Gwangju City Announces 20 Policies for 5 Major 'Together' Cultural Visions

Promoting Open Communication and Cultural Administration Based on the Values of Participation, Realization, Enjoyment, Prosperity, and Inclusion

Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "We Will Create a Great Wave of Change and Innovation for a New Leap Forward"

On the afternoon of the 1st, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, announced the 20 major policies of the 5 'Together' Cultural Vision at the city hall briefing room. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 1st the 20 policies of the five major ‘Together’ cultural visions centered on the values of ‘Together Participation,’ ‘Together Realization,’ ‘Together Enjoyment,’ ‘Together Prosperity,’ and ‘Together Inclusion.’

Mayor Lee Yong-seop held a press conference at 1:30 p.m. that day and explained the background, saying, “This policy aims to support overcoming the crisis of the cultural and artistic community, which has been stagnated due to COVID-19, and furthermore, to firmly establish our Gwangju as an Asian cultural hub city.”

The city reflected on the opinions gathered from the field during the ‘Special Cultural and Arts Week’ held from the 22nd to the 26th of last month.

▲ Establishing a cultural governance of ‘Together Participation’

Gwangju City will create a platform where the public and private sectors can grow together through communication and cooperation with citizens, cultural artists, and civil society organizations, and establish various forms of cultural governance for the successful completion of the Asian Culture Hub City project following the revision of the Asian Culture Hub City Act.

① To ensure that the voices from the field are directly reflected in regional cultural policies, the city will operate the ‘Public-Private Governance Committee Cultural Subcommittee’ in a substantial manner, discovering cultural governance agendas through communication and cooperation with citizens, cultural artists, and civil society organizations to enable co-growth of the public and private sectors and reflect them in policies.

② Through the Cultural Arts Future Committee, composed of about 70 artists representing various cultural and artistic genres, the city will continuously identify current issues and future development tasks in the cultural and artistic community. Additionally, on the last Wednesday of every month, the ‘Culture and Economy Vice Mayor’s Office Open Day’ will be held to listen to the difficulties of cultural artists, transitioning to a permanent communication system.

③ The ‘Citizen Council for the Normalization of the National Asia Culture Center’ will continue to be operated to strengthen cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the National Asia Culture Center, and arts organizations, supporting the stable operation of the National Asia Culture Center.

▲ Strengthening support policies for a cultural and artistic ecosystem ‘Together Realized’

To overcome the crisis in the cultural and artistic community caused by COVID-19 and create an opportunity for a new leap forward, the city has prepared measures to strengthen support for the cultural and artistic ecosystem, including expanding private subsidies in the cultural and artistic field, creating spaces for creation and rehearsal, and supporting artists’ welfare.

④ The integrated public offering system for private subsidies in the cultural and artistic field will gradually expand the subsidy scale to activate the activities of capable private cultural and artistic organizations, including those for the disabled, women, and new groups. Projects with excellent evaluations every three years will be institutionalized for stable support.

The annual application period will be moved earlier to the beginning of the year to enhance stability, predictability, and feasibility. Simplification measures will be devised for subsidy project settlements, which are challenging for cultural artists.

⑤ Supporting creation, production, and rehearsal spaces, a long-standing wish of the local art community, will stimulate artists’ creative motivation. Support for artistic activities of youth and emerging artists will be expanded, and the Gwangju campus of the Korea National University of Arts Gifted Education Center will be hosted to actively discover and nurture local artistic talent.

⑥ The ‘Artist Bodum Communication Center’ will be opened to support market development for artworks and capacity-building programs. Through surveys on artists’ conditions and labor-related consulting, a fair compensation system for artistic activities will be established.

⑦ To create a cultural fund, various cultural mecenat activities such as ‘Corporate Mecenat’ and ‘Cultural Bodum’ will be promoted, and the raised funds will support artists in financial difficulty to focus on their creative activities.

▲ Establishing a cultural enjoyment service system ‘Together Enjoyed’

The city will provide and activate diverse cultural content so that culture becomes part of citizens’ daily lives. It will support art club activities and citizen cultural lectures, expand cultural infrastructure, and operate an integrated cultural and artistic promotion platform to establish a cultural enjoyment service system shared by all.

⑧ To enable local cultural and artistic organizations to produce and provide high-quality diverse cultural content such as exhibitions, performances, and festivals to citizens, the role and function of the Cultural Foundation will be reinforced. Representative local events such as the Gwangju Biennale, traditional Korean music regular performances, Chungjang Festival, Media Art Festival, and Art Fair will maximize synergy effects through mutual linkage.

⑨ To strengthen the artistic capabilities of amateur artists, support for cultural and artistic activities of art groups, clubs, and circles will be increased. Various cultural and artistic lectures will be offered to children, students, the general public, and the elderly to raise citizens’ basic cultural and artistic literacy.

⑩ The ongoing construction of Sajik Permanent Performance Hall, Media Art Center (AMT), Gwangju Representative Library, Gwangju Literature Hall, and Prehistoric Culture Experience Center will be accelerated.

In particular, the Gwangju Traditional Living Music Hall, which secured a basic plan service fee of 200 million KRW last year, will be promoted swiftly and substantively to become a cradle of traditional music desired by Gwangju citizens. The Biennale Exhibition Hall, currently undergoing a preliminary feasibility study, will be newly built as a landmark symbolizing Gwangju.

New cultural infrastructure such as the Gwangju History Museum securing Gwangju’s identity, the Asia Literature Park commemorating the origin of literature, the Youth Culture Center supporting youth creative activities, and the comprehensive cultural and artistic creation center collaborating various cultural and artistic genres will be expanded step by step to improve citizens’ cultural accessibility.

⑪ The ‘Integrated Cultural and Artistic Platform’ will be launched in June to share all cultural and artistic information of Gwangju, including performance videos of art groups, cultural events, cultural jobs, and cultural artistic resources, and to allow artists to post their opinions anytime.

▲ Creating a future cultural environment ‘Together Prosperous’

The city will foster the local film industry and craft culture industry, globalize the unique Gwangju spirit based on the Gwangju identity, and promote an art tourism-centered city project to create a future cultural environment nurtured together.

⑫ To develop the local film industry, the city will promote the membership of the film-dedicated organization in the Korean Film Council and support the activation of the Gwangju Women’s Film Festival and Gwangju Independent Film Festival. The Gwangju Theater, the only single-screen theater in the country capable of projecting film reels, will be developed as a cultural space by discovering programs that can re-examine its historical significance.

⑬ To foster the local craft culture industry, the city will support training of craft and design professionals, development of star products, job creation, and nurturing of handmade workshops. The craft-specialized street in Yangnim-dong Penguin Village will be improved into a culture-friendly environment by extending city tour bus stop times and decorating fences, and the city, autonomous districts, and public institutions will actively purchase craft products from the craft street.

⑭ Based on the Gwangju spirit such as ‘March for the Beloved’ and the ‘May 18 Democratic Movement,’ various cultural and artistic contents including music, exhibitions, and musicals will be developed and popularized to globalize the democratic, human rights, and peace-oriented ‘Gwangju-ness’ nationwide and worldwide.

⑮ The ‘Art Tourism-Centered City’ project, which commercializes major cultural and artistic events and cultural infrastructure in Gwangju as tourism products, will be actively promoted. In particular, the traditional Korean music regular performances will be made a stage showcasing the charm of Gwangju’s traditional musicians, becoming a must-see tourist course when visiting Gwangju.

? The Art Street will be revitalized through permanent exhibitions, installation of photo zones, and expansion of designated sections. Five private art museums around Mudeungsan Mountain will be developed into the ‘Mudeungsan Cultural Street’ by linking traditional culture halls, cafes, and the natural environment of Mudeungsan Mountain.

? The Gwangju Realistic Content Cube (GCC) and CGI Center, incorporating cutting-edge technology, will be established as a base for creation and production of cultural contents such as video and film. The cultural content industry will be fostered through training programs for specialized personnel in local cultural content industries including games, animation, and realistic content.

▲ Realizing a cultural community ‘Together Inclusive’

The city will create an inclusive cultural community that respects and activates diverse cultural expressions beyond age, generation, race, and disability so that various social groups within the region can enjoy culture without discrimination and prejudice.

? The integrated cultural use voucher supporting culturally marginalized groups will be actively guided and promoted to maximize the number of beneficiaries, thereby reducing cultural gaps between social classes.

? A cultural diversity community space supporting collaboration and education of artists with diverse cultural identities such as the disabled and immigrants will be created, and an annual Cultural Diversity Festival will be held to spread cultural diversity and inclusiveness as a city brand.

? Cultural facilities such as exhibition halls, performance halls, bookstores, theaters, and cultural centers within 1 km will be accessible within an 18-minute walk, realizing an ‘18-minute Cultural Community City,’ and various living cultural spaces will be designed accordingly.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “Since the 7th local government, our city has established the position of Vice Mayor for Culture and Economy for the first time among local governments and has focused on laying the foundation for ‘Gwangju, a dignified cultural city’ where culture and arts become citizens’ daily lives and history.” He added, “Through the five major cultural visions and 20 policies of ‘Together,’ we will create an opportunity for Gwangju culture to cause a great wave of change and innovation and make a new leap forward.”

Meanwhile, Gwangju City plans to monitor the government’s 4th disaster relief fund payment related to COVID-19 and prepare and implement additional livelihood stabilization measures for areas where blind spots occur or support is urgently needed.

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