By Shim Jae-yun
The Yeongwol Yonsei Forum is a historic collaborative event between the citizens of Yeongwol in Gangwon Province and Yonsei University. Yeongwol’s ambition is to transform itself into an innovative “Museum City,” and Yonsei aims to support their efforts academically by helping to organize the international forum featuring leading scholars from Korea and abroad.
“For most of the 20th century, Yeongwol was well known for its coal industry, but as the major coal mines in the area gradually started to close, residents began looking for a new way to support themselves’” said Mayor Park Sun-kyu of the Yeongwol County and co-chair of the Yeongwol Yonsei Forum Organizing Committee.
Following numerous outside consultations and much internal discussion from the late 20th century to early 21st century, the people of Yeongwol decided to lay their future in making Yeongwol a “Museum City,” Park explained in an interview with The Korea Times.
The inaugural Yeongwol Yonsei Forum is meant to help the county realize its dreams by gathering leading international and domestic experts to examine the pertinent academic issues in developing a museum city.
Invited speakers are distinguished experts with significant research and experience in fields including museum, design, and overseas Korean studies. During this first Yeongwol Yonsei Forum, the organizing committee intends to have substantive and comprehensive discussions on the immediate and necessary tasks to realize the museum city.
Located upstream from Seoul’s Han River, Yeongwol is where the Ven. Zen Buddhist monk Jeoljung, founder of the Sajasanmun or “Mt. Lion” Zen Lineage, pursued his studies during the late-Silla/early-Goryeo period. Yeongwol is also where the tragic King Danjong of early Joseon Kingdom spent his last days. In addition, the late-Joseon’s wandering poet Kim ‘Sat Gat’ (penname) noted for his satirical, humorous poems criticizing contemporary society, called Yeongwol his home as well.
“Given that Yeongwol was historically a place of exile and more recently a coal mining area in the industrial period, it might seem strange that the county decided to redefine itself as a 21st century Museum City.
“One would assume that museums should be built in an area with many surviving historical artifacts and relics, and in truth only few artifacts and remains attesting to life in Yeongwol from prehistoric times to recent history have been found,” he said.
However, from a different perspective, Yeongwol provides certain advantages to those searching for a suitable location to establish a museum to preserve and display precious cultural assets collected within Korea and across the globe.
The people of Yeongwol have fully opened their doors and minds to assist virtually anyone looking to open a museum in Yeongwol. The only criterion for establishing a museum is respecting the surrounding pristine natural beauty, according to Park.
Currently, there are 19 museums in Yeongwol. Over the last 10 years, particular since the county designated itself as a “Museum City” in 2005, many people have come to Yeongwol from all over Korea to help develop all these new museums.