메인메뉴 바로가기본문으로 바로가기
네이버 공유 카카오 공유 트위터 공유 페이스북 공유

Second Workshop for Korean Arts Curators

The Second Workshop for Korean Art Curators,organized and hosted by the Korea Foundation, was held over a two-week period from August 28 to September 9.
The program included a series of lectures, seminars, and field trips, similar to last year's event. There was, however, a significant change in terms of content. Whereas the focus of the first workshop involved gathering together overseas curators of Korean art in one place at the same time and providing them with an introduction to Korean art in general, this year's event was designed to offer the curators more varied experiences and knowledge in more specialized areas.

As the curators' workshop program is only in its second year, it is perhaps too early to draw any conclusions about its effectiveness. But looking back on the event,from the selection of its theme to development of the program and the actual program implementation,I believe it has the potential to develop into a premier educational and academic program for those working as curators of Korean art overseas.

Program Content and Operation

Thanks to the efforts of the Korea Foundation and other organizations, the number of Korean galleries in museums overseas has increased sharply over the last ten years. In most cases, however, Korean galleries abroad are still being overseen by curators of Chinese, Japanese, or other Asian galleries, few of
whom have any special knowledge of Korean art. Therefore, it has become one of the Foundation's recent priorities to lay the groundwork for improved operation of Korean galleries as part of its program of support for museums overseas.

In this respect, the workshop for Korean art curators from abroad is a realistic means to address this ive. The first workshop, which included the participation of 23 Korean art curators from nine countries was meaningful in that it helped to confirm the level of understanding and keen interest in Korean art among these individuals. For the second workshop, the program was organized to provide participating curators with more practical knowledge and
experience so that they can operate their Korean galleries more effectively.

The theme of this year's workshop,"Exploring Themes in Korean Painting,"was selected on the basis of a survey of museums overseas as well as meetings and interviews with participants of the first workshop in order to identify what
information the curators thought would be most useful and their different areas of interest, and consultations with the Foundation's advisory committee for its overseas museums program, consisting of Korean scholars and art specialists.

Among the 28 participants from 11 countries, there were wide differences in their level of understanding of Korean painting, and thus a variety of opinions on the content of the program. However,as most of these participants had rather limited experience in conducting systematic research into Korean art, priority was placed on effectively conveying as much information on Korean art as possible within a short span of time. Eight lecture subjects were
therefore selected for presentation, including Buddhist painting, portraiture, true-view landscapes,genre painting,court record painting, folk painting, modern painting, and contemporary art.

The subjects were arranged in chronological order to give the lectures a
historical framework, with lectures being conducted in museums or art galleries that housed relevant paintings, so that participants could gain firsthand experience.The lectures were scheduled over four days and were all presented
in English. Since all of the participants have considerable experience
in the field of Asian art, the lectures were conducted at the level of
a graduate school course. Because each lecture subject contributed to an enhanced understanding of Korean art.

Prof. Yi Song-mi's lecture on true-view landscapes in particular generated a great deal of interest and discussion, while museum director Kim Hong-nam's
lecture, conducted in the form of a gallery tour with references to paintings on display, was also very well received.

Of the museum tours conducted after each lecture, the tour of the Korea University Museum was especially impressive thanks to the care and preparation of the museum director, Choi Kwang-shik, and the revelation of the National Treasure, Drawing of the Eastern Palace," as the finale to the tour.

The fifth day of the program featured a seminar on "Crosscurrents in East Asian Painting," which was designed to provide an understanding of Korean art from the broader context of East Asian art. The seminar consisted of two presentations, "Art Exchange between the Joseon Dynasty and Japan through Envoys," by Prof. Hong Sonpyo of Ewha Womans University, and "Crosscurrents in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Art as seen in Copies," by Prof. Han Jonghee of Hong Ik University. Wu Tung, senior curator of Asian art at the Boston Museum; Mette Siggstedt,senior curator at Sweden's National Museum of Eastern Art; and Donald Wood, chief curator of Asian art at the Birmingham Museum, all took part as designated discussion leaders in a lively debate.

Following the lectures, time was set aside for curators from eight museums with considerable Korean art collections to introduce works from their collections. Slide presentations were followed by enthusiastic discussions that often went over the allotted time.

The second week of the workshop was devoted to field trips, with the itinerary decided based on consultation with the advisory committee, a survey of past participants,and discussions with the National Museum of Korea, one of the supporting organizations of this program. It was unanimously decided that participants should visit Tongdosa Museum, which is a treasure house of Buddhist painting, and HoAm Art Museum, where a wide range of ancient art works can be seen.

But aside from these two places, it was difficult to reach consensus on other sites outside of Seoul relevant to the study of Korean painting. Ultimately, the selected destinations included Namsan and Gyeongju National Museum in Gyeongju, where participants could view many Buddhist sculptures and artifacts, along with Tongdosa Museum and the HoAm Art Museum.
As most of the participants had little chance to travel around Korea, the field trip included visits to general places of interest such as Bulguksa temple, Gameunsa temple, Seokguram cave grotto,and Sonje Museum which houses a large collection of contemporary Korean paintings.

Future Tasks for the Workshop

After the workshop,an evaluation session was held with the participation of both the curators and lecturers.The overall assessment was positive in terms of the content and effectiveness of the program. However,those of us on the Korea Foundation staff involved with organizing the workshop came up with our own set of tasks that should be tackled in order to supplement future
workshops.

First, given that curators are the people directly in charge of acquiring and displaying Korean art works,we need to focus more on addressing practical rather than theoretical subjects,including matters such as the preservation and restoration of Korean art works. Participants also need to have greater opportunity to discuss such topics with the curatorial staff of Korean museums who have extensive experience in these areas.

Similarly, overseas curators should have greater access to works in Korean museums. Having increased opportunity to study these works should help foreign
curators to become more discriminating in regard to Korean art,which will thus be reflected in their Korean gallery displays. The Korea Foundation and individual museum officials need to take note of the criticism that the museums of Korea and other Asian countries seem to hide away their best works and only show them upon special request.This tendency was discussed in the evaluation session.

Second, there are not many art historians in Korea who are fluent in English. It is arguable whether Korean lecturers really need to be fluent in English just because the workshop is for foreigners, but there is no denying that many curators are keen to study the various academic approaches of Korean scholars, and language can therefore pose a stumbling block. Of course, when selecting a
lecturer who might have difficulty presenting a lecture in English, ways of getting around this problem have to be investigated.

Third, the program needs to include expanded participation by domestic curators from Korean museums and other related individuals. Many overseas curators are eager to meet with their Korean counterparts to ask numerous questions about Korean art.This is an issue that the Foundation and museums must tackle together.

Fourth, curators should be encouraged to participate more actively in the workshop sessions. In order to improve the program''s quality and establish it as a specialized education/training course, it is necessary to develop more dynamic and interactive sessions,including the presentation of papers on different themes and in-depth discussions on specific subjects.

Fifth,the idea of dividing participants into smaller groups should be explored. The number of curators taking part in the workshop and the number of different countries involved has and is likely to trend upward. As such,this calls for various changes to be made in accordance with the scale of the event. Since participants have different levels of understanding and knowledge of Korean art as well as different areas of interest, this can mean a reduction in the
program's overall effectiveness.
Differentiated programs could be provided for smaller groups according to levels of understanding and areas of interest, or alternatively, participants could be offered a choice of subjects from the start in an effort to increase the program's specialization.




SEARCH

통합검색

통합검색버튼
통합검색닫기

전체메뉴

전체메뉴 닫기