1. 1,000 Culture and Art Clubs Create Seongnam, a City of Sarangbang
Korean salon, Club Sarangbang
<캡션> Club Sarangbang Festival
Wherever you go in Seongnam,
cultural club gatherings there are.
There are no spectators, no leading figures in the gathering,
all are leaders and all are audiences.
Singing a song for a hundred years later they are.
City of artist citizens, Seongnam gives birth to
a host of artists and creators, and lives amid culture and art,
as our sons and daughters grow up
in this city of art, where Club Sarangbang flourishes.
This poem was recited at the very first gathering of cultural clubs in Seongnam City, and has
been recited at every gathering since then, like a folk song being passed down through the
generations. Maybe someday, someone will create a beautiful melody for the poem to make
it into a song that we can sing together. The song will be handed down to our children and
again, to our children’s children.
There are more than 1,000 cultural art clubs in Seongnam City, where citizens gather, learn,
perform, and partake in cultural activities. Citizens are able to fully express their creativity in
the club gatherings around sarangbangs located throughout the villages. Club Sarangbang
is the network for these clubs.
Sarangbang, in the Korean tradition, plays a similar role to the salons in the West. In the
past, the sarangbang was a space used for cultural activities by the head of the house as
well as a reception room for male guests. It also served as a space for reading, meditating,
and resting. Thanks to its variety of functions, sarangbang became the origin of the cultural
network of sadaebu (nobility). The traditional sarangbang was reborn as a modern
sarangbang for all citizens in Seongnam City.
Culture and art flourishing around sarangbang
<캡션> Club Sarangbang
Club Sarangbang has become the brand of Seongnam City. Seongnam, including Bundang
and Pangyo area, was born as a planned city in 1973 and is now a successful new city of
Korea. When it was first developed, despite the lack of infra, its citizens set out to create the
city itself with pioneering spirits. Twenty years later when apartment buildings were erected
like trees in the forest, citizens began to voluntarily organize creative art clubs. Alleys,
apartment complexes, markets, libraries, parks, and even the riverbanks of Tancheon
crossing Seongnam served as sarangbangs for citizens. These sarangbangs became the
root of the flowers of culture and art created by the citizens of Seongnam. Out of the cultural
thirst of the citizens of this new town emerged the modern-style sarangbang, with the
dynamic energy of citizens giving birth to creative art clubs.
Living amid culture and art

2. On September 15, 2009, the world’s first World Culture Clubs Forum (WCCF) attended by
the representatives of culture club networks around the world was held at the Seongnam Art
Center. The forum offered an important arena to develop a world network of culture clubs
and exchange experiences and activities among the representatives of culture club networks
around the world including Andreas Kämpf of the European Network of Cultural Centres
(Germany), Nadezhda Savova of the International Council for Cultural Centers (Bulgaria),
Don Adams of Mid-America Arts Alliance Performing Arts Division (USA), Robin Simpson of
the Voluntary Arts Network (VAN) (United Kingdom), Nakadai Hiromi of the Promotion Office
of the National Cultural Festival (Shizuoka, Japan), and Club Sarangbang (Seongnam,
Korea).
The WCCF was held as part of the Club Sarangbang Festival, which is a festival organized
by citizens and held every September around the Seongnam Art Center and in various other
locations throughout Seongnam City. The Club Sarangbang Festival 2010 was held from
September 7 to 12 with various programs such as “Citizens’ Orchestra Festival,” “Club
Sarangbang Exhibition,” and “Let’s Play Together! Saxophones of 1,000 People.” In
particular, the Club Sarangbang Festival aims to realize a world where people live amid
culture and art under the theme “Sharing and Serving.” At the “Citizens’ Orchestra Festival,”
the highlight of the event was a performances by the Seongnam Hope Orchestra, comprised
of children from low income families, and the Nanum Ggot Orchestra, consisting of children
with developmental disabilities. The “Club Sarangbang Exhibition,” held at the Seongnam Art
Center Gallery, exhibited paintings created by children with mental disabilities in the course
of art therapy.
<왼쪽사진 위 캡션> Club Sarangbang Festival
<왼쪽사진 아래 캡션>Sarangbang Orchestra comprised of 100 citizens
<오른쪽사진 위 캡션> “Let’s Play Together! Saxophones of 1,000 People”
<오른쪽사진 아래 캡션> Cultural activities of the Sarangbang Orchestra
“Let’s Play Together! Saxophones of 1,000 People” was a very special event planned by the
members of Club Sarangbang to raise funds to help a 9-year-old child with a malignant brain
tumor who could not undergo surgery because of its high cost. A member of Club
Sarangbang came up with the idea, suggesting that we gather saxophonists from around the
country and have them together perform “Arirang” to lift the spirits of this child whose dream
is to become a singer. Because of the bad rainy weather, not all 1,000 saxophonists could
make it, but those that did manage to attend gave a deeply touching performance of
“Arirang,” impressing the audience. During the event, 10,488,670 won was raised to help the
child.
Cultural activities serving the community
Club Sarangbang serves the community with its cultural activities. The artistic activities of
the clubs which started as personal hobbies have expanded to activities that can create
better communities for all. In December 2010, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
released its list of the “10 Trends in Culture and Art.” First on the list was “Good Art
becoming a general trend,” with Club Sarangbang selected as a representative example of
this trend. Club Sarangbang first started as a network of clubs for socializing and learning,
but has over time developed to serve the local community through voluntary activities such
as holding performances at homes for the elderly.
Club Saranbang envisions a future where all citizens of Seongnam are able to appreciate
and enjoy art that enriches their lives as well as the community. Club Sarangbang has a 15-
year long-term plan consisting of three stages from 2006 to 2020. One of its visions is to

3. host the World Cultural Clubs Festival on the banks of Tancheon, a beautiful stream
crossing downtown Seongnam. While preparing for that day, Club Sarangbang will continue
to be busy with its creative activities every day.
<YK025 동영상 1 캡션> Club Sarangbang
기고
Park Seung-hyun
Director, Cultural Planning, Seongnam Cultural Foundation
링크
Club Sarangbang: www.clubsb.or.kr
Seongnam Cultural Foundation: www.sncf.or.kr