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네이버 공유 카카오 공유 트위터 공유 페이스북 공유

Vision and Dimension

Never too late! The Korea Foundation had organized the Workshop for Korean-Art Curators for eight years, and I participated for the first time in its 8th workshop in 2006. Because it was such a rewarding experience, I am thankful for this opportunity and was reminded that it is never too late to engage in a process of discovery, such as the experience that reaffirmed my interest in Korean art and culture.

Some of my colleagues from other museums and institutions were fortunate enough to have benefited from the workshop for years, and their enthusiastic response was a good indication of the program's value. It was also obvious that their frequent participation had an immediate positive impact on their curatorial works abroad, especially in art interpretation, gallery installation, research, and exhibition.


The 2006 workshop had invited 29 participants from museums around the world_Korea, Japan, Taiwan, U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., France, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Greece, and Russia_of which 11 were newcomers. This seemed to suggest two encouraging outcomes of the workshop: first, the emergence of a new generation of Korean-art curators in Korean projects; and second, the workshop's capacity to bring together old and new participants to join forces to expand the field internationally. Both reinforced the Korea Foundation? ives to promote Korean art studies abroad and to reconstruct the Korean identity and cultural heritage globally.



▲ Fieldtrips provided by the workshop made it possible for us to add an important dimension to our understanding of Korean art and culture.


In fact, the so-called "Korean-art curators" are not necessarily specialists of Korean art. This is especially true for those working outside Korea. Many of them, myself included, are specialists of Chinese or Japanese art to begin with, who due to a number of reasons, including personal interests and institutional needs, have branched out to broaden our scholastic enquiry to explore Korean art history.

For us, expressing the uniqueness of Korea? cultural richness can be challenging. While we are aware of the connection between Korea, China, and Japan, we are equally sensitive to Korean traditions and artistic sensibilities in the making of a unique culture.

With travel experiences in Korea and direct encounters with Korean people, as well as a series of lectures (discourses from within) and fieldtrips provided by the workshop, it was possible to grasp an authentic vision that added an important dimension to our understanding of Korean art and culture. Also, only by widening our scholastic interests to explore another discipline could we adopt a wider cross-cultural approach to reflect on the interrelationship and uniqueness of cultures.



▲ At the Tteok and Kitchen Utensil Museum, the workshop participants were able to reconsider the diverse cultural values of the Korean artifacts preserved in overseas museums.


The 2006 workshop focused on Korean folklore and touched upon traditional customs, beliefs, lifestyles, and ritual practices. It also emphasized living traditions as well as the manifestations of cultural ideas through ritual performances, material s, and distinct cultural symbols. Specific lecture topics included: "Understanding Korean Folklore" by Professor Choi Rai-ok; "Data on Korean Folklore: Classification and Management Systems" by Professor Choe Jong-ho; "Composition and Uniqueness of Hanbok" by Professor Park Sung-sil; "Folk Plays and Performances of Korea" by Professor Jeon Jyung-wook;" Modern Adaptation and Transmission of the Seasonal Tradition: Annual Cyclical Rites" by Professor Kim Myung-ja;" Introduction to Korean Shamanism" by Curator Yang Jong-sung; and "Korean Rites of Passages" by Director Chung Jong-soo.

The special merit of these lectures was that they represented internal discourses on Korean culture, with each presenter offering cultural arguments on the reasons for choosing to enliven certain cultural beliefs and practices from the Korean past. Significantly, they penetrated into Korean's way of looking at their own heritage and defining their own culture. Both informative and interesting, the lectures were substantiated by lively demonstrations as well as relevant uses of historical and fieldwork materials. A point to emphasize was that it would not be possible for us to fully understand these lectures or internal voices if not for the aid of our interpreter, Ms. Cho Hyeyoung, whose succinct and marvelous translation of key ideas and sentiments was most helpful.

In addition to the lecture series there was an intensive fieldtrip program that brought us to various museums or cultural institutions in and outside Seoul. As sites for exposition or cultural practice, through their displays and activities, these institutions communicated in their respective ways the concepts of identity and community concerning certain cultural beliefs and values in Korean society.

The places we visited included : the National Folk Museum of Korea, Ewha Womans University Museum, Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum at Sookmyung Women's University, Museum of Korean Straw and Plant Handicrafts, Lock Museum, Yangju Byeoslandae-nori Performance, Tteok and Kitchen Utensil Museums, General Choi Yong Shrine, Onyang Folk Museum, and Oeam Folk Village.


With this overall program of the 2006 workshop, we were inspired to reconsider the diverse cultural values_not merely the aesthetic values_of the Korean artifacts preserved in overseas museums. This program provided a framework that could help reconstruct Korea's cultural identity abroad. However, in examining the cultural artifacts from the past, one may also reflect on what is relevant from the Korean past for the present (at least for the Koreans in their present discourses on cultural heritage), in addition to creating historical contexts for these s.

The 2006 workshop also included two very meaningful sessions: one being the presentation session in which selected curators talked about Korean galleries or Korea-related projects in their respective museums; the other was the international symposium "Exhibiting Korean Art" organized by the National Museum of Korea in celebration of the 1st anniversary of its opening in Yongsan.

Both events provided insights into the state of the field and substantive issues related to the study and exhibition of Korean art on a global level. In the various presentations by workshop participants, we gained specific information on the different collection histories, display strategies, and exhibition programs of museums in different parts of the world. The papers of the international symposium provided an overall survey and intensive analysis of Korean art studies and exhibitions inside and outside Korea.

It clearly was no coincidence that these dialogues in one way or another pointed to the collective efforts of institutions to develop Korean art studies internationally, despite the varied strategies and resources of each institution. They also showed that international collaboration was necessary for sharing information, producing high-quality exhibitions, and advancing Korean art studies.

Drawing together an international group of curators from a variety of museums and cultural backgrounds, the Korea Foundation provided workshop participants with a forum as well as a web of networks, with which they established friendships, exchanged ideas, and explored possibilities for collaboration. As host institution, the Korea Foundation played a significant, unobtrusive role in establishing this network of connections and promoting an international exchange that will undoubtedly persist long beyond the workshop's formal end.

The Korea Foundation? annual workshop has been greatly appreciated by Korean-art curators, due to its relevance to our professional needs and its far-reaching effects. With an eight-year history and unfailing positive responses, it was in many respects a landmark in the promotion of Korean art studies on an international level. While I offer my heartiest congratulations on the success of the program, I would like to also thank the Korea Foundation and its staff members for the organization of this meaningful program and for their gracious hospitality during my visit to Korea.




Anita Chung, PhD 
Associate Curator The Cleveland Museum of Art  

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