If you're in Korea, you'll soon have a great chance to immerse yourself in art.
It's the annual Korea Art Week will starting for a 5th year next Wednesday under two themes which are 'Let's go to the gallery,' and 'Let's buy art,' so as you can imagine, there'll be a lot of pieces for sale.
Lee Min-sun has the details.
The two-week long Korea Art Week starts on September 25th and looks to encourage people to get closer to the arts. Previous events had focused on exchanges and networking among artists, but this year's event aims to encourage visitors to participate themselves and enjoy art.
"Some 200 art museums and galleries across the country, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, are taking part in Korea Art Week and are offering discounted admission and special programs."
Museums will also offer sideline events called 'Night at the Museum' ranging from music performances and film screenings to cooking and arts and crafts classes.
"In addition to free admissions to our museums, we'll offer various different things, including a novel reading event, an outdoor marketplace and a classical music performance. Since it's autumn, I hope many people enjoy art week."
The signature program is the art travel program in which participants can check out several art galleries in a single day. A total of 12 art travel programs are offered in eight cities, including Seoul, Daejeon, Cheongju and Busan.
"The art tour was the most popular program during last year's art week, so we doubled the size of the program and extended the area to include regional cities beyond Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province."
Four walking tours in Seoul and two in Daegu and Busan are offered free of charge. There are also six bus tour programs, which cost between 2,000 won and 10,000 won, or around 2 to 8 U.S. dollars, per person.
Also to encourage people to not only enjoy art, but to buy and own art pieces, a number of art marketplaces and an art fair will be held.
The 18th Korea International Art Fair runs from September 26th to 29th at the COEX Convention Hall in southern Seoul with over 170 participating art galleries from Korea and other countries.
Six art marketplaces in five cities will also offer artwork mostly by Korean artists at a relatively low price. Most of the pieces will be under 2 million won or about 1,700 U.S. dollars. At the marketplace, visitors can also participate in talk shows with artists or enjoy music performances.
Lee Min-sun Arirang News.
