K-Culture's New Growth Engine is Design... Government "Creating New Value"

Minister Park Bo-gyun of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Announces 4·S Strategy
'Public Design City' Designation, Pritzker Prize Promotion
High-Value Product Manufacturing through Art, Industry, and Technology Convergence
Fashion Expands Horizons to Become One of the World's Four Major Fashion Weeks

"It is an era where design is the key to success even for mobile phones. Changes also occur when design is added to urban spaces or social issues."

This is a paradox stated by Park Bo-gyun, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. At the K-Design Vision Declaration Ceremony held on the morning of the 3rd at D Museum in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, he announced the 4·S strategy, saying, "We will create new value by combining design with culture and arts." The design policy focuses on strengthening cultural appeal, solving social problems, converging arts, industry, and technology, and spreading K-culture. The plan is to concretize the promotion tasks by reflecting field opinions and nurture design as a new growth engine of K-culture.

The core of strengthening cultural appeal is public design. It will create opportunities to add design elements to public facilities and public spaces, and designate 'public design leading cities' for integrated application. The public design improvement projects for cities hosting international events will also be expanded from single-year to multi-year support to aid tourism marketing and more. Architects who have pursued social values through architectural philosophy will be discovered and promoted domestically and internationally to encourage winning the Pritzker Prize. Established in 1979, it is known as the Nobel Prize of architecture, and no Korean has won it yet.

In terms of solving social problems, support will be provided for the development of proactive public design. Ideas from the public to address urgent issues such as national safety, population aging, environment, and regional extinction will be collected, and solutions will be sought through design governance (public-private cooperation). Upcycling fashion using eco-friendly materials and processes, as well as fashion brands realizing social, economic, and cultural coexistence values, will be broadly supported.

The goal of converging arts, industry, and technology is to manufacture unique high value-added products. The art collaboration project will be expanded so that works by mid-career and emerging artists, as well as artists with disabilities, can be integrated with industry. 'Fashion tech,' which combines fashion and technology, will be supported to pioneer new areas. Showrooms and fashion shows will be prepared not only offline but also on metaverse and online platforms, and AI and other technologies will be supported to improve work efficiency.

A noteworthy point in spreading K-culture is the integration of K-content, which is gaining global status. Planned exhibitions and fashion shows based on K-content concepts will be held overseas to increase accessibility to K-fashion design. A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official said, "We plan to expand the horizon to the world's four major fashion weeks (New York, Paris, Milan, London)," adding, "We will expand support for operating offline stores and holding fashion shows, and prepare business strategies to target the Asian market."

The plan also includes the National Design Museum, which will open in Sejong City in 2026. The opening committee, scheduled to launch this month, will discuss detailed matters regarding exhibitions and overall operations. A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official said, "We will exhibit innovative objects containing the archetype of K-design, digital creativity, and advanced technology, and build a design archive to provide unique resources."

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