- The Agency Selected to Assume Four Projects by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism - The 2nd Symposium of Asian Culture to be Held The Implementation Agency for Culture & Arts Specialization Project (Director: Prof. Park Gwang-seo, Dept. of Economy, College of Business Administration) has been selected to undertake four projects to be supported by the Ministry of Culture & Arts and emerged as a Mecca of culture and arts sectors in Gwangju to strengthen the infrastructure and competitiveness. The Implementation Agency for Culture & Arts Specialization Project (IACASP) is the brain pool with capacities to effectively conduct the state-supporting projects. The four projects undertaken by the IACASP are culture and arts education exhibition project, regional culture consulting project for local universities, a research project for establishing the educational institution inside of the National Asian Culture Hall, and the 2nd Asian Culture Symposium. The total research expenses amount up to 10 billion won. The model project of culture and arts education exceeds the limit of culture and arts education, currently performed at elementary, junior high and senior high schools. The project aims to develop an exemplary model of culture and arts education corresponding to the regional infrastructure of culture. For accomplishing the goal, the project maps out its strategic plans such as the development of cultural education system, educational programs, cultural contents, policy consulting measures, digital contents of cultural prototypes, and the manpower development for regional cultures. An educational program for Gwangju citizens will be provided with numerous festivals including culture and arts experience programs and international culture education network program. These programs will help Gwangju to become the Asia’s hub of culture. The regional culture consulting project aims to boost the tourism industry of Gwangju by utilizing the cultural assets such as outdoor filming sets of a TV drama series “Haesin (emperor of the sea)” and the theme park of Jangbogo. A popular TV drama depicting the life of a heroic sea trader, Jangbogo, is helping boost the regional economy of Wando, a remote scenic island in the southwestern coast of South Korea, attracting millions of tourists to the outdoor filming location. With the shooting of “Haesin” in Wando, the entire island has become a theme park of Jangbogo. Wando County and the Agency will cooperate to create high added value of tourism resources by developing the Jangbogo assets and the Dadohae National Marine Park as well in order to make the site a famous tourist destination not only for Koreans and tourists from Asian countries. The IACASP also aims at actively fostering culture and arts sectors on the basis of the organization with integrated resources for research activities. In line with the regional innovation project, which the participatory government has been pushing forward, the IACASP will undertake crucial roles in Gwangju City
s further development into a hub of culture. The key strategies for the development of the project include
the connection of the specialization project for culture-arts sector with the regional innovation project
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fine arts and culture research programs
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the development of educational programs to produce talented individuals who will lead culture & arts fields
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the investigation of schemes to contribute to the establishment of a cultural hub in Gwangju
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building up a space for culture & arts environments
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establishing the foundation as a substantial hub for the research projects of regional and Asian cultures.
Along with these, the IACASP would introduce up-to-date educational, study and administrative systems as a means of actively fostering the professionals needed in the knowledge-based society, and build a firm base to carry out cooperative programs with governmental offices or industrial entities. The 2nd Asian Culture Symposium, to be hosted by the IACASP, is an academic event for culture and arts professionals and scholars from Asian countries. From December 13 through December 14, the symposium will be held at Yongbong Hall, CNU, under the theme of ‘City+Culture’. The case studies of representative cultural cities will be introduced at the symposium. It is expected that the symposium will give great help to Gwangju to become the hub of Asian culture and to set up adequate strategies and visions. An official of the IACASP said, “The IACASP has undertaken the pivotal role for the development of culture and arts by conducting the research projects supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. We do hope the activities of the IACASP would strengthen the competitiveness of culture and arts sectors, and help to design Gwangju’s future as the hub of Asian culture.”