Gwangju City Announces Key Policies in Culture, Tourism, and Sports for This Year

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City presented its core policies for 2021 on the 20th to make this year a time to realize ‘Gwangju, a refined first-class cultural city’ based on last year’s achievements and to redraw the Asian Cultural Hub City by creating future value in culture and arts.

First, the city will cooperate with the National Assembly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, civic groups, and others to jointly respond so that the amendment bill, which mainly extends the validity period of the Asian Cultural Hub City Act by five years, can be passed in the National Assembly next month.

In addition, by establishing the 2023 annual implementation plan for the Asian Cultural Hub City development, the city will focus on fostering five major cultural zones and key bases, spreading cultural trends throughout the city, promoting the advancement of arts and cultural tourism industries, and seeking a leap forward in the Asian Cultural Hub City development project.

Through integrated public contests, capable artists and art groups will be discovered and supported with private subsidies in the cultural and artistic fields. Representative local festivals and performances such as the Gwangju Fringe Festival, Art Picnic, Media Art Festival, and regular Korean traditional music performances will be operated flexibly in accordance with the COVID-19 situation.

A two-way integrated promotion platform will be launched to exchange various information such as cultural and artistic events held by Gwangju cultural and artistic institutions and organizations and cultural jobs. An online performance video streaming system will be established to actively support contactless on-tact artistic activities in the COVID-19 era.

This year marks the 7th year since Gwangju was designated as a media art creative city. In line with the opening of the UNESCO Media Art Platform (AMT Center), a new media art vision will be presented, and ‘UNESCO Media Art Platform facade content development,’ ‘Asia Culture Plaza content,’ and ‘Asia Content Interactive Wall’ will be created to showcase the charm of Gwangju as a media art creative city.

The ‘Prehistoric Experience Learning Center’ to be built at the Sinchang-dong archaeological site, the largest prehistoric site in Korea, and the ‘Jeong Yul-seong Historical Park’ established on the site of Jeong Yul-seong’s birthplace will be completed within this year.

The ‘Gwangju Literature Museum,’ ‘Gwangju Representative Library,’ and ‘Hanam District Municipal Library,’ which will form the foundation of the humanities city, as well as the ‘Asia Art Garden,’ a complex cultural and artistic space in the Jungoe Park area, and the ‘Gwangju Representative Cultural Village’ to be developed in the Dongmyeong-dong area, will also begin construction this year.

The ‘Gwangju Traditional Living Music Hall,’ which will serve as an integrated platform for the production, distribution, and enjoyment of traditional living music, will proceed with feasibility and basic planning services in consultation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The ‘Asia Art Talent Development Hub Space,’ which will be remodeled from the old Gwangju Girls’ High School gymnasium to serve as a base for nurturing local artistic talent, will sign an MOU with the Asia Culture Center and complete the detailed design service within this year.

The construction of the new ‘Biennale Exhibition Hall’ will complete the preliminary feasibility study by the central government in the first half of this year. Efforts to attract the ‘Korea Culture Technology Institute (CT),’ which will be a core foundation for cultural content projects, will be actively promoted, including publicizing the necessity of its establishment in Gwangju.

The ‘Gwangju Realistic Content Cube (GCC),’ a core facility of Gwangju’s cultural content industry, will be completed in November this year. The ‘Gwangju eSports Stadium,’ which opened last year, will promote revitalization by hosting tournaments and establishing an education platform.

To activate investment in the cultural industry, a ‘3rd Asia Investment Fund’ with 10 billion KRW in national funding will be created to support cultural companies that have technological capabilities but face management difficulties due to lack of funds, thereby creating jobs.

The Eodeungsan Tourist Complex development project aims to start construction within this year by forming a negotiation team early in the year and proceeding with agreements to select private operators.

The construction of the ‘Kim Dae-jung Convention Center 2nd Exhibition Hall’ will proceed through administrative procedures such as urban management plan changes and central investment reviews by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety this year, aiming to start construction in the first half of next year.

Gwangju will develop untact tourism content linked to AI and ICT industries in preparation for the COVID-19 era and strengthen online tourism marketing to create ‘Safe Travel Destination Gwangju.’ Policies will be prepared utilizing Gwangju’s art tourism foundation, and efforts will be made to establish art tourism as Gwangju’s representative brand by linking various cultural and artistic projects held throughout Gwangju, such as the Biennale, Design Biennale, and Media Art Festival.

The ‘Korea Swimming Promotion Center’ will complete the basic planning service this year and start detailed design services. The ‘Gwangju Swimming Championships’ will be held with thorough preparation through close cooperation with the Korea Swimming Federation to enhance Gwangju’s status as an international swimming city.

Gwangju FC, which achieved its best-ever record by finishing 6th in the first division league last year, will promote innovative measures to transform into a citizen-friendly club centered on the players by strengthening communication channels between the club owner and players and between players and citizens.

Kim Jun-young, Director of the Culture, Tourism and Sports Office of Gwangju City, said, “This year, we will do our best to create ‘Gwangju, a first-class cultural city’ by promoting the amendment of the Asian Cultural Hub City Act, expanding cultural infrastructure, and implementing various policies to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.