Bang Si-hyuk Donates 5 Billion Won to Seoul National University for New Cultural Center
Jul 03, 2025
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At 6 p.m. on the 3rd, Seoul National University will hold a ceremony to celebrate the dissolution of the existing cultural hall and mark the beginning of a new cultural and artistic complex in front of the Junggang Hall of the Seoul National University Cultural Center. The event will be attended by Seoul National University professors and students, as well as donors and family members of the Cultural Center Building Fund. Chairman Bang Si-hyuk will stay abroad for business and will not attend.
The Cultural Center Architecture Fund was created to transform Seoul National University's representative cultural space, the Cultural Center, into a new complex cultural space. Bang donated 5 billion won to the fund in January 2023.
At the time of donation, Chairman Bang said, `I thought that I wanted to give back to my alma mater even a little bit because I experienced that social support and help are a great nutrient for growing a human being.' `I hope that the virtuous cycle of donations that contribute and give back to society will continue, and that we will develop dreams based on common sense, not goals and dreams made by others, and follow them to contribute to society.'
In addition to the Cultural Center Building Fund, Chairman Bang has been doing various donation activities. The cumulative amount donated by Chairman Bang since 2020 has exceeded 10 billion won. In June 2022, 5 billion won was delivered to the Community Chest of Korea, the fruit of love, so that female adolescents can continue their studies and become independent. The donation was used for 800 female teenagers through Jump Corporation, Korea Youth Counseling and Welfare Development Institute, BTOB Corporation, and Geumsoon Parent Counseling Center, and will be provided to a total of 1,400 people by adding 600 in the future. In July 2022, 200 million won was donated to the SNU Business School's 'SNU BIZ Startup Fund' to support the start-up of SNU juniors. The fund was raised in 2020 with the Ponyjeong Foundation's 'Ponyjeong Innovation Award' awarded to Chairman Bang for leading innovation in the global music industry.
In addition, he donated 5 billion won to Seoul National University in January 2023, 200 million won in emergency relief funds for the earthquake in Turkey and Syria to Save the Children, an international non-governmental organization for children's rights (NGO) in February of the same year, and 50 million won in donations for the discovery and growth of emerging musicians to the Yoo Jae-ha Music Scholarship Association in November.
"Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, as a businessman and a member of society, has been contemplating and implementing ways to contribute to the development of the community," Hive said. "We hope that the new cultural view will be the cradle of human resources development for the leap forward as a cultural powerhouse."," he said.
Meanwhile, the Seoul National University Cultural Center, which was completed in 1984, is a venue for art, discussion, and celebration of Seoul National University members, and is a place where various performances, exhibitions, and lectures are held. The new cultural center will be used as a base space for Seoul National University's 'SNU COMMONS strategy, with a binyard-type concert hall (about 1,000 seats), a box-shaped black box theater (about 300 seats) with black interior walls, and galleries and community spaces. It is expected to be completed in the second half of 2028.
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