Mayor Park Dongsik Designs Sacheon's Future Through Arts and Culture

Presenting a Sustainable Growth Strategy Through Culture and the Arts

Sacheon City in South Gyeongsang Province is positioning culture and the arts as the core driving force for urban development, laying out a new vision for its future.

Mayor Park Dongsik is moving beyond the city’s traditional industrial identity, advancing the concept of “Sacheon, a city of culture and the arts” to enhance both the quality of life for citizens and the city’s overall competitiveness. He is integrating cultural values throughout all policy areas.

Until now, Sacheon has been strongly associated with its image as an industrial city based on the aerospace and marine industries. However, since Mayor Park took office, he has emphasized a balanced urban identity and is presenting a sustainable growth strategy centered on culture and the arts.

Photos from the XR immersive program demonstration event at Sacheon City Children's Library.

This policy direction is based on the recognition that culture is not merely consumption, but an investment and a key asset that determines a city’s future competitiveness.

Sacheon City is accelerating the expansion of local culture and arts infrastructure and the promotion of everyday cultural activities. In addition to strengthening the functions of cultural and arts centers and performance and exhibition spaces, the city is focusing on operating community cultural centers, expanding support for local artists, and developing cultural programs for youth and children to ensure that citizens can easily access culture and the arts in their daily lives.

In particular, Mayor Park has stated, “Culture and the arts are not the exclusive property of a particular class, but a basic right that all citizens should enjoy,” emphasizing that the city’s cultural policies are focused on “citizen participation” and “local identity.”

The city aims to infuse every corner of Sacheon with the spirit of culture through the development of cultural content that reflects the region’s history and identity, as well as through neighborhood-level cultural projects.

Changes are also underway in the field of cultural tourism. Sacheon is working to foster tourism content that combines its natural environment, historical assets, and industrial resources with culture and the arts, seeking to transform itself into a destination city where visitors stay longer. This aims to create a virtuous cycle that boosts the local economy and generates jobs.

Mayor Park Dongsik stated, “A city does not grow with buildings and roads alone. A city where culture and the arts are alive and thriving possesses true competitiveness. Through culture and the arts, we will design Sacheon’s future and create a city that citizens can take pride in.”

Attention is now focused on whether Sacheon City’s strategy of placing culture and the arts at the center of its urban development will serve as a turning point, enabling the city to evolve from an industrial hub into a sophisticated cultural city.