Suwon Selected as Only Gyeonggi Province Candidate for '3rd Preliminary Cultural City' Designation

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon has been selected as a candidate site for the '3rd Preliminary Cultural City' designation by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

In this 3rd Preliminary Cultural City project competition, 41 local governments nationwide submitted applications, with 10 local governments selected including Suwon. Suwon is the only candidate from Gyeonggi Province.

Local governments selected as 3rd Preliminary Cultural Cities will promote preliminary city projects for one year until December 2021. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will conduct deliberations for cultural city designation based on written and on-site evaluations and performance presentations, and will designate 'legal cultural cities' by the end of December next year. It is expected that 5 to 7 cities will be selected.

The cultural city development project is a government-funded initiative that enables regions to independently plan and realize their city's cultural environment by leveraging cultural assets and create a city brand.

Local governments designated as 'legal cultural cities' will receive up to 1 billion won in project funding over 5 years depending on city characteristics, and will receive consultation throughout the project process. Once selected as a cultural city, project implementation will proceed from 2022 to 2026.

Suwon submitted a cultural city development plan with the vision of 'Cultural City Suwon that cares for one another and confronts challenges.'

The core values of 'Cultural City Suwon' are 'urban diversity,' 'sustainability,' and 'cultural democracy.' Goals include ▲building urban diversity by converting cultural differences in people, environment, and space into 'cultural creativity' ▲establishing governance that flexibly and strategically realizes future values ▲creating cultural city brands, among others.

To establish the 'humanities city policy' that has been sustained for 10 years since the 5th mayoral term as Suwon's unique city brand, plans are underway to cultivate cultural talent through education for cultural planners.

Additionally, Suwon plans to develop cultural content to expand the scope of utilizing historical and cultural resources, implement cultural place regeneration linked to urban regeneration, and organize public art biennales with the entire city as the stage.

In particular, the 'Humanities City Archive–Human Library' project that records individuals' histories, thoughts, skills, and talents linked to various local activities, and the 'Suwon Humanities City Week' project that shares activities as a humanities city are flagship projects created together with citizens.

Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young said, "Suwon will create a humanities city led by citizens and a city where sustainable cultural identity lives," adding "We will make steady preparations to create Korea's best 'cultural city' befitting 'Special Metropolitan City of Suwon.'"