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Julian Raby, director of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution |
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Although the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution have a large collection of Asian art, the portion of Korean art is minimal.
However, attention on the matter is growing thanks to the efforts of Julian Raby, director of the Asian art museum.
"In the last few years, we have finished a strategic plan. In it, one of the eight areas that we want to concentrate on is Korea. Not because of our existent strength but because of what we perceive as the importance of Korea," Raby said in an interview with The Korea Times.
He said that every year there is something that draws people's attention in America to Korean art. There are also many Korean-Americans living in the D.C. area who desire a way to connect with Korea.
Raby recently made his first visit to Korea to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Museum of Korea to renovate the Korea gallery in his institution.
"The MOU is about several things. It's initially about the Korea gallery but it's actually much more than this. It's really the beginning of a long-term relationship. The relationship is not just one-way. It's not just Korea to the U.S., but also the U.S. to Korea. So the relationship is reciprocal," he said.
This is the first time the institution has opened relations with the National Museum of Korea. "It's really important because we have a large Korean-American community and quite a number of Koreans visit Washington," he said.
The museum, established in 1993, holds more than 500 Korean relics. The gallery of Korean art currently displays only 30 pieces of ceramics among its 500 pieces.
"We want to look at how we can make it a better and more impressive display. But we don't have a specialist in Korean art," the director said.
With the same team, the institution will develop a handbook on the collection ― since there has never been a publication of the collection ― and post information on its Web site, both in Korean and English.
"But the Web site allows us to go further than the book. This is the long-term plan. One of the great strengths of the national museum is to combine art history and archeology. Most museums, like us, concentrate on art history. So, what we want to do is look at the way in which the Web site would combine art history with archeology. This Web site can be a window onto the much bigger world," said Raby.
Since he took the helm of the Asian art museum in the Smithsonian in 2002, Raby has raised its profile through exhibition programs. The number of visitors has grown from 440,000 when he arrived, to more than 860,000 recently.
As part of his efforts to upgrade the museum's profile, he put in considerable energy over the last few years, creating long-term partnerships with other countries. The museum holds an annual Korean film festival as one of its cultural programs to attract more Korean-Americans.
Raby praised the national museum's ongoing exhibition on Vietnamese culture and history as part of efforts to embrace multicultural communities.
"But I think one of the challenges is how to turn that from the exhibition to more participation. How to make Koreans learn more about the Vietnamese and how to make sure Vietnamese who are here remain engaged in the museum. One of the problems is it's easy to do an exhibition but it's very difficult to sustain the energy," he said.
Through the public programs using cultural items such as film, music and food, it should try to create more connections between them, he said.
"The beauty of the great museum can be a neutral place in which different interest groups can come together and respect each other … You also need to do some of the programs even when you don't have the exhibitions. Why do you think we do the annual Korean film festival? People want to see. You can use the historical objects and use the contemporaries," he said.
Raby said that the museums used to contain the important symbols of people's history ― but now they are the symbols themselves.
"So they have become important parts of the way that people look at and how the countries represent themselves, but also how families can spend days which are partly entertaining and partly educational," Raby said. "In many cases, the museums are indispensable parts of the civic life of our city."
chungay@koreatimes.co.kr |
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