WEBZINE ACC

Cleanly cut and paved sidewalk blocks look like they’ve been here only for one or two years while the trees on the streets have aged a lot lifting their arms high up in the sky. It's impossible to think that they were once just seedlings. Probably it was the rain that had been pouring over days that helped the trees to grow even taller. I can see that the ACC and its neighborhood have now aged, assuming from the trees so tall that it’s hard to guess their age.

Trees at Jang-dong Roundabout and a sculpture by Ugo Rondinone next to Haneul Madang

Dong-gu keeps the traces of the long history of Gwangju as an original downtown of the city, where small yet entertaining spaces for arts and the history of Gwangju coexist. Dong-gu is known for its eye-catching attractions. Let’s look around the neighborhood around the ACC, a place imprinted with lives and cultures of people for a long time.

Gwangju Castle Ruins

Our walk to trace back the long history of Gwangju starts from the place where the ACC is now located. Gwangju Castle was constructed during the Korea dynasty and remained until the Joseon dynasty. It was torn down under the order of the Japanese Empire over castles in Joseon in 1910. However, you can still see its remains at the gate of ACC Creation. The trace of the castle can be only found in one place, but the trace of a door like the four gates of Seoul can be found in other places as well.

In front of the old front gate of Chonnam Girls' High School

View of Art Space House

The entrance of Daein Market is roughly seven minutes away on foot from the ACC. From Daein Market, formerly known as Art Market, there is a road which used to have the Donggyecheon Stream alongside it and the Dongmun Bridge to cross the stream. "Dong" in their names indicate there used to be a "Dongmun" here. You can still find Dongmun Pharmacy, a very old pharmacy in the neighborhood. Jungang Elemenetry School was founded near the original site of Dongmun of Gwangju Castle. It was established in 1907. It used to be a prestigious school in Gwangju but now it only has total 31 students after residences of the original downtown moved to suburban areas. Across the elementary school is Chonnam Girls' High School, established in 1927. The trees stand so tall that it hides the school building, telling how long the school has been there.

Art Space House, a gallery I run and manage, is located right in front of the high school. Art Space House is a small, cozy gallery inside a renovated hanok building. Sometimes old ladies with gray hair who graduated from Chonnam Girls' High School stop by the gallery after having an alumni gathering. It makes me have admiration for the long history they went through. Follow the high school wall, and you will arrive at Dongnidan-gil, now a famous place in Gwangju full of vibrant energy of young people.

The original downtown of Gwangju had been still and quiet for a while after people moved to a new town at suburbs. It was only about 10 years ago that Dongmyeong-dong and Jang-dong in the old downtown started to get crowded. Now, it’s called Dongmyeong-dong Café Street as many cafés and restaurants were built as hagwons (academy) started to fill the streets. It attracted more people after the opening of the ACC in 2015, naturally earning its name Dongnidan-gil.

Gallery Hyeyum

The gallery is near an amazing park of the city, Haneul Park. Here at Dongnidan-gil that gets more vibrant and lively with people during the weekend, you can find magnificent art spaces. This place called Jang-dong Rotary was probably named after the four roads intersecting. You can see a sculpture by Ugo Rondinone south to Haneul Park standing as high as the trees on the street. Walk 30 steps from there. Then, you will find a small gallery inside a renovated hanok building. It’s Gallery Hyeyum, a center of the art of photography and crafts in Gwangju.

Since its opening in May 2018, the gallery has been holding many exhibitions on photography and crafts. Walk toward Dongmyeong-dong, and you will see Schengen Art Gallery featuring modern and contemporary art. Its name was after the Schengen Agreement to remind its historical meaning. The gallery constantly runs exhibitions with the goal of becoming a platform for free communication and networking between contemporary artists.

Dong-gu Humanities School

We have looked at a gallery for contemporary art. You can also find a place embedded with the history of the modern time through its architecture mixed with Korean, Japan, and Western style in Gwangju. Dong-gu Humanities School was founded from a home built in 1954. The building of the school has a history of 70 years. It once belonged to the Gwangju Dong-gu Office but renovated as part of the 2022 Public Art Project. A series of art and culture events continue to happen in this space where traditional Korean style and Western style of architecture harmonizes. Dong-gu Humanities School is now where endless stories of history, art, and journeys are being created. Sitting on a bench outside under the pleasant sunlight is enough to have inner peacefulness thanks to the comfort and coziness released from this house with a long history. It’s truly the oldest neighborhood of Gwangju. Every corner of the neighborhood embodies and manifests its long history.

Between the ACC and Chonnam Girls' High School is the Bium Museum. The Bium Museum opened in March 2016 and has 30,000 pieces of Korean folk art made before the 1960s. The museum brings the audience back to the past as soon as they enter the museum as if they are in the past looking at the antique folk pieces used in kitchen, sarangbang (reception room for male guests), haengnangchae (servant’ quarters), and garden, and for giving birth or funeral. Yesul-gil and the Eunam Museum of Art are near here. Yesul-gil used to have flea markets just like in Insa-dong, Seoul and now is filled with galleries, art studios, paper or cloth painting shops, and frame shops. You might encounter a beautiful art piece if you look beyond the window.

Bium Museum

Many places are keeping their spots for a long time, showing that its neighborhood truly used to be the original downtown. There is also Kimnetgwa that created another form of continuity among the changing scenes made of the hospital passed down from father to son, shops, and Cinema Gwangju. It’s the eye-catching blue building five-minutes away from the ACC passing Yesul-gil. It was originally a hospital and reborn into an art complex after renovation. A gallery, a café, and a hotel coexists in this one building. A variety of cultural events, such as music shows, classes, and lectures, take place here. Its bright color of blue lifts the spirit just by looking at it.

There are so many places to visit within 20-minute walk from the ACC. How about taking a walk around the ACC and boost your mental and physical health with art?