SeongYong Park
Dr. SeongYong Park is an internationally recognized cultural heritage specialist, author, educator, and cultural policy strategist with more than three decades of leadership in international cultural cooperation, intangible cultural heritage safeguarding, and sustainable cultural development.He is the Founder and CEO of Culture Masters, an international platform dedicated to advancing living heritage, cultural cooperation, and human-centered learning. He also serves as Chair of the Advocacy Alliance for Culture Masters (AACM) and as the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of Arirang Culture Connect, a global media platform promoting cultural diversity, knowledge exchange, and international dialogue.Previously, Dr. Park served as the Founding Director and Assistant Director-General of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICHCAP), where he led numerous regional initiatives and helped strengthen the implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention across the Asia-Pacific region. He has also played a leading role in cultural policy development, international networking, and capacity-building through UNESCO-related programmes and global partnerships.Dr. Park earned his Ph.D. in Cultural Heritage Studies from the University of Queensland, Australia, and has lectured, conducted research, and advised governments and international organizations on cultural heritage, governance, and international cooperation.He is the author of On Intangible Heritage Safeguarding Governance: An Asia-Pacific Context (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013). In 2026, he published two new books with Cambridge Scholars Publishing—Theory, Practice, and the Creative Turn of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Opening New Paths and Culture is Power: Shaping the Future—which present new perspectives on living heritage, cultural leadership, creativity, and human-centered development.Through initiatives including the ICH Masters Global Platform, the Arirang Master Award, the World Intangible Heritage Network (WIN), and Arirang Culture Connect, Dr. Park continues to promote international collaboration, empower heritage communities, and explore how culture can contribute to more creative, peaceful, and sustainable futures in the age of artificial intelligence.