The Jorvik Group has launched a major global art project connecting 14 cities around the world.

Working in partnership with the York Guild of Media Arts in the UK, the visitor attractions operator is hosting South Korean media artist and film-maker, Taeheon Lee, for a virtual residency, in which he’s collaborating with other artists to create a series of digital works under the theme of Play!

All 14 cities hold UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts status and each has selected an artist to represent them.

The selected artists are meeting in three ‘labs’ (virtual workshops) to bring their ideas together to create an online exhibition, City to City, at the end of the year. York’s selected artist, Taeheon, studied at the Royal College of Art in London and is based in Gwangju, South Korea.

The initiative was created as a response to the global pandemic as a way of engaging with artists who were struggling to secure commissions in a locked-down world.

The Jorvik Group operates a number of visitor attractions in York, England. Jorvik Group’s director of attractions, Sarah Maltby, said: “Behind the visitor attractions sits an education charity, and we always want to reach diverse audiences as best we can to create an interest and enthusiasm for archaeology and our heritage.

“Our digital festival, That Jorvik Viking Thing, which replaced the physical Viking festival, reached 3.2 million around the globe – over 60 times more than come to York each February.

“Our outreach activity around York is doing phenomenally well, through collaborations with York Dance Space and our projects on the social prescribing of archaeology, so the prospect of reaching further afield is very appealing, and we’re delighted to be hosting Taeheon’s residency.”