GANGNEUNG CITY ENG - 솔향강릉

     ​The Gangneung Hanbok Culture Creative Space aimed at raising awareness of local hanbok culture through hanbok education, experience programs, and exhibitions officially opened on April 19 (Fri).

     ​After the opening ceremony at 2 p.m. on the 19^th in the conference room, the Gangneung Hanbok Culture Creative Space opened its doors to welcome visitors to an invitational exhibition, which is set to run until May 30 under the theme of “Gangneung Hanbok, Finding the Future in Tradition.”

     ​The exhibition will showcase 20 works by local hanbok designers, including traditional hanbok and new hanbok, to highlight the beauty of hanbok that blends with local traditional culture to popularize the attire and have it become a part of people’s daily lives.

     ​The Gangneung Hanbok Culture Creative Space was selected in the 2023 Regional Hanbok Culture Creative Space Establishment Project (hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Korea Craft & Design Foundation), and it was built at the Guseulsaem Cultural Warehouse in Okcheon-dong (a 3-story building with a gross floor area of 956.33 ㎡) with the government funding KRW 450 million of the KRW 6 billion project cost in the first year.

     ​The first floor consists of an exhibition hall (232.5 ㎡) and a conference room (153.2 ㎡), the second floor consists of a hanbok creation studio (94.3 ㎡) and a hanbok archive (40.7 ㎡), and the third floor consists of a hanbok workshop (91.2 ㎡).

     ​This year, KRW 300 million was secured in government funding for the second year of the project. There are plans to provide training to nurture local hanbok experts and offer courses on hanbok-making and traditional embroidery to the general public, with a focus on cultivating human resources in the area of hanbok in accordance with the roadmap for the creative space.

     ​Meetings. academic seminars, and research programs for the local hanbok industry, educational courses on hanbok culture for elementary, middle, and high school students (June to December), hanbok shops (August), and Hanbok Culture Week (October) are also planned for the year 2024.

     An official from Gangneung City said, “The Gangneung Hanbok Culture Creative Space is a place where citizens and tourists can access hanbok more easily through a wide range of educational programs, experience programs, and exhibitions related to hanbok, and we will do our best to raise awareness of hanbok, a unique national costume of Korea, so that it can be appreciated and enjoyed more widely.”