Advance notice of a two-week festival of events for all ages, based around Buddha’s birthday. Note that the programme is currently provisional, and will be confirmed on the museum’s website shortly.
Korean Cultural Festival
Oriental Museum | Elvet Hill | Durham DH1 3TH | www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum
The Korean festival will run from 18th – 31st May and be held at the Oriental Museum to celebrate and promote our Korean collection. We have quite a variety of events and a lecture program including talks that cover Korean art, Buddhist temple music, Korean Archaeology and 20th Century politics. This is in addition to our regular programme of under 5’s sessions and family activities which will be predominately Korean-themed for the fortnight.
The main focus of the festival is our first ever Buddha’s Birthday event. This is on Monday 25th May (the second May Bank Holiday) and will be run in a similar style as Lunar New Year. The day includes a Korean drumming performance by the Durham University Korean Drum group, lotus lantern crafts, Buddha gallery trail and storytelling. In addition to this, The Asian Project – a local street food vendor – is coming to the museum and has created some Korean dishes for the festival which will be available to buy along with several of their other popular meals. Below is the outline of the festival, more details will be on the museum website and Eventbrite shortly.
Monday May 18th
Daytime:
- Little Bookworms 10 – 11 am
Evening:
- Opening Lecture – Korean Art – with Eleanor Hyun, Assistant Curator at The British Museum, 6 – 8pm (in museum)
Tuesday 19th
Evening:
- Buddhist Music Lecture with Dr Simon Mills, 6 – 7pm (in EHH)
Wednesday 20th
Daytime:
- Little Dragons 10 – 11am
Evening:
- Film Showing of ‘Architecture 101’, 6 – 8pm (in EHH)
Thursday 21st
- MA gallery opening, no specific Korean events
Friday 22nd
Evening:
- Film Showing ‘The Terror Live’, 6 – 8pm (in EHH)
Saturday 23rd
Daytime:
- Gallery tour of Korean collections, 2 – 3pm (in museum)
Sunday 24th
Daytime:
- Moon Jar Craft Activities, 2 – 3pm (Spalding Room)
- Preparation for Buddha’s Birthday
Monday 25th
Daytime:
- Buddha’s Birthday:
- Korean drumming performance (Marvels)
- Lotus Lantern crafts, storytelling, TAP Korean food to buy
(All Museum and all classrooms)
Tuesday 26th
Daytime:
- DAX – Focus on Korean archaeology.
- Talk by Min Soo Kwack. (classrooms)
Evening:
- Archaeology Lecture – The Gold Crowns of Silla by Mr. Min Soo Kwack, 6 – 8pm (in EHH)
Wednesday 27th
Daytime:
- Little Dragons 10 – 11am
- Family activities 1 – 3pm
Thursday 28th
Daytime:
- Family Film showing of ‘Leafie: a hen into the wild’, 2 – 3.30pm
Evening:
- Friend’s tour of Buddhism temp. exhibition, 6 – 8pm (In museum)
Friday 29th
Daytime:
- Family Activities 1 – 3pm
Evening:
- Politics Lecture – Korean Politics of the 20th Century by Mr Ho Seong Park 6 – 8pm (in EHH)
Saturday 30th
Daytime:
- Family Activities 1 – 3pm
- Taekwondo Classes and demo, 1 – 4pm: 2 classes (in classroom: 1.30pm; 3.30pm) and 2 demos (in Japan gallery 1pm; 3pm)
Sunday 31st
Daytime:
- Introduction to Korean class, led by DUKS 2.30 – 3.30pm
- Taekwondo Classes and demo, 1pm: demo in gallery, 1.30pm: class in classroom
