GANGWON-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) An international forum on museums will be held in an eastern county in South Korea next week to explore social roles museums can play, its organizer said Tuesday.

The Yeongwol International Museum Forum will take place in the county of the same name in Gangwon Province for a three-day run starting Oct. 28, according to the Korean Museum Association.

Under the theme of "the national policy and role of museums in society," dozens of participants from 34 countries, including Japan, China, the United States and France, will exchange views in five relevant categories of policy on managing museums, public support, promotion, regional development and a session reserved for students.

"It will be a venue of active presentations and discussions on a variety of examples and experiences on museums in the world," chief of its organizing committee Ji Geon-kil said. "It will help draw up a blueprint for what roles museums can play in the future for the harmonized development of a region, the culture and the tourism industry."

With a goal to shed its image as a remote and moribund county, the mining town of Yeongwol opted in 2005 to be "the city of museums" and built 26 museums and galleries, transforming itself into a popular tourist destination, bringing 1.5 million visitors per year.

graceoh@yna.co.kr

Copyrights Yonhap News. All Rights Reserved.