The Korean Cultural Center in Italy (Director: Choong-Suk Oh) ​​is a drawing contest related to Korea, such as places or people you want to see, or food you want to eat, if you go to Korea through the Korean Cultural Center's Facebook page during 7.6-8.3 (4 weeks). Go' proceeded.

As the spread of Corona 19 in the host country made it impossible to hold events such as lectures, workshops, and cultural experiences in the Cultural Center, an event in the form of local people who could participate directly while at home was held.

▲ Social media drawing contest promotional material

Prior to the event, “Before You Go”, a painting contest related to Korea, was promoted in advance through the Cultural Center website and SNS (Facebook, Instagram) from 6.30.

A total of 203 paintings were received from 7.6 to 7.21, and a total of 200 paintings, excluding those that did not meet the deadline, were posted on the Cultural Center's Facebook page.

- Of the 200 participating works, 96 were K-pop-themed paintings, and among them, BTS-related drawings were the most, with a total of 57, so local SNS users were interested in K-Pop, especially BTS. I realized a lot.

- In addition, various paintings based on Korean tourist attractions such as Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gyeongju and Buyeo, Taegeukgi, President Moon Jae-in, film director Bong Joon-ho, Korean food, Hanbok, and Korean dramas were received.

From 7.22 to 8.2, votes were conducted by clicking on the most favorite picture among the 200 pictures posted on the Cultural Center's Facebook, and a total of 4 winners were selected by conducting an internal review of the Cultural Center.

The works and artists selected for this painting contest are as follows.

- Rossella Palumbo, drawing the 1st BTS member with colored pencils

- Marco Ferraiuolo, a pen drawing of the 2nd place Korea's representative attractions, landscapes, and food

- Benendetta Puma, who draws the 3rd place Gyeongbokgung Palace in line art style, and Elisa Leonor, who draws various attractions in Seoul with pen and paint.

 * 1st place was awarded the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, 2nd place Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2nd and 3rd place Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus as prizes.

In addition, 10 participants who drew pictures by selecting the most appropriate theme for the purpose of the event were selected separately and provided souvenirs from the Cultural Center.

▲ 1st place-Rossella Palumbo

▲2nd place-Marco Ferraiuolo

▲3rd place-Benedetta Puma

▲3rd place-Elisa Leonor

Some of the reactions of the participants and the general public, expressed through comments during this painting contest event, are as follows.

-Participant Francesca Nigro said, "It would be nice if we had such an event frequently. There are many people with such talents, but it would be nice if there were more opportunities to share their interests through the Cultural Center."

-Participant Elisa Leonor posted, “Through this competition, it was an opportunity to know more about Korea, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to paint again.”

-General Elena Marchi said, “All the paintings of the participants are great. Seeing these pictures, I want to leave for Korea.”

-Ida Antuoni, a general public, Tsamsiye, posted "Thank you for holding an event with such a good purpose."

This drawing contest received a great response from before the contest by conducting prior promotion through the website and SNS of the Cultural Center from 6.30.

-Instagram posts received 522 likes and 92 comments, and 181 people saved the post. (182,639 arrivals)

-Facebook posts have 207 likes and 53 comments and have been shared 20 times. (45,324 arrivals)

-It recorded 3,246 views on the website of the Korean Cultural Center, where information on the painting contest was posted.

▲ Facebook Insight

As a result of conducting the contest through the online format, more than 200 people from all over Italy submitted their works, and votes for likes were also conducted, leading to many people participating in the Korean Cultural Center event.

-As the pictures of the participants were shared and disseminated not only through the Center's SNS, but also through the participants' personal SNS several times, the local public also visited the Center's page and participated in voting.

-A total of 28,913 likes and shared 1408 times on Facebook picture posts at the Cultural Center (the number of posts reached 151,121 times, and 12,825 picture views were recorded)

-Not only individual pictures, but also the album itself, which collected the pictures of participants, received 694 likes and shared 38 times.

Through this event, it was an opportunity to discover participants who are interested in Korea and have excellent painting skills.

In the future, we plan to prepare a plan to promote Korean culture through paintings by participating these participants in cultural center activities. (Example: Creating a webtoon introducing Korean culture)

In addition, when conditions such as the improvement of the coronavirus situation mature, the Korean Cultural Center is considering holding an offline exhibition at the exhibition hall in the Cultural Center using some of the participants' drawings.

The Korean Cultural Center will continue to hold online events on various topics to discover talented people who are interested in Korea and cooperate with them to promote Korean culture in new ways.