Join us as Theresa Ki-ja Kim, professor emeritus of theater arts at SUNY Stony Brook, discusses how Korea's unique tradition of masked dance-dramas masterfully blended fertility rite, social satire, and popular entertainment. Held in conjunction with the exhibition, Masks of Night: Faces from Traditional Korean Dance-Dramas, Kim's gallery talk will introduce the masked dance-drama, a form of performance that included songs, dances, and dialogues that aimed to satirize the local… Read More

On May 5, 2009, Don Baker, Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, spoke about the history of Christianity and religion in Korea with Fred Carriere, The Korea Society's Executive Vice President. The interview is in support of 'Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity,' an exhibition previously on display at The Korea Society Gallery. The arrival of the first Western… Read More

Join us for a panel discussion on the art and history of Korean wrapping cloths, or pojagi, with Lee Talbot, assistant curator of The Textile Museum; Chunghie Lee, fiber artist; and Seta K. Wehbé, assistant collection manager of the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Linking pojagi aesthetics to both traditional American quilts and contemporary abstract painting, the panelists will discuss the enduring appeal of pojagi… Read More

Gallery Talkwith   Jane PortalMatsutaro Shoriki Chair of the Art of Asia, Oceania and Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.Thursday, December 4, 2008 We might think that we know about North Korea - it has been so much in the news recently, presenting a nuclear threat to the region. But in fact we know very little about the country. In the 19th century, the undivided country was called the hermit… Read More

On February 7, 2008, Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park, an assistant professor in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, delivered at lecture at The Korea Society entitled "Our Toys, Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity." The lecture was in support of "Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood," an exhibition of toys from 1970s and 1980s Korea, showing at The Korea Society… Read More

Exhibition January 31–April 18, 2008 Toys are always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be. They can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. With Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood, The Korea Society put on display over 90 children's toys from South Korea in the 1970s and ‘80s. On loan from the Hyeon Tae-Joon Collection in Seoul, the toys—flamboyantly colored action figures, robots,… Read More

Exhibition July 26, 2007 - December 18, 2007 "... eye-catching." - New York Times Art Review, "Korea’s Extraordinary Send-Offs for Ordinary People", August 17, 2007 link "... the artifacts... are truly treasures." - Japan Times Review, "Little Friends for the Other World", October 11, 2007 link Death is an aspect of the human condition that touches every culture in every age, and almost all cultures envelop death in a rich… Read More

A New, Monthly Series of Gallery Talk Programs May 24 - November 16, 2007 Exhibiting Korea, a new monthly series of presentations on the fine arts, film, fashion and photograph of the Korean Peninsula, is debuting in April 2007. Series programs will address contemporary trends in cultural expression in Korea, and take audiences back to important movements they might have overlooked. These gallery talks, given by top experts, critics and… Read More

To mark the opening of an exhibition of Korean dragon paintings, author and folklore specialist Heinz Insu Fenkl, director of the Interstitial Studies Institute at SUNY New Paltz, lectured on dragon symbolism in both the East and West. Due to its association with serpents in the Old Testament, he explained, the dragon was considered a creature of evil in the West. In the folklore of the East, however, the dragon… Read More

  This program featured the screening of a documentary by award-winning producers Dan Gordon and John Battsek, which premiered on the PBS program, Wide Angle, on September 11, 2003. The documentary provides a rare, and surprising, glimpse into the individual and family life underneath the monolithic veneer of North Korean society. A Q&A session with Charles Armstrong, associate professor, Department of History, Columbia University, and Wide Angle Executive Producer Stephen… Read More