The Arts Management Support Center (CEO Kim Jang-ho) announced that the Fine Dining Theater (CEO Kim Mi-ran) was selected as the grand prize-winning team at the Arts Industry Academy Startup Competition held on September 29.
This ‘Arts Industry Academy Startup Competition’ targeted outstanding teams from the 2025 Arts Industry Academy startup education ‘Art Business Challenge 8·9’ (hereafter referred to as Abi-Challenge). The winning team will receive a certificate in the name of the CEO of the Arts Management Support Center, prizes, and an exemption from the document screening for the Arts Management Support Center’s startup support project in 2026. From this year, the opportunity for short-term residency at Art Korea Lab is also provided to support the growth of early-stage art entrepreneurs.
Abi-Challenge is an arts field startup education program hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Arts Management Support Center. Since 2021, 117 trainees and more than 86 startup items have been discovered and materialized. The educational course consists of a practical-oriented curriculum that includes △ understanding the market and customers △ developing business models △ MVP testing △ pitch deck writing and pitching capability enhancement, enabling prospective startup teams to commercialize and verify their ideas with step-by-step support.
This year’s competition featured nine teams that diligently completed the Abi-Challenge education and were recognized for the feasibility of their ideas. The participating teams included △ Ankore (CEO Jang Seok-hwan) △ Fine Dining Theater (CEO Kim Mi-ran) △ Casa Cinema (CEO Jung Ye-rim) △ Sound Culture (CEO Jeong Hwan-hee) △ Limit Chill (CEO Hong Gye-rim) △ Pitch Melon (CEO Kwon Oh-hyeon) △ Moovit (CEO Baek Dong-rae) △ Young Eunahada (CEO Kim Young-eun) △ Alters (CEO Kim Kwang-hyun).
The Fine Dining Theater, which presented immersive art content that combines performance and dining, took the grand prize. The excellence award went to Ankore, which proposed a data-driven job search and career management platform for artists, while the merit award went to Casa Cinema, a platform combining multi-modal movie recommendation technology and offline community features.
The Fine Dining Theater stated that they systematically reviewed the startup process through the Abi-Challenge and gained real momentum for business advancement through MVP testing and feedback. They plan to develop content combining performances and dining into an experience that resonates with all generations and showcase high-quality content that allows people to contemplate social issues through art.
Kim Yu-jeong, Director of the Arts Economy at the Arts Management Support Center, said, “This year’s Abi-Challenge participants prepared not only simple ideas but also specific business models and initial execution strategies,” adding, “We will continue to provide systematic follow-up support after the competition to help outstanding art startup teams establish themselves stably in the market.”