The Cultural Diplomacy of South Korea: Exhibiting the Nation in International Museums

This book explores the role played by museums and museum exhibitions in South Korea’s cultural diplomacy and international projection of itself to the world. Based on extensive archival research and fieldwork in cultural diplomatic institutions across South Korea, Britain, and the United States, this book charts the important role played by this form of cultural diplomacy. It considers specific travelling exhibitions including Masterpieces of Korean Art, which was on tour from 1957 to 1962, and 5000 Years of Korean Art, on tour from 1976 to 1985, and permanent and special exhibitions in the Korea Foundation Gallery in the British Museum and the Arts of Korea in the Metropolitan Museum of Art globally. This book goes on to examine the place of museums in South Korea’s cultural diplomacy overall, explores the connections with South Korea’s very successful development of its cultural sector, and concludes by assessing the effectiveness for South Korea of prioritising this form of soft power projection.Analysing the developmental stages of South Korean cultural diplomacy in relation to international museum exhibitions, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Korean history, culture and diplomacy as well as museums studies.

About the Author

Sumi Kim is Assistant Professor in the School of Global Content Convergence, College of International Studies, at Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea. She holds a B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, USA; M.A. in Museum Studies from the University of Manchester, UK; and Ph.D. in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, UK.