Place of True Belonging
Where the World Wants to Create Art
“A City Where the World Wants to Create Art
: Seoul as a Place of True Belonging?“
A Policy Review of the 9th Seoul Arts and Culture Forum
Culture+Policy Issue Paper Vol. 2025-8,
Published on 8th September 2025
by Hae-Bo KIM (Advising Director of Policy & Strategy Division, SFAC)
(full text downloadable)
The 9th Seoul Arts and Culture Forum: Exploring Strategies to Become a City Where the World Wants to Create Art
On August 20, the 9th Seoul Arts and Culture Forum took place at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul. This forum was organized by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture (SFAC), which aspires to position Seoul both as a globally attractive city and as a cultural leader. The gathering served as a platform to hear fresh perspectives and ideas that could be reflected in future policy, while also reaffirming SFAC’s renewed commitment to international exchange.
The 9th Seoul Arts and Culture Forum
Date: August 20, 2025 (Wednesday), 3:00 PM ~
Venue: Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), Seoul
Host: Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture (SFAC)
Theme: Seoul MIX – Toward a City Where the World Wants to Create Art
Program Highlights:
▻ Moderator: Heejeong KIM (Professor, Sangmyung University)
▻ Presentation 1: Directions for Seoul’s International Cultural Exchange
– Myung-Gu SEO (Director of Policy & Strategy, SFAC)
▻ Presentation 2: Amsterdam Arts and Culture International Strategy 2025–2028
– Araf Ahmadali (Director of Arts & Culture, City of Amsterdam)
▻ Panel Discussion 1: Recommendations for Expanding Seoul’s Cultural Presence Abroad
▻ Panel Discussion 2: Creating a More Supportive Environment for Foreign Artists in Seoul
▻ Joint Performance
Co-Chair Sangwon PART, Chairperson of SFAC, reflected:
“As the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, we have worked to make Seoul a city where citizens can enjoy cultural life and where artists can thrive in their practice. This journey has unfolded in parallel with the global rise of K-Art and K-Culture.”
His fellow Co-Chair, Tae-ji CHOI, former Artistic Director of the Korean National Ballet, spoke from her own experience as an artist who has worked across borders:
“In both Korea and abroad, I have felt firsthand how difficult and lonely the creative process can become when the environment changes. At such times, artists need courage. That is why building an environment where artists can create with confidence, no matter where they are, is so important.”
The forum’s theme, “Seoul Mix,” was proposed by members of the planning committee and chosen after much reflection on how to define Seoul’s aspiration to become “a city where the world wants to create art.” The phrase highlights Seoul’s role as a global hub of Hallyu (the Korean Wave), and its need to become a platform of cultural diversity—where differences freely mingle, sparking new creative energy.
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Prejudices embedded in public administrative systems often reflect the stage of social progress within a society. Looking back 25 years, we entered the 21st century full of excitement about a ‘Century of Culture,’ yet at the same time we were gripped by fear of the Millennium Bug. That bug stemmed from the assumptions of computer programmers and the pursuit of mechanical efficiency—using only two digits instead of four to record years, in order to save processing capacity.” It was the result of clinging to old habits from the punch-card era instead of updating societal awareness to match the times.
Thus, in the very year proclaimed as the dawn of the Century of Culture, the world trembled over a simple problem: the failure to distinguish between 1900 and 2000. History, of course, continued beyond the year 2000. And just as names need not be confined to three syllables, as typical Korean names are, it is the everyday common sense of global citizens that must reshape global systems if we are to truly live in a ‘Century of Culture.’
For Seoul to become a city where the world also wants to make art, it must cultivate the power to draw people to a place where they are recognized as themselves. I believe this is precisely the force that sustains the enduring appeal of Korean culture.
Written by Hae-Bo KIM
(Advising Director of Policy & Strategy Division, SFAC)
(Contact: sea@sfac.or.kr)
