Making Gwangju a Creative City:
The Interplay between External and Internal Drivers
HaeRan Shin
Seoul National University
WB-KRIHS seminar, Creative Cities: Learning from the Republic of Korea's Experience
15 July 2021
City context
• Size
– 501.18km² (Ottawa, Turin, New Orleans)
– Population: 1.5 million
– One of the 5 metropolitan cities in South Korea
– GDP per capita (2019): 30,964 USD (Poland)
– Weak industrial base
A revised question
• How Gwangju, being supported by the
national government, translated the lacking CCIs into spatial, economic, and social
outcomes?
• Trigger
– Local players’ consideration on the lack of urban industries
– National government’s supports
The strategy-outcome-asset circuit
• Linear: Assets- strategies-enablers-outcomes
• The city’s cultural strategies supported by the national government brought about outcomes, which became an asset for the next strategy.
Challenges in the 1990s
• GRDP: gross regional domestic product
91 92 93 94 95 96 97
Seoul 54,229 60,304 68,643 76,224 84,599 93,272 97,947 Pusan 16,341 17,181 18,962 21,338 24,135 26,883 27,760
Daegu 8,409 9,322 10,336 11,825 13,918 15,211 16,066
Incheon 11,195 12,313 13,439 15,074 18,007 19,721 21,149
Gwangju 4,904 5,605 6,328 7,319 8,522 9,295 9,986
Daejon 5,069 5,757 6,421 7,085 7,935 8,647 9,735
A big starting point: Challenges and opportunities
• Local elites’ concerns about attracting businesses
– The city’s image reflecting the distorted history of May 18
• 21st Century Citizens' Talk for Exploration of the
Future of Gwangju and Junnam [South Jeolla] in 1995
– a survey conducted by Chonnam National University, Seoul National University, and Pusan National University
– Outsiders: ‘the City of Blood’, ‘May 18 Democratic Uprising’, and ‘Kim Dae-jung’,
– Gwangju residents: ‘the city of democratization’ or `the city of art – 86.6% of Gwangju residents believed Gwangju had been
economically underdeveloped as a result of the region having been intentionally isolated from central political power for thirty years.
• Non-military government was ready to help Gwangju
• first local elections for South Korean city governments that were held in 1995
We’ve been misunderstood for too long Time to change our image!
Gwangju’s CCIs vision and strategies
• The first stage (1995-present)
– Gwangju Biennale
• The second stage (2004-2031)
– Asian Culture Hub: Culture-led urban
regeneration (total funding of US$ 5.29 billion)
• The third stage (2014-present)
– Media Art Creative City
1 Gwangju Biennale
– Contemporary art exhibition
2 Asia Culture Hub – Culture-led urban regeneration
ACC: Asia Culture Centre (Former Jonnam Provincial Hall)
3 UNESCO Media
Art Creative City
The interplay between external and internal drivers
External drivers Internal drivers
1. Gwangju Biennale (1995-present)
Event Funding
Staff
Lobby
Aggressive preparation Resistance
Adaptation
2. Asian Culture Hub (2004-2031)
Designation as Asian Culture Hub Funding US$ 5.29 billion
Legislation Staff
Expanded participation May 18 memories
3. Media Art Creative City
(2014-present) UNESCO creative city Other cities’ application
Application flexibility
The city’s ecosystem has gone through bigger opportunities and bigger challenges than before.
The national government’s support
• Biennale host
– First non-military presidency- compensate the loss of May 18 – Funding (50% of the first biennale)
– Institutional support
• The Gwangju Biennale Foundation
• Asia Culture Hub
– President Roh Moo Hyun awarding Gwangju the designation of the Hub City of Asian Culture in 2003.
– cultured urban regeneration
– the construction of the Asia Culture Centre – A special law instituting financial support
• ‘Special act on the development of Asian cultural hub city’
• Media Art Creative City
– 50% funding (AI Cluster Town, Light Expo, AMT Center)
Enabler
The construction of the Asia Culture Centre
• in the centre of the city as well as its lot size of 128,621m2 with a total floor space of
178,199m2
• $680 million in total
• the Hub City of Asian Culture Office, a national government office
• all based in Seoul
Enabler
Former Jeonnam Provincial
Hall in May 1980
Transformed to the Asia Culture
Center
City government’s initiatives
• Gwangju Biennale
– Aggressive preparation
– 50% staff – urban bureaucrats
• Asia Culture Hub
– City-wide regeneration
• MACC
– Media Art Creative City master plan (2015)
– Media Art Creative Belts plan (2017) – Bylaw to support MACC (2017)
Enabler
Local civil society members’ expanded collaboration
• Gwangju civil society
– Participation expanded
– Going through splitting up
• Anti-Bienale
– Gwangju-South Jeolla Artists’ Community
– more popular than the official Biennale
– amalgamated Biennale and Anti-Biennale
Enabler
Partnership in working together
• Bureaucrats – artists/community members
• Seoul – Gwangju players
• Academic – Bureaucrats – artists – May 18 organisations
• Artists – businesses
– Much discomfort
– But eventually, the partnership became a foundation for cultural governance
Enabler
May 18 memories
• Cultural contents
– Democratic values and human rights based on the history of the May 18 Democratic Uprising
• May 18 related places
– Provided sites of potential spatial outcome
• Loyalty based on the memory
– Adaptation and flexibility
Enabler
May 18 Democratic Uprising in 1980
ACC: Asia Culture Center
1980 memories and
‘Circle of Cure’
UNESCO’s creative city program and local response
• Other cities’ entitlement in South Korea
• Various players’ collaboration for an application
– An artist, city bureaucrats, an academic
• AMT center
• Media Art festival
• Monitoring report – Creative belts
Enabler
Skills, Talent and Innovation
- Asia Culture Institute
- Graduate School of Culture, Chonnam National University
- Gwangju Culture & Arts Center - Gwangju Biennale Foundation
- Gwangju Student Education & Culture Center - Gwangju Cultural Foundation
- All were created AFTER the cultural strategies in the 1990s
Outcome and
enabler
CCIs: outcomes → assets
• The growth of CCIs
• Sales between 1997 and 2011 (10 billion Won -871,706 USD)
Economic outcome
CCIs as an outcome
• The growth of CCIs
– Most CCIs have been created since 2005.
The size of cultural industries (sales) The number of cultural companies
The growth of CCIs
2006 2014 Increase per year
Number of companies
Gwagnju 0.5 0.9 10.7
6 Metropolitan cities 3.1 6.2 12.7
South Korea 18.1 42.7 17.0
Number of employees
Gwagnju 4.1 6.4 6.7
6 Metropolitan cities 32.3 51.3 7.3
South Korea 290.5 511.5 9.5
Sales
Gwagnju 0.4 0.7 9.6
6 Metropolitan cities 3.6 6.4 9.8
South Korea 44.7 92.2 13.3
• 2006-2014 – 9.6% increase per year in sales and 10.7%
increase per year in the number of companies.
• Lower growth compared to the national average
Key CCIs in Gwangju (2019)
No of companies
No. of
employees Sales (USD) Advanced imaging (animation, movie,
broadcasting, commercial) 229 1,493 303 million
Crafts/design 113 506 64 million
edutainment 44 366 171 million
Computer game 36 317 14 million
LED Industry 111 1,876 60 million
Economic outcome
Mobilities of Knowledge-
based service industry (2009- 2013)
May 18 places explored for exhibitions
Spatial outcome and
resources
Culture areas in the Asia Culture Hub
6: Tower of Light Spatial
outcome
Spatial
outcome
MA studio-café-exhibition- urban regeneration
integrated
AI cluster town project
AI R&D 46,200 m²
347million USD invested
Modern vs post-modern arts in Gwangju
issue
• Oh Jiho – impressionism
• Loner artists
• Not interested in the art market
• Still dominant in college education
• Gwangju Nam June Paik – Video art
• Post-modern art
• Interdisciplinary
• Art residency
• Collaboration with other artists and businesses
Economic outcomes
• Gwangju Biennale
– 11 million USD (2000)
• Urban regeneration
– ACC: 100 million visitors – 2016-2018:
• Production inducement effect: 73 million USD
• Added value effect: 53 million USD
• Employment inducement effect: 10,629
• Media Art
– Light industry
Economic outcome
Economic outcome
- Economic impacts of media arts and contemporary arts in Gwangju
- Art tourism, Dark tourism
- CGI (Computer-Generated Imaginary) industry
Social outcomes
• Cultural governance
• Learning process for working with other sector members
• May 18 integrated into cultural strategies
Social outcome
Lessons and conclusion
• Support-asset-outcome circuit
• The lack of resources can be overcome
• External opportunities as a biggest opportunity and a biggest barrier at the same time
• New opportunities and conflicts influenced the cultural governance in the city.
• ‘creative city’ can be a word game. But, it performs having effects on planning and exporting urban
models by reiterative practices.
