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네이버 공유 카카오 공유 트위터 공유 페이스북 공유

Promotion of Korean Culture among Global Audiences

Travel enriches people. It allows them to step out of their daily routine and to engage in out-of-ordinary experiences. Travel s lasting memories and remnants of the experiences excite and stimulate the interest and growth that ripple through the individual travelers and others with whom they interact. The mission of the Korea Society Gallery is very similar in the way that it strives to exciting and educational experiences for audiences who may otherwise have access to only limited and rather conventional materials. Our hope is to many small ripples that will be amplified into a large wave of appreciation and understanding of Korea and its culture, while kindling curiosity and encouraging further exploration.
Since 2003, we have been introducing innovative exhibitions to help foster a deeper understanding of Korea and Korean culture in the United States. While striving to expand the audience base within the greater New York area, where the Korea Society is based, we have also focused on reaching audiences outside of the major metropolis, where opportunities to see beyond the headlines can be quite limited. Toward this goal, we have dispatched diverse traveling exhibitions to museums and institutions across North America in order to highlight Korean history, culture, religion, and contemporary issues.



Touring Exhibitions
All of the touring exhibitions have been great hits, in terms of audience response. Each exhibition deals with distinctive and rare subject matters. They are not blockbuster events, nor treasures from the National Museum of Korea. However, each exhibition is a unique jewel in which an extraordinary assemblage of contents illuminates little-known aspects of Korean culture.
In large part, the appeal and success of our touring exhibitions come from the ease of their approachability and analogous connections between cultures, using similarities to foster affinity and contrasting the differences to celebrate each other’s uniqueness. We have illustrated the Korean attitude toward death through the exhibition Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the Journey to the Other World. In addition, we have explored the indigenous shaman traditions through the exhibit, Gods, Demons, and Generals: Icons of Korean Shamanism. Moreover, we have examined the soaring fantasies and fast-rising expectations of the 1970s and 1980s through the exhibit, Toy Stories: Souvenirs from a Korean Childhood, along with highlighting the delicate yet pervasive influence of Christianity on late 19th-century Korea with the exhibit, Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West Through Christianity.



Educational Value
“I didn’t know Koreans have comic books, too!” This rather startling comment was made by an audience member during the exhibition opening night. Many of the viewers were amazed by the diversity of subject matters, stylistic differences of the cartoonists, and savvy graphic qualities of the cartoons shown at the exhibition, Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames. This is the Korea Society’s most popular exhibition, engaging various historical and social themes through the works of 21 Korean cartoonists, including two from North Korea. In addition to making viewers chuckle, the comics also reflect the post-war growth of modern Korea’s civil society. The show has traveled to 11 venues thus far, including San Francisco Public Library and Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri.
Death is an inevitable human condition that touches everyone throughout the ages. In most cultures, the trauma of death is countered by artistic s of vivid richness. The exhibition, Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the Journey to the Other World, featured a collection of 74 of funerary figures. Acrobats, clowns, and whimsical mystical animals express joyfulness that may seem incompatible with mourning, but the inclusion of such figures actually reflects a sophisticated appreciation of the fleeting nature of life experiences. At each tour city, little wooden dolls become cultural ambassadors, offering rare insights into Koreans’ sophisticated appreciation and respect for the dead. An exhibition viewer, Renee Fields, expressed her feelings: “The simplicity of each wooden doll is exquisite – very modern, very timeless, very moving.” Another viewer noted: “In the last two years, I have become especially enamored with Korean culture. I love the Korean dramas and Korean movies – the pageantry and artistry I have seen in episodes of Dae Jo-young and Yi San fascinate me. When I traveled to Korea, I was even more fascinated to see these things in person. The exhibition was also a gateway for me to further immense myself in Korean culture.” The exhibition is currently on view at the Fowler Museum at the University of California in Los Angeles.
Many in the audience giggled to themselves while viewing a dated black-and-white photo of a Korean wedding, conducted by a Presbyterian missionary in Hamheung, North Korea in 1904. The exhibition, Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West Through Christianity, features 100 photographs taken between the early 1890s and the late 1930s by Protestant and Catholic missionaries, making it the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind ever to be mounted in the United States. The arrival in Korea of the first American missionaries in the late 19th century was a pivotal moment in Korea’s modern history of Christianity. The impact of this contact with the West, at the dawn of the modern era, mediated by the presence and activities of American Christian missionaries, is ed in a rich cache of photographs from public and private collections in the United States. This photographic exhibition offers a unique perspective on how Koreans encountered the West through Christianity.
Although small in scale and perhaps lacking the glitter and glamour associated with more highly publicized major museum exhibitions, each of the touring exhibitions deals with unique and thought-provoking subject matters. In addition, as a group, they represent diverse aspects of Korean culture that are often neglected or inadequately represented. Indeed, they are priceless in terms of their unique educational value. As individual exhibitions as well as a combined whole, the traveling exhibitions of the Korea Society strive to spark interest in Korean culture and nurture a deeper and more genuine understanding of Korea though thoughtful dialogue. Small ripples in a pond can emit a brilliant reflection without blinding its admirer.

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