Behind-the-scenes with OKCHF researchers and the ROM's Korean collection

In the summer of 2015 the ROM’s Department of World Cultures hosted a team of Korean researchers from the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation (OKCHF). In August 2016 the OKCHF project team will be returning to the ROM for the second half of this two part assignment in order to finish photographing and researching the rest of the ROM’s Korean collection. 

Dr. Christina Han was the project manager for the ROM, and the OKCHF team consisted of the following members: Donghyon Kim, Project Manager, Minhee Ahn, Assistant Project Manager, Prof. Jongmin Lee, leading ceramics expert from Chungbuk National University, Prof. Gilsik Kim, earthenware and archaeological material specialist from Yongin University, and the renowned textile photographer Mr. Heunkang Seo.   Dr. Han has a long history with the ROM working on several of our Korean Gallery rotations.  In 2005 she curated an exhibition entitled Korea around 1900: The Paintings of Gisan. 

The Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation was founded in July 2012, and as a public institution they actively conduct research on Korean objects and cultural heritage held in collections outside of the Korean peninsula, they encourage further studies and better protection as well as support activities related to Korean cultural heritage.  In addition, the Foundation supports academic research and conservation work related to Korean cultural heritage in Korea and abroad.

As of April 1, 2015 OKCHF compiled statistics on the current state of Korean cultural properties overseas revealing that there are approximately 160,342 Korean cultural objects dispersed in Museums around the world.

In August 2015, for the first time ever the ROM closed its Gallery of Korea to the public for two days, and with the help of preparators Aurora Hall and Dave Garvin, OKCHF were able to examine, measure and photograph most of the objects in the gallery.

Kara Ma who was hired as the new technician to work on the Korean collection, is currently processing all the digital images and research data recently received from the OKCHF Publication and Research Project team.  Below is an example of some of the objects photographed by the OKCHF photographer.

The ROM has a total of 1373 Korean objects in its collection spread throughout the East Asian, Textiles and Ethnology sections. Our Ethnology Section holds an A-frame 'chige' (982.63.1) – a Korean traditional back-carrier made of wood and woven rice stalks from 1969 that was donated by our own Jack Howard (Retired Far Eastern Librarian) in 1982. 

OKCHF, during their time at the ROM, were able to properly classify artefacts that were incorrectly identified as Korean, and we have been able to discover new Korean objects held in our back of house storage area.

At the end of the two weeks OKCHF had examined and photographed 839 ROM objects.  In August 2016 OKCHF will return to the ROM to complete this project and photograph the rest of our Korean collection, which will include some metal objects, furniture, lacquer ware and textiles, adding up to around 206 objects. 

The goal is to produce a wonderful publication of the ROM’s holdings similar to publications by OKCHF produced for institutions such as the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

While the team from OKCHF were working in the Korean gallery, the ROM also hosted the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) who filmed in the Gallery of Korea and in the classroom where the collections survey was conducted.  The KBS videographers, with the help of Kara Ma, Dave Garvin and Aurora Hall, were able to video 10 important Korean objects on a 360 rotating turntable, which captured 72 frames/images per rotation.  

Follow Kara Ma, and myself Gwen Adams on Twitter as we once again host OKCHF this summer - we will keep you posted on what is happening with the hundreds of objects yet to be examined by the Korean experts.