El Sistema, Venezuela’s music education program, and a Korean youth orchestra of a similar kind will hold a joint concert in Seoul. Some 200 Korean and Venezuelan teenagers will perform the “music of hope” at Deoksugung Palace on Sunday, following a concert by Caracas Youth Orchestra on Friday. Caracas Youth Orchestra is an orchestra based in the capital city of Venezuela which is part of the El Sistema program that has brought about social transformation through music in Venezuela since 1975. E

The Korea Tourism Organization will hold a charity bike ride next week to raise funds and awareness of the issues of orphans and sex-trafficking and to promote a newly opened bike path along the Han River. The KTO bike-a-thon festival will invite cyclists to the two-day event held from Oct. 26-27 along the Han River Ara Canal to participate in a 16-kilometer, 40-kilometer or 80-kilometer bike ride. The festival will also include entertainment activities such as water sports, a K-pop concert and

InterContinental Seoul COEX appointed longtime hotelier Kim Yeon-sun as its first female general manager. The 52-year-old Kim also became the first female board member of Parnas Corp., which operates Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas and InterContinental Seoul COEX and Nine Tree Hotel Myeong-dong, the hotel said Wednesday. The veteran hotelier started her career at the front desk of Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in 1988 and worked her way up to guest relations manager in 1994, first fema

A special police unit will patrol tourist hotspots in Seoul to take care of petty crimes targeting foreign tourists in one of the rising tourist destinations in Asia. The tourism police, launched Wednesday, will be in charge of handling fraud targeting foreign tourists such as pickpockets, overcharging by taxi drivers and shopkeepers, and many other complaints reported by tourists in the streets of Myeong-dong, Insa-dong, Itaewon, Dongdaemun and Hongdae, according to the Ministry of Culture, Spo

Wooden utility poles cut through a gallery space from one end to the other in a new exhibition of Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa in Seoul. The poles, each measuring 8-12 meters long, pierce through the gallery walls and extend to the bottom of the floor while supporting other poles delicately placed one on top of another. The position of wooden poles in a white cube triggers questions among viewers as his past works did by transforming everyday materials and familiar space into unfamiliar t

Ever since pine trees launched photographer Bae Bien-u to global fame, they always seemed to remain his signature pieces. But long before he began capturing pine trees, he had had a broad range of subjects in mind. Born in the southern coastal town of Yeosu, the artist was inspired by natural elements such as the sea, wind and trees.Having photographed diverse landscapes for more than 20 years, Bae gathered pictures under the title “Windscape” for the first time and showed them in Paris, Berlin

Monument Valley is great place for a photographer to look up. Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, 125 miles to the west, are great places to look down.The canyon and the bend ― a narrow slot canyon and a deep, broad stretch of the Colorado River ― are at the edge of Page, Arizona, a tourist town that serves as a jumping-off point for houseboats and watersports at Lake Powell.To visit Horseshoe Bend, where the deep green Colorado River suddenly turns 270 degrees at the bottom of a big red gorge,

LAS VEGAS (AP) ― Hotel maid Brandi Patrick was chased down the hallway at the Flamingo casino last year by a nearly naked man. She said she had to lock herself in a cleaning closet and, as the man rattled the handle, fumble around in her pockets to find her cell phone so she could call security.She said she’s haunted by the thought of what might have happened if she hadn’t had her phone. “Something could happen and no one would know it ’till the end of the shift,” she said.Las Vegas casinos ― so

When a singer makes a song from the melody of a stranger’s humming, is he infringing the copyright of the original creator? Yes, says Kim Jong-gyun, trademark examiner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office.“Let’s say K-pop star G-Dragon was sitting next to you when you were humming the melody and he creates a song out of it. That could be copyright infringement,” said Kim at a lecture on intellectual property for young designers on Friday, during Herald Design Week 2013. “Singing karaoke is

More than 30 items donated by Korea’s top celebrities went on the block at a charity auction held Thursday afternoon, on the fourth day of the Herald Design Week 2013. The auction was conducted as a silent auction in which participants submitted bids in writing. The bidding, held from 2-4 p.m., drew visitors looking for bargains and fans of some of Korea’s top celebrities on the lookout for items donated by their favorite stars.“I chose a coffee cup designed by fashion designer Lie Sang Bong. It

Typically black and white Korean traditional ink-and-brush landscape paintings are given a touch of brilliance in works by artist Kim Jong-sook.The artist uses thousands of small Swarovski Elements, high quality crystal pieces by Swarovski, in her traditional Korean landscape paintings. There have been many attempts to reinterpret Oriental landscape paintings by contemporary artists, and with Swarovski crystals, Kim transforms the calm, serene landscape into a world of fantasy and imagination. H

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac finds inspiration from objects nearby ― commercial logos for Lucky Strike, Shell, Disney characters, teddy bears and Lego ― and incorporates them into his world of creation. The accidental and unexpected mixes have created humor and sensation in fashion for 40 years.“There’s no creativity, if there’s no accident,” said de Castelbajac at the lecture given during the Herald Design Talk held as part of Herald Design Week 2013 in Seoul. Throughout his long fashion career,

Architecture should be in harmony with nature and people and reflect people’s needs rather than focus on boasting exterior beauty, said Toyo Ito, renowned Japanese architect and the winner of the Pritzker Prize 2013 at the first lecture of the Herald Design Forum 2013 on Tuesday in Seoul. “Architecture for the 21st Century should enable people to have a comfortable living in harmony with nature,” Ito said during the 80-minute lecture titled “Be Better by Design: Our Responsibility as Designers.”

In today’s society and the ever more complex and volatile business world, design can provide creative solutions to tackle the complexities organizations face, according to Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO. “Design has never been more influential in the world of business,” said Brown during a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of Herald Corp. on Monday in Seoul. In a 15-minute speech, Brown, a leading figure in design thinking, gave a quick preview of his lecture on design-led innovations, which he will

The Herald Design Week, the Korea’s largest and most active forum for design, kicks off a five-day run in Seoul that brings together the world’s top designers and innovators to listen to their views. The biggest celebration of design in Korea is held by Herald Corp., the publisher of The Korea Herald and Herald Business, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Last year’s forum, held at Coex in Samseong-dong in southern Seoul, attracted more than 2,000 audiences featuring some of the wo

Exhibitions“Take Your Shirt Off”: PKM Gallery holds a solo exhibition of young artist Jeong Young-do, who expresses the cultural and moral differences he felt while going back and forth between the U.S. and Korea during his studies at Rhode Island School of Design and Temple University Tyler School of Art. In his paintings and illustrations, abstract figures subtly, but explicitly show the emotions he felt, such as confusion, pain and a sense of loss. The artist currently works in Seoul. The exh

Korean traditional medicine has found popular application in the beauty industry in Korea.The expansion of Korean medicine into modern lifestyle is seen through a diverse range of beauty products ― from skin care products, shampoo and body products to acne treatments. While it remains to be seen if the trend will continue in Korea, where consumer trends change rapidly, some of the ancient medical tips are regaining influence. Leading the revival of the ancient medical and beauty tips are cosmeti

Korea’s biggest art fair opens on Thursday amid the high expectations of local galleries that hope to attract potential collectors and give exposure to their artists in a depressed art market.The Korea International Art Fair kicks off a five-day art market in which 180 local and international galleries will showcase works of their artists at Coex in Samseong-dong, Seoul. This year’s art fair drew 130 Korean galleries and 53 overseas galleries from China, Japan, the U.S., the U.K. and Germany, th

The culture ministers of Korea, China and Japan pledged to facilitate cultural exchanges as a way to improve souring relations in Northeast Asia at the fifth trilateral culture summit held in Gwangju on Saturday. In a joint statement issued after the summit, Korean Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong, Chinese Culture Minister Cai Wu and Japanese Culture Minister Hakubun Shimomura agreed to cooperate on protecting cultural assets, foster cultural content and promote culture exchanges. The three minist

Festivals“The World Traditional Medicine Fair and Festival”: The world’s first fair dedicated to Oriental medicine will take place in Sancheong, a village on Jirisan Mountain, until Oct. 20. The festival, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of the publication of Donguibogam, the ancient Korean medical book, showcases the latest Oriental medicine trends, treatments and health information. Visitors will also get the chance to receive free consultation and treatment at the festival. The venues a