“Gwangju City, Personnel Appointments Enhancing Expertise of Academic Research Positions”

Gwangju City Councilor Jo Seok-ho: "Placement Regardless of Major"

Jo Seok-ho, Gwangju City Council Member.

Gwangju, which promotes itself as a "City of Artistic Excellence" and an "Asian Cultural Hub," has been criticized for conducting personnel appointments for curatorial research positions in a haphazard manner.

On the 11th, Jo Seok-ho, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party, Buk-gu 4), criticized during the administrative audit of the Gwangju City Culture and Sports Office, stating, "Gwangju is wasting administrative resources by assigning curatorial research staff to institutions unrelated to their majors."

In 2021, Gwangju selected eight individuals in the curatorial research field through the local government civil service exam and assigned them to the City Hall, Gwangju Museum of Art, History and Folklore Museum, 5·18 Democracy Movement Archives, Media Art Platform, Kimchi Town, and other locations. However, by placing the selected curatorial research staff according to their exam scores, many were assigned to positions unrelated to their majors such as archaeology, anthropology, art studies, and Korean language and literature.

Councilor Jo emphasized, "Can Gwangju, a city of artistic excellence and an Asian cultural hub, truly blossom in history and culture if it cannot even properly manage basic personnel administration?" He added, "Curatorial research staff should be reassigned according to their majors so they can develop expertise in their respective fields."