Mansudae Art Studio

Mansudae Art Studio
Chosŏn'gŭl	만수대창작사
Hancha	萬壽臺創作社
Revised Romanization	Mansudae Changjaksa
McCune–Reischauer	Mansudae Ch'angjaksa

The Mansudae Art Studio is an art studio in Pyeongcheon District, Pyongyang, North Korea. It was founded in 1959, and it is one of the largest centers of art production in the world, at an area of over 120,000 square meters. The studio employs around 4,000 people, 1,000 of whom are artists picked from the best academies in North Korea. Most of its artists are graduates of Pyongyang University. The artists do not receive profits from their works, however, as all proceeds go to the state. The studio consists of 13 groups, including those for woodcuts, charcoal drawings, ceramics, embroidery and jewel paintings, among other things. The studio has produced many of North Korea's most important monuments, such as the Monument to the Founding of the Korean Workers Party, the Chollima Statue, and the Mansudae Monument. Its foreign commercial division is known as the Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, which as of 2014 has created monuments for 18 African and Asian nations. All images of the Kim family are produced by the Mansudae Art Studio. Before his death, the Mansudae Art Studio was under the guidance of Kim Jong-il. Since 2009, the studio has had its own space also in the 798 Art District in Beijing, China, known as the Mansudae Art Museum.

The studio consists of around 4,000 workers, 1,000 of whom are artists aged from their mid-20's to mid-60's and selected from the best academies in the country, especially from Pyongyang University. The studio takes up over 120,000 square meters, 80,000 of which are indoors. The campus-like studio includes a soccer stadium, sauna, medical clinic, paper mill, kindergarten, and even a gift shop. The studio is a state-approved destination for foreign tourists, and the gift shop has enabled tourists to purchase North Korean art for years, as selling artwork is one of the North Korea state's easiest means of gaining foreign currency. The studio is made up of thirteen groups that manufacture different types of artwork (ranging from oil paintings to ceramics and bronze statues), manufacturing plants, and more than 50 supply departments that produce and test art materials such as paint. According to the studio's official website, the studio is not a school or a Chinese-style chain factory, but rather a high quality production center that employs over half of the nation's artists who have received the two highest artistic awards available in North Korea. The manager of the studio's website, Pier Luigi Cecioni, has also claimed that the Mansudae Art Studio receives profits from the website's sales directly, as it has economic autonomy.

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