With a week remaining before the debut international exhibition by North Korean defector artist Song Byeok opens at the Goat Farm Art Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Song has reached the half way point in efforts to attract $6,500 in external funding, inspiring more than 50 people to pledge money to a project which aims to bring the message about Song’s homeland home to a whole new U.S. audience of art lovers.

Exhibition organizers SB-ATL say that all donations are to be used to help “cover the costs born from Song's first exhibition abroad, including: 1) transportation of the artist, 2) shipping and insurance of the artwork, and 3) event insurance,” while they hope that any funds remaining after the Atlanta exhibition can be used to fund Song’s second international exhibition on April 10th in Washington, D.C.

SB-ATL initiated the drive to find donors for the project through ‘Kickstarter’, a U.S.-based ‘crowdfunding’ platform for creative projects.

The Song Byeok exhibition, which runs from February 17th to the 26th, has attracted a great deal of media attention from organizations including Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal and Daily NK., However, Kickstarter operates on the principle of an assurance contract, and therefore rules state that if Song is unable to reach his funding goal by the deadline of February 28th, then no donations will be collected.

Song’s Kickstarter page can be found here