Art exhibit celebrating Korean culture opens at ECU
An art exhibit celebrating Korean culture is open through Oct. 1 at East Carolina University.
The ECU College of Fine Arts and Communication and the School of Art and Design partnered with the Korean Association of the Greater Greenville Area to host an art exhibition titled “OLD KOREA from the eyes of four western artists” in venues across campus.
Visitors will see landscapes and lives of Korean people created by artists who traveled to Korea in the early to mid-20th century.
The exhibition is a celebration of the cultural confluence of the East and West made possible by the artists.
“I hope that those who have the opportunity to view these works through our exhibition come away with a deeper appreciation for the Korean culture and the artists who captured it on canvas,” said Dr. Linda Kean, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication. “We are indebted to Dr. Young-Dahl Song and Dr. Juliet Kim Song for the loan of their collection of prints and watercolors by acclaimed artists, which has made this exhibition possible.”
The exhibition features artwork by Elizabeth Keith (1881-1956), Paul Jacoulet (1896-1960), Lilian May Miller (1895-1943) and Willy Seiler (1903-1988).
All the works in the exhibit are personal collections of Dr. Young-Dahl Song and Dr. Juliet Kim Song of Chapel Hill.
Dr. Young-Dahl Song is professor emeritus of political science who taught government and public administration at ECU for 30 years before retiring in 1997. Dr. Juliet Kim Song is regarded as the first female full-time doctor at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, now ECU Health. She is a founding member of the Eastern Carolina Anesthesiology Association and worked in the Greenville community for 33 years before retirement.
The collection has been exhibited worldwide including at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (2006-2007), Korea Society in New York City (2010) and the Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University in New York (2019).
An exhibit celebrating Korean art and culture is open through Oct. 1. (Contributed photo)
“To some extent, this exhibition is the response to the prejudice toward Asians in America,” said Dr. Jin-Ae Kang of the ECU School of Communication, who curated the exhibition with Dr. Borim Song from the School of Art and Design. “The artworks in the exhibition focus on how Westerners perceived Korea in the past, but it now asks us how we also process and consider others today. We want visitors to learn an appreciation of diversity, and love for humanity regardless of cultural background or skin color.”
An opening reception will be 5-7 p.m. Friday in the Wellington B. Gray Gallery in ECU’s Jenkins Fine Arts Center. In addition to Gray Gallery, artwork is displayed in Faulkner Gallery in Joyner Library, Spilman Gallery and the Proctor-Yongue House.
Korean and English docent tours are available at 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Saturdays beginning Sept. 10 in Gray Gallery. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and Friday; and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Other venues are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
In addition to the art exhibit, guest lectures will be in September and October. On Sept. 14, Dr. Melissa Johnson, a public relations professor at N.C. State University, will share museum public relations and community engagement strategies. Shelley Spector, cofounder of Museum of PR in New York, will discuss “Diverse Voices in PR” on Sept. 29 via WebEx. On Oct. 1, Dr. Borim Song will host an art educator workshop for K-12 teachers. And on Oct. 18, Joey Quenga, CEO, program director and radio personality of Dash Radio, will virtually present “Highlighting a Hard-to-Reach Community through an Ethnic Media and Museum.”
The events are sponsored by two Korean companies operating in North Carolina, Daedong USA – Kioti Tractor Division, and LS Cable and System-USA, along with the Overseas Koreans Foundation and Carolina Asia Center.
For more information and a full schedule of events, visit www.oldkorea.net.