that it provides a platform for various artists to display their works and share them. It inspires me to create as well,” said Gwon Ji-hye, a freshmen of Climate and Energy Systems Engineering.