Wanju’s Innovative Projects

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  #People on the spot

  Kwak Sangtan, CEO of ‘The Little Bear’, a loose community“It’s not fun to live alone”

  Q. Then, was it a community of professional actors and actresses?A. Oh, not really. Somewhat skillful at plays or musicals, they are not. They have their own jobs. In my case, I was an actor in a theater company in Seoul, but now I’m an office worker.Since I was young, I liked plays so much that I wanted to major in play and film, but I majored in social science owing to my parents' opposition. However, when I went to university, I left my studies behind, and I wandered around Daehak-ro performance halls almost every day. I watched more than four to five hundred plays during those days, and if I add up all the plays and musicals I've seen so far, they will probably total over a thousand.I also watched a lot of foreign performances in Las Vegas, Broadway in New York, and even at Piccadilly Circus in London. I went abroad every vacation just to see original performances.Q. Then, is the original ‘The Little Bear’ a separate organization from the community that carried out ‘Local Signature Dessert Menu Development’ as a project supported by ‘Made in Public’ in 2019?A. You could say so. Although the names are the same and some members overlap, the one, which began in 2013, was a kind of performance community, and the other that has worked since 2018 is a community d by people among my acquaintances interested in local issues. It is a loose community without any restrictions and is not a group for a specific business or profit, but a network of which members work in each area and help each other.From a sociological point of view, you could say that a loose network of people with a certain level of affection and information is more effective than a formal organization formed for a specific purpose. It is a group of people with such an expansive possibility that shares information and links resources with each other, such as western style parties and social gatherings. It is to form a network with the people we trust now without setting any names, purposes, or frameworks of the community. What is fundamental to this type of a network is not a specific purpose or benefits, but a person's character.Q. What kind of a project is the ‘Local Signature Dessert Menu Development’?A. It was a project carried out by The Little Bear community in 2019, sponsored by the ‘Made in Public’ support program of the Wanju Cultural City Support Center. Various people who bake pottery, paint, and bake bread gathered to develop signature dessert products in the region, including soup, drinks, and baked items, using local food produced in five counties of Wanju-gun: Dongsang, Gyeongcheon, Bibong, Unju, and Hwasan. They have increased the cultural and artistic values of the products by making stories of each region and producer in ceramics, illustrations, photos, and videos. There were already cafes that many people could visit in Wanju-gun, but there was nowhere no to sell dessert products made of Wanju local foods such as ginger, dried persimmons, etc. Thus, the purpose of the project was to improve the situation for the development of those areas, which could be a way to coexist with other regions.Q. What kind of project was ‘Full Moon Salon’ in 2018?A. It was also a ‘Made in Public’ support program of the Wanju Cultural City Support Center. Young people in Wanju-gun had held cultural events every month, centering around the Starlight Workshop in Iseo-myeon, Wanju-gun, and in 2018, the communities pushed for a gathering to share their concerns about directions and identities, and to seek ways to collaborate while looking back at the results of the year.Q. What type of community does ‘The Little Bear’ specifically aim for?A. What we aim for is a loose community that allows members to join and withdraw freely and respect individual autonomy as much as possible. It is a gathering that is united through hobbies and common interests, and has an appropriate amount of concern and responsibility for each other. It focuses on the network, as it is a kind of a community that links trust between people. It is important to build trust with each other while respecting different values and orientations, and to understand each other and build trust in the process rather than succeeding with specific tasks together. And we also pursue a flexible gathering where members and activities are constantly evolving.

  2021.12.16

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  #People on the spot

  Young activists at ‘Limbo Bookstore’“We don’t want to be bees eating sugar instead of honey.”

  Limbo Bookstore in Gosan-myeon, Wanju-gun is a youth space commissioned by Wanju-gun. In rural areas, where the foundation for cultural enjoyment is weaker than in cities, it serves effectively as a culture center not only for young people but also for residents of various ages. The people who run Limbo Bookstore are three young activists: Kang Soyeon (Seole), Hong Mijin (Tongtong), and Yun Ji-eun.Q. Would the three of you introduce yourselves briefly?A. Yun Jieun - I came here, to Wanju in 2017, so it's my fifth year. Like other young people about my age in Seoul, I came here after preparing for a job, taking tests for jobs, building up specs and living like that. I didn't have any intention to settle down here. I came here a few times to visit my friend, who became a farmer after returning to his hometown, and Wanju looked so fun and a good place to live, so I decided to settle down here.A. Hong Mijin - I came here in May, 2017. About the same time as Jieun. At first, I wasn’t interested in activities like farming, rural life, or youth culture. Seeing as I had worked for a publication company for a long time in Seoul, I decided to open a bookstore in the local area. ‘Tongtong’ is my alternate character name, a kind of a nickname. As the meaning of it suggests, I want to live very differently from others.A. Kang Soyeon - Among the three of us, I came here first in 2013. So these two call me an ‘archaeornis’, a kind of bird-like dinosaur, meaning I’m a beginner or something. I majored in design and worked for a cultural institute in Seoul. One day while traveling my friend asked me to visit his close friend living in Wanju. I just intended to visit him, but I got fascinated with this town and decided to live here. However, I am the most recent to join the Limbo Bookstore. My alternate character name is ‘Seole’ meaning ‘fluttering,’ as I want to live with a ‘fluttering’ feeling.Q. What does Limbo Bookstore do and how did it come about?A. The Youth Policy Team of Social Economy Department of Wanju-gun Office launched ‘Planet Wanju’ as a core space for young people in Wanju. We are entrusted with the facility and are operating it now. This is the second store of Planet Wanju, a youth space. The first store is in Samrye and is operated as a guest house for young people, and the third will open soon as a youth start-up space in Iseo.Q. What does ‘youth base space’ mean in detail?A. It means exactly what it says it is. It's a place where local young people meet and hang out with each other. It's like a base or a hiding place where they come and stay without doing anything. Young people in the countryside have to be happy to live there, and to be happy, they have to be able to meet, communicate, and hang out with each other.In the city, you can meet people and drink coffee at a cafe, but there are not many places like that in the countryside, so young people need a space to gather and interact with each other. Especially in Wanju, there are many young people who came to live here like us, but as they are not native to the area, there is no place for them to go.Q. Then what do they do here in Limbo Bookstore?A. They participate in the various cultural programs we run. There are many programs ready for them. For example, we prepared ‘Autumn Humanities Readings,’ a ‘Made in Public’ program of the Wanju Cultural City Support Center. We also ran ‘It’s Open When Three of You Get Together.’ We often plan and operate our own programs reflecting young people's interests and needs in this way. We also rent this space out for gatherings. But there are more people who just come and do what they want. Some people buy food and eat, and some just sit on the sofa and watch TV. It's a space where anyone can do anything. And it's not just for young people. Anyone living in Gosan or Wanju, regardless of age, from elementary school students to senior citizens, can use it. We don't like to set the standards of youth by age.Q. Please tell us your thoughts on Limbo Bookstore and your future plans.A. Kang Soyeon - I loved it when I first came to Limbo. It's a space where you can meet people comfortably and make relationships. This is a place where people are valued and warmly welcomed. I hope that this place will continue to establish itself as a base for connecting local people and expanding strong networks.A. Hong Mijin - I want to make a self-reliance model with which youth cultural activities can continue with no support of local governments or public institutions. Just as honeybees in beehives can't find flowers on their own after tasting the sugar water given by humans. Now, although we are running it with public support, we will try not to lose our dream of living like a wild honeybee someday.A. Yun Jieun - From some point on, I became called a ‘young cultural activist.’ At first, I didn't think much of it, but the more I do, the more I feel a deeper meaning and sense of calling of what I'm doing now. I'm always wary of myself becoming lost in inertia. In the future, I want to continue to meet many people in Wanju, build relationships, and exchange good influences.

  2021.12.16

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  #People on the spot

  Representative Kim Jiyoung, ‘Moms’ Vacation’“Moms need their own time and space for themselves”

  Kim Ji-young is a mother of three children. For a long time since getting married, she had been focusing only on the roles of a wife and a mother, and suddenly she thought, "Just as children have vacations, we mothers should have vacations, too." So she d a cultural community called ‘Moms’ Vacation’. Mothers gather together to read books and write, sharing common interests and comforting each other.Q. What was the main reason to make ‘Moms’ Vacation’?A. Three years ago, I happened to learn about the Culture Maker Academy held at Wanju Cultural City Support Center. I wondered, 'What is that?' and 'What does it mean to solve local problems with culture?' When I went to the first meeting, most of them were young people, and I felt shy because I was the only one who was a "ma'am." However, the head of the center gave a special lecture and said, "Cultural planners should themselves know what they like." That's when I realized I didn't know what I had liked until then!The courses of ‘Culture Maker Academy’ were difficult, but it was fun. That's why I never skipped a class. Sometimes I was scolded by my mother for continuing to leave the house without taking care of the children. However, I was so excited and happy to meet people who asked questions about me for the first time, not about my hubby and children. In fact, I have a bold personality. I don't accept anything as it is, and I tend to face and solve all struggles by myself. Right at that moment, I heard that there was a community support program at the Cultural City Support Center, so I formed a meeting without hesitation.Q. What is the meaning of the title ‘Moms’ Vacation’?A. It doesn’t mean anything other than what it is. I just thought ‘Like children, moms would be happy if they had a vacation. Time for their own selves. Time for taking a rest and recharging their batteries.If there were any others who thought like me, I desperately wanted to meet and talk with them. At first, four of us met and started to read books. The number of members increased. Now we have 20; 10 from Wanju, and 10 from other regions. At our book club, we never read books such as parenting or self-development books, as for no reason, you only feel uncomfortable thinking "Am I not a good mother?", or "Am I a lazy person?"Q. What other activities do you do other than reading books?A. We operated a ‘Sister Counseling Center’ as well. It was a meeting where we exchanged common issues and comforted each other while revealing our concerns. Everyone said it was their first time to talk about themselves like this. Many of them cried while talking. Two years ago, we had writing meetings and published a collection of prose titled Your One and Only Story in the World by tying up the essays of each member. It was also helped by the Cultural City Support Center.One of the book club members opened a stationery store, and inside the store, we made a book stand like a kind of "shop within a shop." The name was ‘Moms’ Bookstore.‘ Each of the book club friends got a book shelf, and each person picked out the books they wanted to introduce, displayed them, and sold them.Q. I heard that you set up a shared studio for moms not too long ago.A. Yes, I really did it unexpectedly. Mothers don't have their own desks anywhere. So you have to sit at the kitchen table, write, go to a cafe, and read books. So I wanted to a space where mothers could sit comfortably, and read and write books.By the way, in March this year, the insurance company called me to inform me that my savings insurance had matured. It was 10 million won, so I thought about what I could do with this money. Since the children grew up, I thought about replacing the furniture in the children's room, but I was in two minds because I also wanted to use it for myself. There was a vacant rental apartment in a building overlooking the Mangyeong-gang, my dream location. In addition, I heard that the deposit loan would be at a low interest rate, so I thought about it for a while and signed the contract.I decorated it as a space for mothers to work together. I bought several individual desks, made my own small room, and even got some books including comic books and picture books. The name was a studio, but I wanted to a place where I could look at the Mangyeong-gang River blankly, pile up comic books and roll around and read them, and do whatever I want to do. The space was named ‘Dinggadingga.’ I wished we could relax there as comfortably as possible, as if we were on a vacation in a comfortable atmosphere, without any burdens.

  2021.12.16

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  #Wanju’s Innovative Projects

  New Usage of Spaces Found Together with CitizensWanju Cultural Sharing Space ‘Da:Haeng’

  The first question asked while conducting a cultural regeneration project to a cultural base space in Wanju cultural city, was who the owner of the space is. This is because the space can have vitality after it is prepared only when it is regenerated from the perspective that the people who will use it, not the person who made it, are the owners.Citizens who visit the space should be able to become owners with a sense of it being ‘our’ space, not the users to temporarily use the provided amenities. Of course, in order to have such a consciousness, it was necessary for citizens to take the initiative from the first step of determining the necessities and directions of space creation. This is why Wanju-gun set up a citizen design planning team to decide on the use of the former Samrye train station.The owners of spaces are the people who will use them, not who made themFrom local food to Wanju cultural city creation projects, Wanju-gun has made great efforts to revitalize the community. This soon became the characteristic of Wanju-gun’s features, and this wave is expanding more valuably, encompassing not only the existing county citizens but also the lives of returnees, rural residents, and multicultural families who have started a new life in Wanju. In the end, Wanju's base space regeneration project focused on creating and revitalizing citizens’ communities. It has a very different texture from projects that temporarily revitalize the region by removing old buildings and redeveloping them or holding festivals or events. They decided the base space must be used for revitalizing the citizen-centered cultural communities, and citizens should be active main agents of the local cultural space. Of course, there is a limit to the power of citizens alone, so policy-level support and expert participation should go in tandem with them.Spaces changing in accordance with the opinions and movements of the usersOn the matter of what kind of space citizens really want, Wanju-gun arranged a meeting to collect their opinions before beginning the regeneration of the old Samrye train station. The six-week workshop of the Citizen Design Planning Team was overflowing with vivid opinions and suggestions. Various and ingenious opinions poured out to the extent that architects and design team experts had to follow breathlessly."I don't want the design to be fixed in setting the functions here. I hope you find ways the users can freely set the space considering the functions depending on the situation."The walls that separate the space of Da:Haeng are installed as variable sliding walls following the opinion of the design planning team, allowing the space to be expanded and divided according to the user's use and scale."We always go to see good cultural spaces, but at some point, it is natural the number of tourists or visitors will decrease. I think this is because they keep showing the same things over and over again. I hope the space should not stick to a single theme, but a space where the contents can change depending on the activity."In the space of Da:Haeng, there are no affixed ‘titles’ limiting the function and roles of the space. In accordance with the users’ activities, the function and roles of the space can be set freely.Thanks to the 42-day journey to a lively space that is aligned more closely to citizens’ lives and where citizens visit frequently, and the Wanju Citizen Design Planning Team, who were willing to sacrifice their precious weekends and join the workshop, visitors of Da:Haeng are happy today, too.1. ‘Extend,’ A space to imagine togetherA space where you can a variety of different spaces using movable walls that can be connected to the central lounge.- Recommended events: meetings, education, workshops, performances, exhibitions, etc.- Supplies: beam projector, screen, folding tables, folding chairs, etc.2. ‘Do,’ A small-scale network spaceA small space for independent use utilizing movable walls- Recommended events: meetings, education, small-scale workshops, etc.- Supplies: beam projector, screen, folding tables, folding chairs, etc.3. ‘Film’, A one-person studio for creating contents A space where video contents can be d- Recommended events: video production, non-face-to-face meetings, video shoots, etc.- Supplies: Computer, webcam, lighting, chroma key, recording microphone, etc.4. ‘Maple’, A shared kitchen sharing the food culture of each otherA space for all cultural activities using food such as gift-sharing, networking parties, education, etc.- Recommended events: cooking classes, small gatherings of communities, meetings, education, workshops, etc.- Supplies: cooking utensils, microwave oven, refrigerator, triple burner induction cooktop, tableware for 10 people

  2021.12.16

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  #Wanju’s Innovative Projects

  Projects Highlighting the Symbiotic Cultural CitySustainability of the Cultural City d with common experiences

  ‘Urban Drawing’ by the Citizen Design Team, the New Deal for Wanju Urban RegenerationWanju-gun has been carrying out a cooperative project, the new deal for urban regeneration, in earnest since early this year after discussions for the project last year. In particular, through the experience of Wanju Cultural City, which collected and reflected citizens' opinions in the construction of ‘Wanju Cultural Sharing Space Da:Haeng’ last year, from this year, the opinions of residents are collected and reflected in the process of urban regeneration in Wanju-gun through cooperation. By sharing the operational experience of the 'Citizen Design Planning Team' that can do this, and through cooperative operations, we are overcoming the hardware-centric limitations of urban regeneration together and creating joint outcomes.In fact, since the first half of 2021, through cooperation with the team of the new deal for Wanju urban regeneration, the operations of Citizen Design Planning Team of Bongdong Urban Regeneration Base, those of Saewon Village History Street Creation, and Bongdong Bicycle Rental Center have been carried out. Additionally, many other small and large urban regeneration teams including Gosan, Bongdong, Samrye, Sanggwan, and Yongjin in Wanju-gun are currently cooperating with each other. In particular, the Bongdong area is creating "common success experiences" by overcoming the citizens’ conflicting agendas through the experience of the citizen design planning team and solving the problem of areas excluded from urban regeneration sites through cooperation with the cultural city.Wanju-type Village Festivals ‘Selling Values not Goods’‘@Wanju Culture Market Day’Members of ‘@Wanju Cultural Market Day’ directly discover the cultural characteristics of each village, develop them into contents, and and operate a village marketplace that citizens can enjoy with their neighbors.From the initial planning stage, which was carried out as a pilot project in 2020, a citizen working group was formed to design the implementation process. The project target area was established and a citizen planning team, and a market day action group, were organized and promoted. The citizen planning team held market days in the 3 areas of Samrye, Iseo, and Bongdong in 2020, and added 4 more to make a total of 7 in 2021, including Yongjin, and Dongsang, under the theme of the cultural characteristics of each village they live in.@Wanju Cultural Market Day, the processes of which the citizens planned and implemented entirely on their own, is becoming a small but fruitful, resident-centered Wanju-type village festival.Culture and Healing are their daily life; 12 ‘Wanju Cultural Healing Schools’Suffering from unexpected disasters for a long time, the possibility of "healing" of culture and art has increased. Wanju has been pondering over "cultural healing" since it established the plan to a cultural city in 2019. Even though they had not been based on academic theory, they sought possible healing methods through tangible and intangible cultural resources of the region. As expected, the way also touched the hearts and souls of the citizens.Wanju's unique cultural healing experiments that we can practice in a sustainable way in our daily lives, even if they are not special or scientific, have been conducted in earnest this year. A total of 12 ‘Wanju Cultural Healing Schools’ opened, and programs utilizing the characteristics of the living areas of villages or communities were given. Communities and citizens became teachers and operated Wanju Cultural Healing Schools. Music was played alongside fire pits in the yard of an artist's home in a village, and closed schools were reborn as comforting schools for citizens to paint pictures, write, or observe the movement of bees. At a local bookstore, some residents gathered in twos and threes after work, and a late-night chat took place on the pretext of discussing books. The Wanju-type cultural healing, in which hearts that had been cut off by COVID-19, gather and touch again, face and embrace each other, and is starting in the hands of Wanju citizens.

  2021.12.16

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  #Wanju’s Innovative Projects

  Projects highlighting the Cooperative Cultural CitySmall success vs. Acceptable failure with experiences of imagination, learning, and practice

  Wanju, the cultural city, pays attention to a "cultural community" as a key base and starting point of community culture. In order to revitalize cultural personnel and cultural communities with various cultural values, it focuses on yielding professionals, creating activity spaces, and discovering cooperative and collaborative projects. It also supports these activities to become common and continuous within our lives and communities. As the main force of the local cultural ecosystem, nurturing creative cultural professionals and a cultural community, and cultivating culture through people are the key points of the cultural city Wanju.Culture maker and culture makersWanju is a place with abundant community experience through local food representing Wanju, but the experience of cultural communities is completely different. How can cultures that have entered familiar community experiences shine? In Wanju, it suggests each individual problem is that of the society, so the key point is the expansion of subjectivity. The beginning course is ‘Wanju Culture Maker Academy,’ which fosters Wanju-type creative cultural professionals. It is not a common omnibus-style of education for each subject, but a systematic human resources training process for problem solving and cultural project-making. From the beginning to the end of the training, a dedicated professional instructor works with each trainee. In the process of walking through the trainees' problems and solutions together, the most important element is 'people'. Education is conducted in a way that first forms a ‘solidarity of concerns’ before finding people with the same concerns, and the means and methods of solutions. It is the beginning of a cultural method to share experiences with each other, changing positions for predicting various situations based on understanding and respect. In addition, it is also the time when Wanju culture makers, a Wanju-type cultural community, is formed together.It supports common values, not just one projectThere is no distinction between the commonly existing geography and generations in the Wanju cultural community. It is a gathering of people who imagine and practice the same thoughts, interests, and values. It is diversified ranging from common-interest communities that share their interests, to intimate communities d by individual needs, and social economy communities that pursue social and economic values at the same time. The diverse purposes and activities of the community means that the concepts and categories of the Wanju-type cultural community applied in the field are not limited, and are flexibly applied depending on the situation.Wanju cultural communities can operate freely thanks to the support system. It’s said that “projects impossible in other organizations or institutions are possible in the cultural city.” This is true because the support system of Wanju communities is not tied to a business frame but has a policy-level frame. Active consulting and budget support are granted to the direction the community pursues rather than promoting a single project.‘Wanju Culture Commons’ understanding each other and being in solidarity in various practicesWanju's cultural community support project has an integrated system of activities for citizens to discover and solve community problems based on the small-scale understanding of each other, and the support for the activities. Community support is divided into preparatory and growth types, and this division focuses on the process of community growth. The puppet show club, which was started to entertain the community’s children, started as a theater company and became a cooperative, and the community that supports the activities of migrant women (mothers) whose social relationships have been cut off due to corporate migration, has changed from a social gathering to a platform for forming a bond of common understanding of mothers nationwide, owing to their external activities.In Wanju Cultural City, the concept of a cultural community is expanding beyond solving local problems to social innovation, in that it pursues changing the social system and promoting regional development, in addition to finding local culture solutions. In this respect, the expansion of a community is very significant. There are communities that have been focused on social issues from the start, but as numbers increase, more and more communities are taking an interest in social issues. In line with the contents of the activity becoming a social issue, the target is expanding from members to families, and even to the whole community.Amid the interaction of common resources, power, sense, collaboration and cooperation, the foundation for Wanju culture commons, which transforms the society with culture, is gaining strength and solidifying.

  2021.12.16

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  #Wanju’s Innovative Projects

  Projects Highlighting the Sharing Cultural CityOur steps and records making systematic networks

  In Wanju-gun, we have d a sharing cultureIn Wanju, a sharing culture is being d based on the principle of openness, ranging from human assets, human talents, skills, knowledge, and experiences beyond the economic realm, to space, goods, and data. Based on the value of "connection," city residents directly discover and record shared resources, aiming to form social capital in the city based on respect and trust.Platform ‘Wanju Culture Sharing 365’. Data d by citizensAt ‘Wanju Culture Sharing 365 www.wculture365.com’, where all the information on tangible Wanju cultural assets are collected, anyone can access the information about various spaces and goods needed for cultural activities. There are 172 spaces ready for meetings, concerts, lectures, and events, and you can obtain information on 205 shareable items, from chairs and tables, to all sorts of tools. It is a precious record of Wanju assets that the sharing culture exploring team, comprised of 40 citizens, in 2020 visited every corner of Wanju to check and put down, and this year they have continued checkups and made additions to share the resource information status.Wanju’s Culture Reception Rooms Increasing Without the Addition of Physical Spaces‘Culture Sharing Space of Our Village’ refers to a space ‘more familiar than home.’ Although there are so many facilities and spaces for cultural activities, this is a kind of activity that gives cultural reception rooms for us to visit, like our homes visiting our close neighbors. There exists a more important thing than the material space in ‘Culture Sharing Space of Our Village’; the point is no other than ‘people’ and ‘relationships.’ Every village, and every owner of the space does their own cultural activities. Of course the owners’ ideas started from ‘our village,’ The owners of each space who have experienced cultural activities are experimenting with their ideas to meet their neighbors. The ‘1 million won lab’ held in each space is a process of jointly developing and realizing unique cultural contents based on the characteristics of participants and spaces.Knock, Knock, Shall We Do It Together? Talent-sharing bringing neighbors closer‘Talent Sharing Club, A Class for All’ aims to make opportunities to share and enjoy personal interests, tastes, and habits with neighbors more actively in order to communicate better. People’s personal interests were recognized as their talents, and the results became the sources of one day classes where they are able to communicate with neighbors. The number of participants increased at a rapid speed, and the participants became more diversified, ranging from children to senior ladies, as the theme of the class was personal interests. In the Talent Sharing Club, citizens quickly agreed with each other when it was emphasized that they did not want specialized lectures from experts, but that citizens with the same interests and hobbies could meet and share secrets with each other.Enjoying culture and solving the needs for space by the residents themselves.The project, which marks its third year since the operation of ‘Talent Sharing Club, A Class for All’ in March 2019, has conducted a total of 600 talent sharing classes as of October 2021. More than 2,000 citizens participated in the project. Starting with 120 times in the first year, the participation rate has more than doubled every year. In particular, it is of great significance considering that face-to-face activities have shrunk due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year and this year. It also has the meaning of trying to restore disconnected social relationships temporarily through talent sharing. The sharing culture of Wanju cultural city, is a project to make an independent foundation for citizens to solve their own needs for cultural enjoyment.

  2021.12.16

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  #Wanju’s Innovative Projects

  Projects Wanju citizens participate in that lead cultural autonomy governanceCultural city Wanju’s governance reclaims its citizens’ share

  Wanju, a community cultural city, where everything, from A to Z, is planned and carried out by the citizens themselves. The cultural city is d with the heads, minds, hands, and feet of the citizens of Wanju-gun.Citizens’ small-scale daily public forum ‘Meetings without representatives in Wanju’‘Meetings without representatives in Wanju’ is a small-scale daily public forum where citizens plan and execute their own decisions, from deciding agendas to recruiting participating citizens. In 2020, 166 public forums were set up, 113 agendas were discovered, and 841 citizens participated. This year, it hasn’t been easy for citizens to meet each other due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, but 173 meetings were held, 74 agendas were discovered, and 453 citizens participated.‘Wanju Monthly Cultural City’; Cooperative Forums for SolutionsWanju Monthly Cultural City, a cooperative forum for finding solutions for problems, is a place to find ways for local agendas raised through the daily public forum ‘Meetings Without Representatives in Wanju.’ Agenda raisers, experts in related fields, and the Wanju Cultural City Support Center will set the stage for discussion to solve problems together.The results from this meeting will be made into specific policies and aid in the commercialization of Wanju-gun through the final public forum ’Wanju Cultural Assembly,’ after intensive research and pilot projects.‘Wanju Cultural Assembly’The Wanju Cultural Assembly is a venue for public and private cooperation in which citizens, administrators, related organizations, and experts all participate to make the agenda raised through civic diliberation government policy projects. Last year in 2020, Wanju-gun Office, Wanju-gun Council experts, and 128 citizens participated and agreed to ‘set up a local cultural safety net’, resulting in legislating ‘ordinances on the establishment of the relief system and safety net for the figures in crisis of the cultural industry of Wanju-gun’, the nation’s first such ordinance.‘Wanju Citizen Jury for Culture’ considering and deciding cultural city support projectsThe ‘Wanju Citizen Jury for Culture’ is a system that examines and selects projects to be supported in which local citizens become beneficiaries from the perspective of themselves. Last year, 44% of the total support budget was selected by the citizens themselves, and this year it has been established as a screening system to select more than 80% of the Wanju-gun cultural city support projects.The satisfaction with the support communities for the screening of a cultural jury, who are well aware of the needs of the region, was very high, and no complaints have been filed since the first implementation. In addition, it has a very positive effect on the satisfaction of citizens who have experienced jury activities and the perception of values for cultural city policies and projects.‘Wanju Citizen Planning Team for On-site Culture’; from planning to executionThe "Wanju Cultural Site Citizen Planning Group" consists of planners, execution groups, and partners in the field of cultural city projects that carry out the entire project. From hardware projects such as the creation of cultural spaces to ‘@Wanju Cultural Market Day’, ‘Wanju Cultural Healing School’, and ‘City Drawing, Cultural Regeneration Project’, 28 citizen planning groups are participating. Above all, the values of the activity are not only to collect opinions, but also to operate it from the planning stage through to the final implementation of the project.

  2021.12.16

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  #Cultural City

  Wanju cultural city’s specialization strategiesFocusing on the people for innovation and growth

  Since 2018, Wanju has been paying attention and focusing on the people and their community for the innovation and growth of its local culture. It fosters and organizes culture makers, the main body of local culture growth, of their community. It is innovating and growing local culture by providing open opportunities for new cultural experiences.A Sympathetic Cultural City for the Establishment of a Cultural Autonomy EcosystemIt supports citizens and cultural activists not only as true participating agents of cultural policies and projects but also as the core promoters of the cultural city project, in order to solve their social and life problems in cultural ways. Through the establishment of cultural autonomy governance led by residents, Wanju's cultural autonomy ecosystem will be constructed.A culture sharing city through connecting cultural resourcesAll the cultural resources of the county such as the personnel and material knowledge and information that each person, the community, and the region have will be discovered by the citizens themselves. By systematizing and sharing these, a system will be d that utilizes them as cultural assets for everyone so that there are no restrictions on cultural activities due to resource restrictions.A communal culture for the collaborative creation of a cultural communityThere will be support for the revitalization of the cultural community, where citizens realize various cultural values with limitless imagination, freely, and cooperate to innovate local culture and the region together with other members. There will also be support to foster professionals, secure the space for their activities, and discover collaborative and cooperative projects to strengthen cultural community activities to be continued on a daily basis.A symbiotic cultural city through the solidarity of local resourcesCity culture and cultural capital cooperate and become tied together through citizens’ various cultural interests, value systems, and creative ideas. In solidarity with various socioeconomic capital, Wanju-gun will opportunities for new cultural practices, and establish a system of solidarity and cooperation between cultural and social capitals so that it becomes the daily life of Wanju citizens.

  2021.12.16

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  #Cultural City

  Visions of Cultural City, WanjuBeginnings and Possibilities for All, a Community Cultural City, Wanju

  Wanju, a community cultural city, strives to be a city where anyone can do anything,at any time. Originally, culture is not something that can be achieved alone, but something d together, by many people. As Wanju has improved its various foundations for the community ‘together,‘ it has a bigger possibility to succeed. Wanju citizens are very rich in community life experiences through local food and social and economic activities, and are used to achieving common goals together. With the numerous experiences of the citizens, we are opening a wider and deeper road to Wanju community cultural city. Wanju, a community cultural city, has a goal to develop the unique experiences of the citizens, which are not easily found in those of other cities, into local cultural traditions.A changing cultural landscape, a new way to respond to new cultural needs of citizens, and a new orderThe concept of "community" that we have grown used to, is broader and more diverse in cultural cities. It intensively fosters and discovers a ‘Wanju-type cultural community’ as a group of people with similar interests, values, and tastes, even if they do not live in the same place, going beyond geographical and regional communities. The creation of Wanju cultural city is not a project to build large-scale cultural facilities or hold large-scale events such as festivals. Its goal is to an environment and condition in which any citizen can try cultural activities freely as he or she wants, and with no restrictions. It expands direct participation through four areas of understanding each other, sharing, collaboration, and symbiosis, shares local cultural resources, expands cultural projects through cooperation and collaboration, and ensures that the achievements of cultural cities can be permeated effectively throughout the community.A Policy shift accepting citizens’ needs and changes in the cultural landscapeCreating opportunities to realize new cultural imaginations and new collaborative models of the local cultural industryFrom 2021 to 2025, the creation of Wanju community cultural city will proceed in earnest. All citizens will begin to build a new cultural tradition here in Wanju. Great cultural phenomena which have continued based on our county’s strong energy and enrich the lives of our citizens, will remain a constant, always at the fore.Vision: a community cultural city where lives change as a culture of being togetherWanju has a vision of a community cultural city where life changes with the culture of togetherness. The goal is to a new cultural method and order that accommodates changing cultural landscapes and new cultural needs of citizens based on regional uniqueness and citizens' diversity. The aim is to make Wanju a community cultural city that s cultural traditions of understanding each other, sharing, and innovation.Essential Values: Cultural Community and Community CultureA cultural community is a body of understanding each other, discarding exclusivity, and is a body of communication and exchange, sharing its own interests, tastes, values and orientations. A community culture means a culture of coexistence and symbiosis where citizens participate voluntarily and respect differences through lateral communication and sharing.A city where different members and various cultural elements face each other.Wanju, a community cultural city

  2021.12.16

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  #Cultural City

  Cultural City, Wanju-gun’s policy-level necessitiesTo the most ‘complete’ Cultural City (Wanju can also mean ‘complete’ in English)

  The Reason Wanju Began the Cultural City ProjectWanju-gun is a county-level basic local government, but it ranks fifth (5.1%) in the proportion to the population of 14 cities and counties in Jeollabuk-do after Jeonju, Gunsan, Iksan, and Jeongeup, larger than Namwon and Gimje. In particular, it is also a region where the population has increased, which is rare for a county-level region. The main factor in its population growth is due to social growth based on the rapid influx of outsiders rather than natural growth such as an increase in the birth rate. This is likely to be a source of tension and conflict-causing factors that threaten the traditional community spirit that has been maintained in the community.In addition, Wanju-gun has rapidly urbanized owing to the expansion of adjacent Jeonju, the creation of Wanju-Jeonju Innovation City, and the expansion of Wanju Industrial Complex. Further, as the social movement of its population has increased, the background of its citizens is also diversifying.Currently, about 400 social economic communities have been formed in Wanju-gun, and 10% of the population is engaged in economic activities based on these communities. A representative successful example of social economic community activities is the local food project. The local food project in Wanju-gun was selected as an excellent case by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and was successful enough to be a benchmarking case for many local governments. With the success of social economic communities such as the local food project, Wanju-gun's GRDP grows at an annual average of 9.7%, ranking first among the 14 cities and counties in Jeollabuk-do, and twice as high as Jeollabuk-do's average GRDP, generating considerable economic income for its citizens.As the economic income of citizens has grown significantly, a qualitative leap in the cultural environment and sociocultural domain corresponding to this is becoming an important policy-level task. Due to these policy necessities, Wanju-gun set the vision and goal of urban development of "100,000 Wanju Era, the Topmost City to Open Together" and established three key policies (job, quality of life, and agricultural and rural). Among them, the "Quality of Life Making All Happy, Renaissance Wanju" strategy is being promoted as a policy related to the quality of life belonging to the sociocultural domain.The cultural city project is closely related to the strategy of ‘Renaissance Wanju.’ The ‘Renaissance Wanju’ strategy is promoted based on various community activities in the region formed through community business projects, which is the highest form of competitiveness of Wanju-gun.In fact, it is true that local communities in Wanju-gun have focused more on income-oriented businesses that generate economic profits, but now they intend to expand their scope of activities to cultural areas that cultural environments suitable for economic growth levels and establish their own local cultural identities.In order to achieve this goal step by step, Wanju-gun established its own visions and directions to develop itself into a cultural city, applied for a project to construct special cultural areas and was finally selected in 2017. Since 2018, proceeding with the project to construct special cultural areas, Wanju-gun prepared ‘Basic Design of Wanju Cultural City,’ the basic frame of the creation of a cultural city, for the designation and promotion of it based on the Local Culture Promotion Act. The ‘Basic Design of Wanju Cultural City’ sets a goal to make a new city brand with which Wanju realizes the value of the community cultural city by reorganizing the discourse on regional regeneration and culture and laying the foundation of a cultural city by itself, under the vision of ‘the community cultural city.’ Based on this design, it applied for the cultural city designation project in the second year of the process of the special cultural area project in 2019, and was selected as a prospective cultural city and began to carry out the project in 2020. In particular, Wanju began its plan to the cultural city project from 2017, and for about 24 months until the cultural city creation plan was finally approved in 2019, they met 9,876 citizens at 395 locations to listen to their opinions on cultural city creation projects and collect opinions on project directions, detailed tasks, and implementation projects. In this process, research and research projects involving a group of experts were also conducted in parallel. As a result, the cultural community and community culture that are most easily understood and recognized by the residents were set as the core values of the cultural city, and the vision was also set as ‘a community cultural city where lives change through shared culture’. The concept of a community expanded from a physical domain-centered community according to geographical and regional division, to a taste- and value- sharing community that shares interests, tastes, and value systems. The direction of specialization was also set as a culture of understanding each other, sharing, cooperation, and symbiosis, the base and effect of a community.This vision and value system of Wanju Community Culture City is based on local experience and is easily understood and agreed on by its citizens, which has become an important factor in smoothly inducing cooperation and their participation in the process of establishing and implementing project plans or detailed tasks.The Wanju-gun Cultural City Project established the governance of the Wanju-type community cultural city based on the promotion system led by citizens as the substantial subject of the project.Wanju-gun has been closely identifying local cultural sites and the detailed tasks of cultural projects from the process of designing cultural city projects, reviewing various roles and functions related to urban culture, and setting mid- to long- term prospects on how to share roles and cooperation in local innovative solutions.

  2021.12.16

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  #Cultural City

  What exactly is ‘Wanju Cultural City’?Q&A about ‘Cultural City, Wanju’

  Q. This year, Wanju-gun became a legally designated cultural city. What is a legally designated cultural city?A. This year, Wanju-gun started the year with the happy news of being designated as a legally designated cultural city, but what is the definition of a "legally designated cultural city"? Cultural cities are based on the Local Culture Promotion Act. Each local government sets up a cultural city creation plan based on its own cultural values and can be designated after uation and deliberation by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.Q. It says Wanju-gun is the first county to become a cultural city. Is that correct?A. Absolutely. Currently, there are a total of 12 legally designated cultural cities in Korea, 7 designated in 2020 and 5 in 2021. Wanju-gun was the first county designated as a cultural city among 82 counties in the country, and became the only legally designated cultural city in the Honam region. It will receive 20 billion won in national, provincial, and county expenses.Q. How is it helpful for Wanju-gun to be designated a cultural city?A. Based on the law, it will a cultural city through the city brand of a legally designated cultural city, with financial support of up to 20 billion won for its projects, and systematic process design that values governance and civic cooperation. In other words, It's about establishing a new cultural tradition in the city. For this reason, many local governments are applying to be part of this project every year.Q. In order to be designated as a cultural city, what processes did Wanju-gun go through?A: It takes a total of two years to be designated as a cultural city. In the first year, the approval of the cultural city creation plan containing the characteristics and plans of local governments and the process of designating a prospective city will be carried out. In the second year, when the city has been designated as a prospective city, the processes and results of preliminary projects to a cultural city are uated.Wanju-gun’s plan to a community cultural city Wanju-gun was approved and designated as a prospective city in 2019, and Wanju-gun carried out various preliminary projects in 2020. Wanju-gun was finally designated as a cultural city in January, 2021. We have begun to take steps to a sustainable driving force for our own city through culture and an unrestricted local cultural environment.

  2021.12.16