As Sejong City has been designated as a cultural city, a large-scale project to create a cultural city will be promoted with a budget of up to 20 billion won (10 billion won each from the national and municipal governments) over three years from 2025 to 2027. This project will be carried out based on the three themes of ‘Connection’, ‘Filling’, and ‘Dream’ based on the spirit of King Sejong’s love for the people, independence, and practicality.
The first theme, ‘Connection’, includes various solidarity projects that connect local artists, citizens, and domestic and international cities. Through this, we plan to create a venue for international cultural exchange and promote the value of Hangeul to the world. The ‘International Hangeul Biennale’ scheduled to be held in 2027 is the core of these efforts, where global artists will showcase creative works on the theme of Hangeul and promote international solidarity. In 2024, we plan to hold a ‘Pre-Biennale’ as a preliminary event and solidify the image of a Hangeul-centered cultural city through special Hangeul cultural exhibitions.
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[Korean Today] Sejong City, the final cultural city designated by the Republic of Korea, is being made into a Korean cultural city © Reporter Lee Yoon-joo |
‘Chaeum’ aims to discover and support Hangul cultural content, and industrialize Hangul culture through this. Sejong City plans to maximize the industrial value of Hangul by supporting companies in various fields, including Hangul-themed font development, clothing and daily necessities production, tourism commercialization, and cutting-edge industries such as artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, it will create a ‘Hangul Artist Village’ in the old downtown regeneration space, and establish a virtuous cycle structure of Hangul-related cultural content creation and consumption.
The last theme, ‘Gagum’, focuses on creating an environment where citizens can enjoy and experience Korean culture in their daily lives. We plan to create a ‘Korean culture living area in front of my house’ where all members of the community can participate by operating various activities such as Korean performances and experience programs using cultural facilities in towns and villages.
In order to systematically promote the project, the nation’s first Hangul-dedicated organization, the ‘Hangul Culture City Center’, will be established early next year. This center will be responsible for the stable progress of the cultural city project through cooperation with various departments within the city hall and industry-academia-research cooperation.
Sejong City expects that through this cultural city project, it will produce 8,600 cultural industry workers, create 240 jobs, and attract 400,000 Korean language tourists. In addition, it is expected that the satisfaction of citizens with cultural leisure activities will greatly increase through the expansion of 834 cultural spaces and the participation of 2,734 cultural personnel.
This project is expected to not only establish Sejong City as a center of Korean culture, but also create balanced cultural, economic, and social effects and strengthen the region’s competitiveness.
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