Museums open up for Korea Art Week

Korea Art Week 2016 will be held from Oct. 11 to 23 with 100 art-related institutions taking part to promote contemporary art to the public. / Courtesy of Arts Council Korea

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Art has been a part of human life for a long time, but still going to an art museum is a yearly event for most Koreans. To close the gap between contemporary art and the public, art museums across the nation open their doors wide with various events including free admission.

Themed "Art in Love, Korea Art Week 2016 is co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Arts Council Korea (ARKO). The event runs from Oct. 11 to 23 and some 100 art-related institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) will take part in the program.

"Art is closely related to our life, but there have been misunderstandings regarding art that it is the exclusive property of the elite. Korea Art Week will invite ordinary people to visit various exhibitions and join audience participatory programs to fully experience the joy that art brings to enrich our lives," an ARKO official said.

The MMCA opens all three branches MMCA Seoul, Gwacheon and Deoksugung at no charge and offers free shuttle buses connecting MMCA Seoul and the National Art Studio Goyang in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province to improve access.

Other museums taking part in the free admission includes the Arko Art Center, Daegu Art Museum, Seoul Olympic Museum of Art and Suwon I Park Museum of Art. Popular private museums such as Leeum, Arario Museum and D Museum also offer discount during the Korea Art Week.

The members of the Korean Art Museum Association allows visitors to take photos in the exhibition during the 13-day event and encourages them to post the pictures on social network sites as a way of promoting art museums.

Korea Art Week also attempts to create a bigger discourse encompassing the three major biennales in Korea ― the Gwangju Biennale, the Busan Biennale and the Mediacity Seoul.

Southern city of Daegu was selected as the City of Art this year and the Daegu Foundation for Culture offers a workroom tour program from Wednesday to Saturday during the Korea Art Week. The tour includes visits to artist’s studios in Daegu, giving a glimpse of the artist’s life.

The ARKO invited Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of the Public Art Fund in New York, to discuss how art can go with the public at Arko Art Center on Oct. 11.

For more information, visit www.artweek.kr.

Buy your first piece of art

Coinciding with Korea Art Week, the Korea International Art Fair 2016 is held from Oct. 13 to 16 at COEX in southern Seoul. It is the largest art fair in Korea and 170 galleries from 16 countries take part in this year.

This year's guest country of honor is Taiwan and 11 galleries from Taiwan will introduce major and rising artists from the country.

For more information, visit www.kiaf.org.

Meanwhile, the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) hosts the Korea Gallery Weekend from Oct. 13 to 16 at multicultural space NEMO in Hannam-dong, Seoul.

The event aims to promote the highlights of Korean art to international experts. The KAMS picked 20 galleries and the galleries will showcase works of one artist each.

There will be talk sessions featuring the world's top gallery owners and super collectors for Korean art connoisseurs to share information on international trend.

For more information, visit www.galleryweekend.kr.