Lee Young-hee donates 5,000 square meters of land for National Intangible Cultural Heritage educational center

▲ This photo, provided from the Cultural Heritage Administration, shows Lee Young-hee, a holder of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- Lee Young-hee, who has been active in the Gugak (Korean Traditional Music) industry and owns the National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Gayaguem Sanjo (Korean instrumental folk music played solo with gayaguem, a twelve-stringed zither) and Beyongchang (refers to singing to the accompaniment of a musical instrument, usually geomungo or gayageum) has donated her house and the surrounding lands to the government.

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on the 19th that Lee Young-hee who owns the National Intangible Cultural Heritage donated 5,474 square meters of land around 472 Geumto-dong, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi province for the construction of an educational center dedicated for National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Born in Gunsan, North Jeolla province in 1938, she learned to play gayaguem, geomungo (traditional Korean plucked zither with both bridges and frets), and ajaeng (Korean string instrument) from masters of gugak including Lee Deok-yeol, Lee Un-jo and many more.

In 1991, as she was accepted as the holder of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage, she has become a Living National Treasure and has been the director of the Korean Traditional Music Association for 12 years from the year 2000. For her contribution to the Gugak Industry, she also received the Grand Prize at the Federation of Artistic & Cultural Organization of Korea and a Cultural Prize from the Seoul City.

She is said to have decided to donate the land, as she felt sad of today's reality where there are not many places to educate and showcase traditional arts including gugak or muyong (Korean traditional dance). The price of the donated land is estimated to be around 5.4 billion won.

The Cultural Heritage Administration plans to build a National Intangible Cultural Heritage Educational Center in the metropolitan area with a total floor area of 8,726 square meters by investing about 20 billion won from the Cultural Protection Fund on the land donated by the owner.

A performance hall, experience space and an office will be built in the building with 2 stories below the ground and 4 above. The construction is expected to be completed in 2027.

"We expressed our gratitude for donating this land so that there can be a place to learn about the National Intangible Cultural Heritages in the metropolitan area," said an official from the Cultural Heritage Administration. "We will try our best to make sure that the educational center will be used as a space to globalize and popularize the National Intangible Cultural Heritage."

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)

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