[Reporter’s Notebook] K-Arts Relocation Should Be Cultural Policy, Not a Vote Calculation

Relocating a Single School Cannot Create a Cultural City
Moving Without a Complex Ecosystem Is Destined to Fail

There is heated debate over the bill proposed by 11 members of the Democratic Party of Korea to relocate the Korea National University of Arts to Gwangju. However, there is still no sign of any serious consideration of the fundamental nature of arts education or the cultural ecosystem.

Will simply relocating an educational institution transform the area into an arts hub? Anseong, which hosted the Theater and Film Department of Chung-Ang University, never became a movie city. Likewise, even after some of Hongik University's arts and design education functions were established at its Sejong campus, the outcome was the same. In fact, these moves had the opposite effect, as students who preferred schools in the Seoul metropolitan area turned their sights toward universities based in Seoul.

The way creative fields operate is fundamentally different from other industries. Industries such as steel and machinery depend on large-scale facilities and material capital. When production facilities are relocated, their collaborative networks move with them, and know-how can be transferred with just a manual. In contrast, the creative domain is built on individual skill and human networks. Tacit knowledge is acquired only through long-term, close-knit collaboration on site.

For example, staging a single musical production requires practical training facilities, professional coaches, audition agencies, review platforms, and legal and copyright services. These businesses cannot survive on a single genre alone; they must be combined with film, television, advertising, and more. Currently, Seoul is the only place where such a complex ecosystem functions.

Performing arts education is heavily influenced by the surrounding environment. Talented individuals in fields such as vocal music or dance receive systematic training from childhood. Young students who show potential build their skills by studying under top artists from an early age. The area around the Seocho-dong campus of the Korea National University of Arts, where such education takes place, is a music city in itself. Personal training spaces, competition stages, specialty instrument and sheet music stores, large performance halls, and educational institutions are all densely interconnected there.

The political sphere is justifying the relocation of the Korea National University of Arts under the banner of "preventing the decline of non-metropolitan areas." To achieve any real effect, however, a comprehensive package is needed: from establishing branch offices of public performing arts organizations in Gwangju, to incentives for private production companies to relocate, and building large-scale performance infrastructure.

Some point to the example of KAIST's relocation to Daejeon. In science and engineering, a few experts can collaborate and publish results in academic journals. For artists, however, completion only comes when standing before an audience. In the performing arts, the stage serves as the classroom, the evaluation opportunity, and the ultimate goal. Relocating fields with a limited audience base, such as traditional music, to non-metropolitan areas could make access even more difficult for consumers.

The real issue is not where the Korea National University of Arts should be relocated. Rather, it should be whether there is the will and resources to build a cultural industry cluster outside the metropolitan area. The question is not about moving a school building, but about how to reconstruct the social capital, networks, and cultural soil that have been accumulated over decades. Suggesting that the school alone be relocated without such a plan is not cultural policy but more akin to electoral calculus.

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