[Seoul District News] Seongdong-gu Discovers Over 20 Projects Including 24/7 Smart Culture Convenience Store, Creative Local Festa Seongsu, Global K-Culture School; Selected as Preliminary Cultural City in 5th Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Contest 2022, Laying Foundation to Become Sustainable Smart Cultural Arts Cluster
[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Won-oh) was the only autonomous district in Seoul selected as a preliminary cultural city in the 5th Cultural City Contest hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2022.
A total of 29 local governments participated in this contest, and after a three-month evaluation period, eight basic local governments nationwide, including Seongdong-gu in Seoul, were selected.
Seongdong-gu’s cultural city vision is a “Smart Cultural City,” a strategy that adds culture to the district’s direction of a smart inclusive city. A Smart Cultural City means a city that utilizes Culture Technology to increase cultural accessibility, allowing people to enjoy and produce culture without barriers.
Over the past few years, Seongdong-gu has concretized the future vision of Seongdong by gathering opinions from residents, related institutions and organizations, companies, and experts based on regional cultural governance. In May, the district enacted related ordinances to establish an institutional foundation and held a Smart Cultural City Forum, signing MOUs with a total of 46 companies and public institutions.
Based on this, a strategy was prepared to build a competitive city brand and form sustainable cultural partnerships together with smart cultural companies. As a result, more than 20 projects such as the 24/7 Smart Cultural Convenience Store, Creative Local Festa Seongsu, and Global K-Culture School were discovered, receiving favorable evaluations for the preliminary cultural city selection.
The unique distinction of Seongdong-gu’s cultural city is that companies form another pillar of the cultural city together with residents. Centered around Seongsu-dong, which is emerging as Korea’s Brooklyn, numerous cultural and artistic companies such as SM, K-pop dance studio 1MILLION, and Seoul Webtoon Academy have settled. The district plans to build governance with these companies and residents as core partners, establishing a communication foundation to discuss the direction of the cultural city and collaborate.
Additionally, smart cultural companies that change the world, including content, art, and social innovation companies, will organically connect existing cultural resources to create new content and services, establishing differentiated city branding unique to Seongdong.
The preliminary cultural city will implement projects for one year and then undergo evaluation, with the final designation as a “Cultural City” decided in October next year. Upon designation, national and city funds will be supported, with a total budget of 20 billion KRW to be executed.
Jeong Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, expressed great enthusiasm, saying, “I am very pleased to be selected as a preliminary cultural city, and we will create an environment where anyone can enjoy distinctive cultural resources in their daily lives.” He added, “Now, we will add culture to Seongdong-gu as a smart inclusive city and develop it into a refined cultural and artistic city.”
◆ Local governments designated as preliminary cultural cities in the 5th Cultural City Contest of 2022 (8 total) ▲Seoul Seongdong-gu ▲Busan Suyeong-gu ▲Sokcho-si ▲Gyeongju-si ▲Gwangyang-si ▲Jinju-si ▲Chungju-si ▲Hongseong-gun
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