The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, will hold a summer culture festival on Saturday nights, featuring music concerts, movie screenings and performances in its outdoor sculpture garden. The festival titled “Kill Your Stress, Heal Your Heart” aims to let visitors fight off stress through participating in a variety of cultural events and recharge themselves in natural surroundings. Various programs run from 5-10 p.m. on Saturdays from Aug. 11-25. It will feat

Healing emerges as keyword for mental health in stressful, highly competitive societyIn a desperate attempt to change herself and take charge of her life, a 44-year-old housewife visited the Saneum Art Therapy Center in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, last winter. Trapped in a prison of self-blame for being overweight, childless for years and having constant conflict with her husband, she was under extreme stress and feeling helpless, recalled her therapist Weon Jung-yen, director of the center.

Sustainable, green buildings create low-carbon neighborhoodsThe following is the fourth in a series of articles on design prepared in anticipation of the Herald Design Forum on Sept. 19-21. ― Ed.Sustainable development and green businesses have become keywords in various industries, and architecture and city planning are no exception to this trend. “Sustainability started to be mentioned about 10 years ago and now it is the most important keyword among architects,” said Lim Yeong-hwan, architect

Arts Council Korea (ARKO) has published three books in English on Korean dance, K-pop and female artists as part of a project to introduce Korean contemporary arts and culture to the world.According to ARKO, it is the nation’s largest funding agency for the arts.The three books are part of a 15 volume series, which ARKO began last year with four titles on the theater district in Seoul Dehangno, the Korean diaspora, 20th century Korean music and architecture in Seoul. It plans to issue three more

Young designers find new opportunities, visitors discover unique designsAn annual design fair brought together young independent designers and customers under one roof in Seoul last week, serving as an open market for innovative designs. In its second year, The Handmade Korea Fair 2012, held from July 26-29 at COEX, Samseong-dong in Seoul, featured 180 small design companies that offered unique products ranging from clothes, accessories and jewelry, to stationary, furniture, home-ware and childr

Singer John Park has been appointed a goodwill ambassador to help promote the Foreign Ministry’s campaign for poverty reduction by raising funds from airline taxes. Since 2007, airline passengers have been levied a 1,000 won tax on each international flight ticket purchase, which is used to help fund the government’s contribution to global poverty eradication.The 15 billion won collected annually goes to non-profit organizations and the Korea International Cooperation Agency, a state-run aid org

Paintings from the late Joseon era are on public display at the POSCO Art Museum, offering a chance for students to see in person some of the major paintings and calligraphy works often shown in school textbooks. As the exhibition title “From Gyeonmjae to Hyewon, Gathering of Joseon’s Genius Painters” indicates, the exhibition shows landscape paintings drawn by great painters of the era. The painters range from Jeong Seon (known by his pen name Gyeomjae) to Shin Yoon-bok (Hyewon), considered gen

The Korea Tourism Organization suggests budget-friendly, eco-friendly vacation ideasHave you planned a summer vacation in advance, or are you looking for just any travel package at the last minute? As summer vacation season approaches, the dilemma of choosing between going abroad or staying in the country inevitably arises. Furthermore, many Koreans cannot afford to take off more than a week, even though summer vacation may be their longest break of the year.Overloaded with work and out of trave

SALINAS, California (AP) ― They were the stuff of another America: Tom Joad in “The Grapes of Wrath.”George and Lenny in “Of Mice and Men.” Lee Chong, Doc and the delightfully larcenous Mack and the bums in “Cannery Row.” Danny and Pilon in “Tortilla Flat.” Adam and Cal Trask in “East of Eden.”Whether you met these classic characters while reading the novels of John Steinbeck or you’re encountering them for the first time, they come to life at the National Steinbeck Center, a sprawling and moder

LONDON ― The exterior of Westminster Abbey is imposing and grandiose.Our plan was simple: Pay the admission, stick our heads inside to see what it looked like, and then quickly duck out and move on to a museum.The museum never happened.That because expatriate Geoff Auerbach, my wife, Pat, and I were all dazzled by the thousand-year-old church where England’s kings and queens have been crowned since 1066. That is a lot of history.Iconic Westminster Abbey is, quite frankly, a lot of church with it

The following is the second in a series of articles on design prepared in anticipation of the Herald Design Forum on Sept. 19-21. ― Ed.Curitiba, a mid-sized city in southern Brazil, became the latest example of sustainable urban planning worldwide with its innovative and strategic urban renovation.Its innovative transport system has been a source of inspiration for neighboring cities such as Bogota, Colombia and Mexico City, and also for Seoul. Today’s urban design aims to enhance the wellbeing

Pioneer of media art remembered as artist who thought one step ahead of the restIt has been six years since Paik Nam June, a pioneer of video art, died from a stroke on Jan. 29, 2006. But the artist, who his wife Shigeko Kubota describes as “the pioneer who opened the door to 21st century art for young generations,” has never really left us. His influence still prevails in the art world, inspiring many artists. “Now many people appreciate his work. His art looked like low art because he broke TV

Hot, crowded and chaotic. London can be all that in summer. Throw in an extra million people a day during the Olympics that begin later this month, and finding a corner of the city that doesn’t feel like Disneyland will be a challenge.If you’re going to London, this is the summer to throw out the usual guidebook recommendations and get creative with your sightseeing, dining and cultural plans.Unless you have tickets to the Olympics marathon swimming or triathlon events in Hyde Park, head instead

CANNONVILLE, Utah ― There’s a very colorful state park in southern Utah that gets overlooked, despite its distinctive rock chimneys from long-dead petrified geysers.Kodachrome Basin State Park gets little respect, lost amidst the glitter of its more famous neighboring national parks: Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches. It is also surrounded by Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that covers 1.9 million acres.But Kodachrome Basin is a desert gem. At an elevation of 5,800 fe

Korean Pavilion to show diverse aspects of Korean architecture with films shot by architectsKorean architecture will be showcased to a global audience by a team of eight Korean architects at the 13th Venice Biennale of Architecture during the second half of this year in Venice, Italy.A new challenge for this year’s exhibition is to show snapshots of Korean architecture through films created by the team, not through more conventional life-size or scaled down models. The Korean Pavilion at the bie

K-pop singer and multi-entertainer Psy announced he will set up an independent record label. “I have always dreamed of establishing my own agency and following in the footsteps of S.M., YG and JYP Entertainment,” he told reporters on Monday. He said his record label would be characterized as an affiliate of his agency YG Entertainment. He said he will be in charge of music production and his agency will be doing other responsibilities. “I am not leaving YG Entertainment,” he said. Under the mana

Young Korean artists and Swiss video artist offer snapshots of latest visual art trendLeeum, Samsung Museum of Art presents two special exhibitions featuring still pictures, documentaries and video work created by young Korean artists and an internationally renowned visual artist. The museum is holding a group exhibition of eight young Korean visual artists as part of its biennial ArtSpectrum project and a solo exhibition of the world-famous Swiss visual artist Pipilotti Rist for two months. “We

British-themed exhibitions encompass contemporary artworks to BeatlesArt may not be the first thing to come to mind when you think of the Olympics. But the quadrennial event can be the largest and most effective cultural celebration as many eyes will be on the host country for more than two weeks and the events will be remembered for much longer. With less than two weeks left until the 2012 London Olympics, art galleries in Seoul are celebrating the big sporting event with art exhibitions on Bri

Korea Railroad Corporation offers a special travel package including train tickets to the Boryeong Mud Festival to Boryeong in South Chungcheong Province, accommodation and transportation on arrival. Those who purchase the package can get a 20 percent discount on the roundtrip train tickets. There are two types of travel programs ― one with basic transportation and accommodation with entrance fee to the festival and the other with additional tickets for rail bike or cruise ship experiences. The

MFUWE, Zambia ― We’re nodding off in our tent, pitched under a tree, when the crunching and gnashing begin.It’s the hippos again, a half-dozen massive beasts climbing up from the Luangwa River for their nightly feed. During September, a hot, dry month here at Zebra Plains Camp, in northeast Zambia, the tree’s foot-long fruit hang low, an irresistible meal for diners with gaping jaws and fist-size grinders.Silence falls as the hippos lumber away. For a moment we doze ― well wined and dined after