The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Thursday released its evaluations of government-supported art biennales that took place this year.

Among the eight art biennales reviewed by the ministry, none received top marks on a scale from 1 to 5. Three biennales got a grade of 2, and the rest were rated 3 or 4. 

This was the first year in which no biennale received a 1 since the ministry launched its annual evaluations in 2004.

Of the three biennales that received 2s, the Busan Biennale was judged to be the best, followed by the Gwangju Biennale and the Daegu Photo Biennale.

The Seoul Museum of Art refused to take part in the evaluation process for its Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018, which attracted just 66,165 visitors.

The Gwangju Biennale had some 320,000 visitors, the greatest number for any of the biennales that were evaluated.

The total number of visitors to the nine biennales held this year, including Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2018, was 1.64 million. The events received a combined 5.2 billion won ($4.6 million) from the government this year.

Since the Gwangju Biennale first began in 1995, the number of biennales operated by local governments here has increased to 15.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)