Making Gwangju a Creative City:

Making Gwangju a Creative City:

The Interplay between External and Internal Drivers

HaeRan Shin

30 November 2021

City Context and Challenges

• 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

• May 18 democratic uprising

May 18, 1980

Challenges in the 1990s

• GRDP: gross regional domestic product (Billion Won)

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

• Outsiders: ‘the City of Blood’, ‘May 18 Democratic Uprising’, and ‘Kim Dae-jung’,

• Non-military government was ready to help Gwangju.

• The city government became more

entrepreneurial than before as local elections restarted in 1995.

We’ve been misunderstood for too long.

Time to change our image!

City’s Cultural and Creative 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

Growing cultural and creative industries

• In the late 1990s, the South Korean government led by Kim Dae-jung began to take notice of CCIs.

• Both Gwangju CCIs sales and the number of CCI companies have experience reasonable growth between 2006 and 2014

• 10.7% increase per year in the number of companies

• 6.7% increase in the number of employees between 2006 and 2014 in Gwangju

• The growth of Gwangju CCI sales (One billion Korean Won= One million USD)

Asset 1. Intangible cultural heritage

• ‘Art village,’ a home to art, culture and theatre such as pansori, Korean musical storytelling.

• food, music, art, literature and crafts

• However, main cultural strategies diverged considerably from the city’s traditions and heritage.

Assets 2. Community practices

• Gwangju’s civil society has been increasingly involved.

• the May 18 Democratic Uprising has been a central theme.

• art and culture democracy and social justice.

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.

Enabler 1. Urban Spaces and Infrastructure in the making

• Gwangju had a host of historical sites, but due to decades of harmful regionalism and the stigma of the uprising, the city lacked urban

spaces and infrastructure, which turned out to be a benefit.

• Urban spaces have been actively explored, their significance have been put on display, and their development have enabled the next stage.

• Places of memory become representative places of the cultural

strategies for exhibitions and tourism, such as the Jeolla Provincial Hall.

Example 1) the Anti-Biennale

• Placed a spotlight on the Mangwol-dong Cemetery noteworthy for its relevance to the May 18 protests by

displaying the exhibition there.

• The graves became a part of the exhibition, producing an atmosphere of reflection in this combination of

democracy and art.

Example 2) Asia Culture Center (former Jeolla Provincial Hall)

• Resistance against the

demolition of the Byeolgwan, where ordinary protesters

were killed in the 18 May democratic uprising of 1980

• As a result, the construction was postponed, and a

compromise was made that the part is maintained.

Enabler 2 Catalyzers and Uniqueness

• The need for a new image was the catalyzer

• The city government lobbied the national government to host the biennale.

• Local bureaucrats explicitly prioritized economic benefits over history.

• Gwangju’s uniqueness is derived from the city’s political history.

• Reaction to ignoring the city’s history varied.

• The preservation or how the memory of historical events are represented can create divisions.

May 18 Democratic Uprising in 1980

ACC: Asia Culture Center

1980 memories and

‘Circle of Cure’

Enabler 3. Supports from the national government

• The national government’s desire to repair its international reputation.

• The national government has stimulated and supported urban initiatives in selected cities under particular brands.

• The national government’s institutional and financial support enabled creative endowments to translate to spatial, economic and social

outcomes.

Enabler 4. Inclusive Institutions and Partnerships

• The most challenging learning experience was collaboration

• Between the outsiders from Seoul and the locals in Gwangju

• Between Seoul players who work in the Asia Culture Hub office and local players including local bureaucrats and planning experts.

• Between artists and businesses

• At each stage, the need for partnership has increased, and at each stage the learning process was an uneasy one and brought about much discomfort at first.

• Based on these previous experiences, forging partnerships has a stronger base than the one before it.

Enabler 5. Skills, Talent and Innovation

• Educational institutes for science and technology have enabled the encounter between art and technology.

• In media art, the combination of art and technology is critical.

• The cultural strategies resulted in innovations in planning and urban landscape as well.

Enablers 6. Digital Environment

• South Korea - achieving the most advanced IT and digital media culture

• During COVID-19 pandemic, performance places have been closed temporarily.

• The 13^th Gwangju Biennale

• Was scheduled to take place in 2020 was postponed twice

• Was held instead 1 April – 9 May 2021 for a shortened period with limited capacity.

• The offline exhibition received 85,000 visitors, but the online exhibition posted on the Biennale homepage and YouTube received 165,000 visitors.

• As Gwangju currently focuses on media art, local players said that the revisions they have had to make to their methods of performances and exhibitions to make them virtual would benefit their work in the long run.

Social, Spatial and Economic Outcomes

Social outcomes

• Cultural governance

• Learning process for working with other sector members

• May 18 integrated into cultural strategies

Spatial outcome: May 18 places explored for exhibitions

Culture areas in the Asia Culture Hub

6: Tower of Light

Six Creative Belts

MA studio-café-exhibition- urban

regeneration integrated

AI cluster town project

347million USD invested

Economic outcomes

• Gwangju Biennale

• 11 million USD (2000)

• Asia Culture Hub

• 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 impacts of media arts and contemporary arts in Gwangju

- Art tourism, Dark tourism

- CGI (Computer-Generated Imaginary) industry

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)

Lessons Learned and Conclusion

• Support-asset-outcome circuit

• Despite having a negative image, a city’s history can become a significant asset.

• Actively seeking external supports is critical to sustaining cultural and creative strategies.

• In the case of Gwangju, it was questioned if the city merited the national government’s designation of ACH.

Recommendations

• Urban spaces related to cultural strategies may contribute to urban well-being if they result in urban development or urban regeneration.

• Translating the unique history and places of memory into cultural assets can contribute to the sustainability of cultural strategies.

• Professional artists, educational institutions, and technology can strengthen each other.

• In the case of local cities with a strong national government, the

interaction between national and local governments is as important as the interactions within the city.

• Forming partnerships inevitably causes discomfort, but the tension helps clarify what each player wants.

Lessons for Cities having a particular history and external supports

• Determine how their history can become a resource and asset:

• Create a balance between community participation and experts’

involvement.

• Patient communication can contribute to establishing lasting partnerships and governance because it takes time.

• Expand the role of cultural strategies and connect them to urban planning.

• Go beyond territorial attitudes and make partners outside the city and the country.