TY  - JOUR
T1  - CREATING REGIMES OF VALUE THROUGH CURATION AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA
AU  - SAEJI, CEDARBOUGH T. 
JO  - Academia Koreana
PY  - 2014
DA  - 2014/1/1
DO  - 10.18399/acta.2014.17.2.004
KW  - heritage
KW  - curation
KW  - museums
KW  - Buddhism
KW  - regime of value
AB  - The National Museum of Korea (NMK) is a site for teaching its visitors about the wonders of the Korean past through exhibition of exemplary art works. Through participant-observation in a Korean art history program organized by the NMK, museum visits, an interview with a senior curator, and an analysis of the NMK’s self-published book 100 Highlights of the National Museum of Korea, I interrogate the museum’s ideology in order to gain a better understanding of the messages about Koreanness communicated to the museum’s visitors. I am interested in the curatorial choices made by the museum that may ideologically condition spectators to associate Korean artistic excellence with Buddhism. I combine an analysis of language used in curation of Buddhist art on museum labels and displays, and within the NMK’s self-published book of 100 museum highlights, with a discussion that illustrates how the NMK creates new regimes of value in its presentation of Buddhist objects as national heritage.