ART MUSEUMS are considered a country’s must-see attractions—the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art to name a few. South Korea is also widely known for its world-renowned art museums: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Busan Museum of Art, and Han-ga-ram Arts Center. These museums not only provide the audience with an educational insight into different periods and forms of art but also serve as a cultural introduction to the country. Behind the art museums are the respective Art Museum Directors, who never fail to enchant the audience with various themed exhibitions. To learn more about this profession, The Yonsei Annals interviewed Ki Hey-kyung, the current Art Museum Director of Busan Museum of Art, who shared her experiences and provided insight into the life of an Art Museum Director.

Annals: Please briefly introduce the Busan Museum of Art.

Ki: Busan Museum of Art represents Busan’s art. Through exhibiting Busan’s contemporary and modern art, we observe the city’s history, view the present-day lives, and prepare for the future.

Annals: What does a typical day of an Art Museum Director look like? What is the Art Museum Director in charge of?

Ki: A typical day of an Art Museum Director is not too different from that of any institution’s director. We hold meetings, approve agenda items, make decisions, and make them happen. If there are any differences, it would be how an Art Museum Director has to purchase the artworks, hold exhibits, emphasize their educational value, and make a system so that all the process can run smoothly. In essence, Art Museum Directors play a role in proposing the big guideline for the artistic works. For instance, after I was appointed as the director of the Busan Museum of Art, I set a mission to establish Busan’s Art History by first positioning Busan’s Art within the Korean Art History context and emphasizing both its similarities and unique identity. In order to do this, I gather sources and historical records, and expand the Art Resource Center to set up a database. I then categorize Busan’s Art History by time periods and hold exhibitions accordingly. This year, we held “A Beginning without an End”, an exhibition that highlights Busan’s art from the 1960s to the 1970s. By exhibiting various forms of Busan art done by different artists, we were also able to deliver the atmosphere and characteristics of the time period.

   I’m also working on setting an academic foundation by holding symposiums, where we shed new light on different artists, and accurately reposition them accordingly in Korean Art History. This July, we held an academic symposium called “Again, Now, Together – Reviewing Busan Art,” and are now planning new programs where we revisit artworks from artists Kim Hong-seok, Kim won, Kim Jeong-myeong, and others. In this process, the director suggests the overall direction, discusses the methods to successfully introduce and reposition the artists with experts, and ultimately forms a consensus. After that, the director further organizes and structuralizes the different professional groups within the museum so that we can work efficiently to fulfill our goals.

Annals: Why did you decide to become an Art Museum Director? Was there a turning point?

Ki: I did not plan to become a Museum Director from the start. After university, I went to a graduate school to study more about art history, a subject which I love and enjoy. I wanted a career that made use of my degree, so I applied for a job at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, where I started my career as a curator. At the time, the museum was starting to become systemized and lacked sophistication. This prevented the museum from effectively displaying its unique characteristics. Working as a curator during these circumstances, I found myself pondering upon the most efficient and reasonable method to run the institution. That is when I decided to become a cultural administrator* myself.

Annals: What are the steps you took to prepare for this career?

Ki: An Art Museum Director is mainly in charge of cultural administration. Cultural administrators usually have diverse backgrounds. Some studied business, economics, and administration, while others studied art. There are also people like me, who started as a curator in a National Art Museum and switched paths to become a cultural administrator.

   Curators come from diverse fields, too. Some majored in literature, such as English or French literature, others majored in history and got a master’s degree in art history, while a few studied art in university and got a master’s degree in art theories. For me, I have a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History.

   The reason why I chose to specialize in Korean Modern and Contemporary Art History was both directly and indirectly influenced by the movement of art and culture around the time I entered my master’s program. It was when author Yoo Hong-jun’s “My Exploration of Cultural Heritage” was a revolutionary hit and a steady best-seller, and when people with degrees in art theory started working in the art field as curators. Meanwhile, I was in the middle of deciding what the most significant and necessary field would be to successfully engage with artworks in the art field. That was when I decided to study this specialty and start out as a curator.

   To work as a contemporary curator, one needs to be sensitive to the changing trends of the field. Being aware of the current trend and of contemporary politics, economics, and social issues is crucial because contemporary art is strictly intertwined with our everyday lives. As for me, I widened my perspectives by continuously viewing exhibitions and reading art magazines and academic journals. Even to this day, I visit different exhibitions every week. With countless exhibitions, I am able to see many artists’ new works. By continuously exposing myself to the new artworks, I try to grasp the artists’ concerns or thoughts, the current trend and the distress as they are reflected and ponder upon where all this is headed. Then, I look for sources and books to read to gain further understanding and insight into the raised issues.

Annals: Who do you think are the most inspirational individuals in the art field?

Ki: I’d say Harald Szeemann (1933-2005) and Lee Young-chul (1957~), as they introduced the concept of curatorship—what it means to be a curator—to the art world in the West and Korea, respectively.

   Szeemann was the person who established and expanded on curatorship. Among the many exhibits he planned, “When attitudes become form” (1969) is considered the most groundbreaking exhibit in the history of art exhibitions. Prior to this exhibit, the artworks displayed in exhibitions all existed independently. However, this particular exhibit was a milestone in discovering the importance of displaying artworks based on their context and connections—introducing a new method to comprehend and interpret artworks. As for Lee, he further introduced the concept of curatorship to Korea in the 1990s. His exhibits “’98 Seoul in Media – Food, Clothing, Shelter” (1998), “You are my Sunshine: Korean Contemporary Art 1960~2004” (2004), and “Anyang Public Art Project (APAP)” (2005) marked a new era in Korean exhibitions.

   Along with their creativity, they evidently showed that curators, too, are creators in their own sense. They were inspirational in that they shed light on how we can look at the same things with a whole new perspective to gain different interpretations.

Annals: What is your favorite artwork? Who is your favorite artist?

Ki: I think these are some of the most difficult questions to answer. Just like how we all embody different traits, artists and their artworks are all different in their own ways. We end up liking an artwork because of one particular reason, and another artwork for a different reason. So, I don’t think it would be right to point out a particular artist and artwork as my favorite.

Annals: What do you value and prioritize most when planning a new exhibition on contemporary art?

Ki: As I mentioned above, contemporary art, just like modern art, does not purely exist on its own. Contemporary Art discusses and tackles our reality in every possible way. Therefore, I focus mostly on how all forms of art are interconnected and intertwined with our contemporary and modern-day lives.

Annals: Among all the exhibits you held, which one was your favorite? Which left the strongest impression?

Ki: I remember a lot of exhibits, but I must say that the one that particularly stands out is the first exhibit that I ever planned. This is mainly because of the excitement and tension I felt for planning an exhibit for the first time. This exhibit displayed the National Museum of Contemporary Art’s modern collections. Gathering the museum’s collections from the storage and displaying them may seem like an easy task. However, personally choosing between our country’s modern virtuosic pieces and contextualizing them into an exhibition was a very exciting yet intimidating task for me.

   My favorite exhibit is “Shin-ho-tan** Beginning of New Era”. It was held at the old building at the Defense Security Command site, just before it went under construction to become the new Seoul Branch of the National Museum of Contemporary Art. By working with around 70 artists, we showed how this site, a remnant of Korea’s military dictatorship, would be the new place of culture. Although we had to hold such a symbolic and meaningful exhibit at a building on the verge of being torn down—with water, toilets, and electrical facilities all in need of repair—with our team’s harmonious teamwork, we were able to enjoy the process, even when we worked overnight. Through this exhibit, I felt the strong passion for the upcoming era of the new National Museum of Contemporary Art.

Annals: What are some challenges you face as an Art Museum Director? How do you overcome them?

Ki: The challenges I face as a Museum Director mostly have to do with the budget and the human resources. All Museum Directors have a common important task—to secure the institutional budget and workforce. I’m trying my best to use all the available networks and resources to maximize the workforce and budget for our museum.

Annals: Are there any gender discrimination that female curators and directors face in the Korean art field?

Ki: There are relatively more female employees in the art field. The ratio of female to male curators in art museums exceeds 10:1. However, once we consider the gender ratio in higher positions in the managerial or directorial board, the ratio shows significant differences, with male exceeding female. Just around 10 years ago, it was really difficult to spot a female Museum Director, but from around 5 years ago, there was an increase in the number of female executive managers or directors. The “glass ceiling” once imposed on females have become noticeably thinner compared to the past, but gender issues still remain in today’s society, and also in the art world.

Annals: What do you love most about your job?

Ki: One thing I always think about is how fortunate I am to be able to do what I enjoy and love for a career and a living. It is a privilege that not many can experience with their jobs in Korea. Just like how many people vicariously experience the world through literary work, I love how my job allows me to view the world both through and with art, and gain new perspectives of the world we live in.

Annals: Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? What is your current goal?

Ki: In 5 years’ time, I think I probably would still be running an art museum. It would be a different museum though, since the term of office for Art Museum Directors in Korea, unlike in foreign countries, is limited to 5 years. My current goal is to successfully complete the renovation of Busan Museum of Art and improve our museum’s organization. Our museum was established in 1998. For the past 23 years, every aspect of our society has changed. The role of the art museums in our society, as well as the expectations the contemporary audience have for the art museums have changed. I hope that Busan Museum of Art, with its renovation, can improve the facilities and satisfy the new roles of art museums and the new expectations of our audience.

Annals: As we further progress into the Digital Age and the 4th Industrial Revolution, what changes do you think it will bring to the art field? Has it played a role in coping with the “Untact” Era?

Ki: Generally, art museums were heavily offline based. Since the start of COVID-19, we have been facing some limitations during the transition to online platforms. As of now, we have to acknowledge the challenge of delivering the same level of impression that we get from offline exhibitions to online platforms. So, it is very necessary for us to find an online communication system that corresponds with the 4th Industrial Revolution and the current “Untact” era. We need to use the characteristics of the online platform to draw a new method where we can maximize communication. Today, art museums from all around the world are working towards finding the best form of online-optimized exhibition, which has yet to be found. I guess we can say that we are now just at the beginning of the art museums’ online era and still experimenting with diverse ideas.

Annals: What are some characteristics that are required for aspiring Art Museum Directors?

Ki: The most fundamental and necessary characteristic Art Museum Directors should have is expert insight and creative thinking. They would also need to have excellent organizational and interpersonal skills as they have to communicate with all the writers, designers, educators, registrars, and businesses to set up an exhibition. So, good judgement and empathy are crucial to be successful in their career.

   Not only this, but they should also have good judgement skills for collaborative situations, and a clear vision for the institution. They should have strong leadership skills so as to objectively, sometimes even coldly, grasp and analyze the institution’s current situation and make wise decisions for the group.

Annals: Do you have some advice for students who want to enter the art field?

Ki: I believe that thinking and growing perspectives about our society both through and with artworks is very rewarding. I think that explains why, despite the poor salaries relative to the employees’ average educational background, occupations in the art field always stay within the top three when it comes to job satisfaction. If you are interested in this field, I suggest you first think about whether you like and would enjoy working in this field. Then, I recommend you look into the many different possible careers within the art field, and carefully decide the path you want to take. It would be very beneficial to learn the necessary background knowledge and study new languages to prepare for this occupation.

*Cultural Administrator: Refers to those who run and manage a cultural institution

**Shin-ho-tan: Korean word meaning “flare”, symbolizing the beginning of the new era