An all-male six-member choir walks up to the stage and takes a deep breath, as guests are all ears for a tune that will animate a ceremony marked by many handshakes and applauses. “That’s the thrill, an adrenaline rush -- the feeling of undivided attention on the stage,” said Son Ye-bin, a baritone at Uangel Voice, a choir that has been performing since April 2009. Most of their performances since then have involved charity work, either raising funds for the marginalized or rai

Performance July 10, 2024

It could take more than a year to restore parts of a historic wall in Seoul that collapsed during heavy downpours earlier this week, according to an official handling the restoration efforts. On Tuesday morning, a passerby reported seeing a collapsed portion of the northern wall of Hanyangdoseong, also known as the Seoul City Wall, to the Jongno-gu office, which then relayed the discovery to the Korea Heritage Service, according to the state agency. Damage to the wall spans 30 meters, and no cas

Culture July 9, 2024

The National Museum of Korea is holding a biennial joint exhibition on lacquerware as part of an effort to showcase cultural artifacts common to Korea, Japan and China that began in 2014. The exhibition entitled “Lacquerware of East Asia” opens Wednesday, featuring 46 lacquerware pieces from the NMK, the Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of China. The three countries have long used the sap of lacquer trees, which renders a durable, shiny finish once painted onto wooden ob

Arts & Design July 9, 2024

When Wooh Na-young, a graphic designer-turned-illustrator, quit her work at an online game publisher in 2012 after a decade in the industry, she suffered an identity crisis. But she at least knew that being a game graphic designer was not fulfilling for her. “I had to find what I wanted to do or be, and hanbok caught my eyes,” Wooh said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald, explaining her love for the hanbok silhouette -- the elongated lines and broad shapes. A want for her wo

Arts & Design July 7, 2024

Water festival at Everland Join revelers toting colorful water guns at Everland, as the country’s largest theme park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, hosts a water festival. “Water Stellar” takes place at Carnival Square through Aug. 25, with water splashing, squirting and fighting reaching a peak twice a day, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., as Everland actors put on a performance. Bring water guns, shoes, a towel and extra clothes, but be advised that there are no changing rooms. Check

Travel July 5, 2024

An international conference on the restoration of damaged cultural heritage will take place next week at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul. The conference entitled “Damaged Cultural Heritage of the World: Its Restoration and Future,” hosted by the state-run museum, will bring together government officials and experts on heritage from Korea, Japan and France. The Wednesday gathering will draw on the three countries’ shared experience in restoring and using cultural he

Culture July 4, 2024

A longtime curator with a career spanning close to two decades at the National Museum of Korea has been tapped to lead the state-run museum with the largest collection in the country. Kim Jae-hong was an NMK curator from 1993 to 2012. He left the museum following a five-month directorship at the Chuncheon National Museum -- one of 13 regional museums under the NMK. Since September 2012, the 59-year-old Kim, who has a Ph.D. in Korean history from Seoul National University, has been a Korean histo

Social Affairs July 4, 2024

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is showing an 18th-century Korean Buddha statue, its first showing of a Buddha statue from Korea. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, on loan from the National Museum of Korea, will be displayed at the Asian Pavilion of the Rijksmuseum for two years, through May 2026. Korea’s state-run museum arranged the loan as part of efforts to help museums around the world establish a more diverse collection of Korean artifacts, the museum said Wednesday. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisat

Arts & Design July 3, 2024

The custom suits BTS members wore for their Grammy Awards performance in March 2021 will be on exhibit at the Jewelry Museum in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, from Sept. 7 to Dec. 15. The city-run museum will showcase the custom suits that E-Land Group, a local clothing retailer, acquired in an auction. The agreement on the exhibition was signed by the city and the retailer’s private museum. E-Land Group bought the customs at Julien’s Auctions in January 2022, a year after the seven K

K-pop July 2, 2024

An exhibition exploring highlights of Notre Dame Cathedral’s history ahead of its reopening in December following an April 2019 fire will run through Sept. 1 at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul. The exhibition, “Notre-Dame de Paris, the Augmented Exhibition: 850 Years of History and Resilience at Your Fingertips,” offers an immersive and interactive experience, explained Bruno de Sa Moreira, CEO and co-founder of Histovery, a French startup that specializes in augme

Arts & Design July 1, 2024

An international conference will be held in Seoul next week to discuss advancing UN sustainable development goals to deliver by 2030, ranging from reducing inequality to promoting climate action. The Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals Towards 2030 gathering -- cohosted by the National Folk Museum of Korea and the International Council of Museums -- will bring together museum experts from 17 countries to look at the SDGs from five angles: partnership. people, planet, prosperity and pea

Culture June 28, 2024

Night stroll at Sejong arboretum The Sejong National Arboretum in the central city of Sejong offers admission at half price for those visiting in the evening. Between 6 p.m. and 9:30 pm. on Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 12, visitors will find performances of gugak, traditional Korean music, and a chamber orchestra, as well as flea markets. Tickets are priced at 2,500 won for adults. The first 500 entrants will be given lanterns. Check the latest performance schedule at sjna.or.kr. S

Travel June 28, 2024

South Korean avant-garde menswear brand Songzio unveiled a womenswear collection for the first time in 25 years at the Spring-Summer 2025 Paris Men’s Fashion Week. The collection revealed Friday was titled “Bright Star” in reference to the North Star, an enduring source of inspiration and a symbol of a hopeful future. Each creation was pieced together using asymmetric geometric shapes for vibrant and youthful exuberance, Songzio said. Such unfettered self-expression by youth, S

Arts & Design June 24, 2024

An online platform for access to digitized works of art at institutions including museums and libraries has been officially launched, the National Library of Korea said Friday. The “Korean Memory” website, host to some 260,000 works -- from books to photographs to music clips -- from 122 institutions, marks the latest push by the government to make “nationally important” data available to the public. “With the advent of artificial intelligence, we need more high-qua

Culture June 23, 2024

Words like “variety” and “innovative” will hopefully describe the afterthoughts on Korea’s first-ever exhibition on Native American arts, an associate curator at the Denver Art Museum who helped organize the show said. Dakota Hoska -- who holds dual citizenship from the US and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota -- said visitors to the exhibition “Cultures and Histories of Indigenous People in America” would be able to discover the talent t

Arts & Design June 21, 2024