[Opinion] Culture and Money

It was a pompous start for the Sejong Culture Center. Leonard Bernstein and the New York Phil, Omandi and the Philadelphia Orchestra and the British Royal Ballet were among prominent guests invited to the opening ceremony held in 1978. Legendary Herbert Von Karajan also visited the culture center later with his Berlin Phil. Koreans felt proud of having a world-class art center that paralleled to the Lincoln Center in U.S. Then, the culture center`s fame began to wane after the Art Center was opened in Gangnam, where there was a large pool of potential audience. Bureaucracy of the Seoul government also contributed much to the fall of the culture center, however.

The director`s office of the culture center was called a waiting room for city council candidates. The position was arranged for those who dropped out of city council races. It had the Asia`s largest facilities, but the management was in disarray. Then, a privatization plan came as an alternative. The idea was to assign the management job to a professional manager. According to the plan, it became a corporate entity on July 1 1999. At about the same time, national theaters were also reorganized for effective management. Privatization of national theaters, which were aimed to serve public good, was a breakthrough move.

Since then, controversy intensified over the decision, which left culture at the hand of money and the market. With national theaters focusing on profit making, its function of serving public good in the long term would be degraded, opponents argued. They were already too big tax-eating hippos, advocates pointed out. What people saw as a result of the privatization, however, were restaurants scattered through the center. The culture center must have sought to host quality culture events, instead of renting spots for money, to make profit. This kind of privatization is bound to fail, turning people away.

The management of the culture center is sparking controversy yet again. It has set a goal of securing 3.24% of operation costs next year, and 42.6% in 2005. With these targets, the foundation is bound to place much more focus on profitability rather than public service. Even in advanced countries, culture centers are only about 20% financially dependent. And they are symbols of cultural superiority and peoples` love for culture. Ours pales in comparison. There must be some differences in economic and cultural capabilities. Yet, it has also something to do with extremism in management, which is prevailing in our society. Starting with the culture area, we need to learn such virtues of our ancestors as harmony and moderation.

Hong Chan-shik, Editorial Writer, chansik@donga.com