Co-launched by the ASEAN Foundation, the ASEAN-RoK Cooperation Fund, and the ASEAN Secretariat, the programme gathers artists and art workers from across the region to deepen the understanding of ASEAN cultures and create a stronger ASEAN identity.

It aims to contribute to the realisation of objectives listed in the ASEAN Strategic Plan for Culture and Arts 2016-2025, while implementing the ASEAN-RoK Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity (2016-2020) via the promotion of culture-art cooperation.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the three-year regional initiative will kick-start by implementing several virtual workshops and discussions. Two of the initial activities in 2020 are the ASEAN KO-mmuniti Online Dialogue and Convention, which are scheduled for the end of July and mid-August, respectively.

The dialogue is a virtual event that enables ASEAN and RoK artists to exchange ideas and share their experience in creation during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the convention brings together a group of artists and educators from both sides to promote their arts practices to a global audience via digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The arts demonstrations will range from painting to dancing, puppetry, film-making, and others.

“KONNECT ASEAN provides an inclusive platform for us to learn, understand, and debate through the work of artists and at the same time gives direct support to artists and art workers,” Benjamin Hampe, Project Director of KONNECT ASEAN, said at the debut ceremony.

Yang Mee Eng, Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation, said artists can grow stronger together by being part of the greater ASEAN Community and by working with their peers and colleagues from the RoK.

Lim Sungnam, RoK Ambassador to ASEAN, highlighted KONNECT ASEAN as an exciting programme that brings together promising artists from the ten ASEAN member states and the RoK.

“I look forward to seeing beautiful cooperation between ASEAN and RoK artists in the coming months and years,” he added. VNA