Mokpo City, Creating a Citizen-Centered Unique Cultural City

Held Culture City Committee Meeting to Share and Discuss 2023 Project Plans

Mokpo City in Jeollanam-do continues to create a unique cultural city centered on its citizens.

According to the city on the 21st, after being designated as a preliminary cultural city in 2020 and finally selected as a legal cultural city in 2021, it has been developing the cultural city with a project budget of 19.8 billion KRW over five years starting from 2022.

Mokpo City held a Cultural City Committee meeting and appointed the committee members.
[Photo by Mokpo City]

Mokpo, the only city designated as a cultural city in Jeollanam-do, has been promoting projects to increase citizens' opportunities for cultural participation and to expand the cultural city brand under the vision of "Mokpo, a New Open Port Cultural Harbor City."

Last year, it established a cultural governance system to enhance expertise and execution power, including the Cultural City Committee, Cultural City Advisory Committee, and Cultural Ambassadors, and carried out the first-year projects.

With an investment of 3 billion KRW from national, provincial, and city funds, it revitalized the cultivation of local cultural talents through programs such as the Cultural Saltwater School and the Living Artisan College, operated two Komjirak Laboratories, and developed cultural participation and enjoyment content like the Cultural Exchange Expedition.

As a result of stably promoting a total of 22 projects, Mokpo was selected as an "Excellent City" in the 2022 Cultural City Development Project performance evaluation by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in February.

Through the Ministry's selection as an excellent city, Mokpo, which can now promote cultural city projects more stably, adopted the slogan "Connecting the City, Cultural Harbor City Mokpo" for the second-year project in 2023.

This year, it plans to further expand citizen governance and strengthen exchange projects in the southwestern region of Jeollanam-do.

Before the full-scale project implementation, on the 17th, the Cultural City Committee was held to appoint members and share major projects.

The Cultural City Committee is the official decision-making body for promoting cultural city projects, launched in 2021 under the Mokpo City Cultural City Creation and Support Ordinance.

Professor Choi Seong-hwan of Mokpo National University was appointed as the chairman, and 13 experts from various fields active in the city council, civil society, and cultural and artistic organizations were appointed as members to serve for two years.

At the meeting, the committee members discussed the results of last year's cultural city project implementation, the 2023 cultural city development project plan, and the direction and development of the projects.

In 2023, cultural healing projects for cultivating cultural citizens, a future culture preparation group, and cultural city academy programs will be operated, and projects such as local culture remake and Mokpo Cultural Map will be carried out to discover cultural contents unique to Mokpo.

Additionally, projects like the Cultural Exchange Expedition, Mokpo Culture Day, and Cultural Harbor Festa will be conducted to expand the cultural city brand.

Mokpo City plans to carry out these plans without delay to strengthen citizens' cultural capabilities this year as well and create a culturally prosperous city, thereby pursuing the improvement of citizens' quality of life.

Mayor Park Hong-ryul stated, "The cultural city project can shine when various entities such as the Cultural City Committee, citizen councils, and related organizations form an organic relationship," adding, "We will continuously collect citizens' opinions to create a unique cultural city brand for Mokpo."