These days, the concept of cultural governance and its components is gaining attention in many countries around the world. Even in nations that have had a minimal approach to culture, culture is being used as a tool to implement the necessary policies for today’s societies. The relationship between the two areas of "culture" and "governance" has been a focus for thinkers and rulers recently, and this reciprocal relationship between culture and governance holds potential for management and cultural changes in the Islamic Republic, some of which have already been realized. The main question of this research is: What are the components of foundational cultural governance in the thoughts of Ayatollah Khamenei? This research takes an inductive approach and employs a qualitative method based on grounded theory. To identify the components of foundational cultural governance, the statements and viewpoints of the leader from 1989 to 2023 were analyzed, and then 165 statements related to foundational cultural governance were gathered. For a precise content analysis, the software 2020 Maxqda was used, and relevant points related to the research topic were extracted from selected paragraphs in the form of coded themes and concepts. After examining the statements, 430 propositions were extracted; in the open coding phase, 750 codes were developed; in the axial coding phase, 195 concepts were identified; and finally, from the selective coding, 43 main categories emerged, which were analyzed under four foundational components: cultural management, cultural engineering, strategic cultural management, and cultural policymaking.