New ‘home of culture and art’ City of Light Civic Culture Hall

- On site of old Gu-dong gymnasium, 715-seat public venue
- Opening ceremony Feb 22nd

The City of Light Civic Culture Hall, on the site of the old Gu-dong gymnasium, will open this coming Feb. 22nd, to provide a key cultural and art facility to fulfill the various cultural wants and needs of Gwangju residents.

Gwangju City announced that although Gu-dong gym has been loved by residents for the last 43 years as a place for indoor sports and various events and performances, it is becoming aged and outdated. Thus it will be replaced by the City of Light Civic Culture Hall, which will be a key part of the cultural city of Gwangju. It will open from 22nd of February this year.

Construction of the new hall began in November 2008, and the project cost a total of 50.5 billion won (16 billion by national government, 34.5 billion by local government). The completed venue covers a land area of 5,448m2 and contains 14,049 m2 floor space, comprising 2 basement and 4 above-ground floors.

The basement floors contain car parking (113 spaces), electricity and mechanical operations, and water-storage. The first floor has space for exhibitions, promotions and performances, along with make-up rooms, dressing rooms and so on, whilst the second floor holds the practice rooms.

The performance hall has seating for 540 spectators on the first floor, plus a further 175 seats on the upper level, bringing the total capacity to 715. This venue is expected to be suitable for concerts, traditional music performances, small-scale musicals, dance and so on.

The third floor is home to offices and rest areas, whilst the fourth floor contains three classrooms, to be used for various culture classes available for local residents, and a conference room which can be used for seminars and workshops etc.

The City of Light Civic Culture Hall will open its doors on February 22nd, with performances of traditional Korean classical music. From 23rd to 26th there will be four days featuring special performances from local art and performance groups such as Korean traditional music groups, dance groups, chorus choirs, symphony orchestras, drama groups etc.

Besides this, the 6,323m2 old gymnasium, situated alongside the new hall, will be renovated by June this year and will also be used as a facility for local residents, offering such things as elderly welfare facilities, a small theater (50 seats), practice rooms for traditional music, pansori ?rehearsalsetc.

“In front of City of Light Hall, an Asian Multi-culture Community Park is planned to open in April 2010, with waterfalls, lawns and shrubberies,” added a city official. “This, along with Gwangju river and Gwangju park, will offer residents a place to enjoy new and various cultural activities and arts in the heart of our city.”