Description

Join the Conference Chairs Tammy Ko Robinson and Daniel Tucker, along with the Director of Common Ground Research Networks, William Cope, and the Curator of the Hanyang University Museum, Curatorial & Research Department, Nayoung Hwang, who will welcome delegates and open the conference. 

University museums have played an important role in the history of Korean museums over the past 100 years. However, due to recent changes in the university ecosystem due to population decline and the crisis in humanities such as history and literature, university museums are facing many challenges in terms of budget and staff. What role can university museums play in the changing university environment? How can university museums move beyond their primary role of collecting, preserving, and exhibiting university artifacts and history to offer programs that current university members want to participate in? In this presentation, we will present the recent case of Hanyang University Museum to show how to increase engagement with museums on university campuses. In 2023, the Hanyang University Museum was selected as part of the 2023 Museum Week program to run the 'Healing Pavilion' project. The project was initiated with Professor Kim Jae-kyung of Hanyang University's School of Architecture to create a healing space on campus after the corona pandemic. Kim, an architect who has long studied and modernized traditional East Asian wooden structures, designed a wooden sculpture that could be built together on campus. At the suggestion of the Korean Ministry of Culture, the project was held on Hanyang University's campus as well as in the open Songhyeon Green Square in the center of the city, where the public could join in. Performances by students from Hanyang University's dance department and concerts by the School of Music were held in the architectural pavilion. As a participatory program involving architecture, dance, music, and all members of Hanyang University, the project played a major role in building community on campus and presented a new model for university museums.