'Artel,' Developer of AI Docents for Art Fairs, Wins Grand Prize at Arts Startup Competition

Arts Management Support Center Holds Arts Industry Academy Startup Competition
Fantasia Label Wins Top Excellence Award for Classical Music Recording IP Business
Barrier-Free Performance Platform Baijuna Wins Excellence Award
Winners to Receive Startup Support Program Benefits, Residency Opportunities, and Follow-Up Mentoring

Artel, which developed an AI audio docent service for use at art fairs and commercial galleries, won the Grand Prize at an arts industry startup competition.

The winners of the 2026 Arts Industry Academy Startup Competition, held at Art Korea Lab in Seoul on the 2nd, pose for a commemorative photo. From left: Kim Juna, CEO of Baijuna, who received the Excellence Award; Baek Jimin, CEO of Artel, who won the Grand Prize; and Kim Jusang, CEO of Fantasia Label, who received the Top Excellence Award. Arts Management Support Center

The Arts Management Support Center announced on October 12 that it had selected three teams, including Artel, as outstanding startups at the 2026 Arts Industry Academy Startup Competition, held at Art Korea Lab in Seoul on October 2.

The competition was organized to share the results of the Art Business Challenge (Abichal), a hands-on educational program for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs in the arts, and to assess the potential for turning their ideas into businesses. This year, 11 outstanding teams that completed the 10th and 11th cohorts competed on the creativity and commercial viability of their startup ideas.

Artel, led by CEO Paek Jimin and winner of the Grand Prize, presented an AI audio docent production service tailored to commercial galleries and art fairs. In particular, at Kiaf Seoul 2026, Korea's largest art fair, held in September, the team tested its minimum viable product (MVP) in a real-world setting and tracked visitor access to the service, repeat visits, and retention rates, earning recognition for its potential to expand the business.

The Top Excellence Award went to Fantasia Label, led by CEO Kim Jusang. The company reworks recordings by classical artists into content based on Dolby Atmos, an immersive audio technology, and distributes it through global platforms and distributors. Its business concept is to use classical music as intellectual property (IP) to develop new distribution markets.

The Excellence Award went to Baijuna, led by CEO Kim Juna, a barrier-free platform that plans and produces performances and arts and cultural content to make them accessible to people with and without disabilities.

The judges assessed not only the originality of the startup ideas but also how teams identified actual customers and markets and tested their responses. The winning teams were recognized for refining their business models during the program and confirming their potential for commercialization through real-world testing.

The three winning teams will receive certificates and prizes bearing the name of the head of the Arts Management Support Center, as well as the opportunity to take up short-term residency at Art Korea Lab in 2027. The Grand Prize and Top Excellence Award winners will also be exempt from the document screening stage of the Arts Management Support Center's early-stage startup support program. Follow-up mentoring on business models (BM) and marketing will also be provided.

Abichal is an entrepreneurship development program for the arts that began in 2021. To date, it has trained 140 participants and identified more than 105 startup ideas. The Arts Management Support Center runs 27 educational courses across four areas: aspiring professionals, startups, arts-sector professionals, and organizational operations.

Kim Jangho, head of the Arts Management Support Center, said, "We hope that fresh approaches to launching businesses in the arts will help broaden the foundation of the arts industry and lay the groundwork for creating new markets and value."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.