2022 DANO-SPRING FESTIVAL

DanO 2022 Korean Spring Festival

Presented by Gateway Korea Foundation (GKF) in partnership with the Saint Louis Art Museum(SLAM) and with participation from Kongju National University, S. Korea.

Friday, June 10, 2022
Saint Louis Art Museum
The Farrell Auditorium
5:30 PM Reception/6:30 PM Program

2022 Program

Join Maya Stiller, associate professor of Korean art and visual culture at the University of Kansas, as she provides a brief overview of the history of K-pop (short for Korean popular music) and explores the ways in which traditional elements in K-pop music videos are used for the representation of “Koreanness.” The talk will be followed by a conversation about the global connections to K-pop and the art world with Maya Stiller, Hannah Klemm, associate curator of modern and contemporary art at SLAM, and Mee Jey, a multidisciplinary Indian artist based in St. Louis.

To celebrate DanO Korean Spring Festival, the first 150 people to our reception who have registered via Metrotix will receive a FREE drink coupon!

Choose from one of two tasty drinks 🍹

🍓🍊 Strawberry Sunrise- a refreshing, non-alcoholic drink with strawberry syrup and orange juice to mimic a sunrise. This drink reflects the strawberry wine ancient Koreans drank while celebrating DanO.

🍉🍯 Hwachae(화채) Punch – a sweet and sour non-alcoholic drink with watermelon, berry, honey syrup, and lemon-lime soda. A popular summer drink in Korea!

MAYA STILLER

Associate Professor of Korean Art History & Visual Culture, University of Kansas

 She earned a B.A. and M.A. with double majors in Korean Studies and Art History from Humboldt University, a doctorate degree in East Asian Art history from Freie Universität Berlin and a Ph.D. in Asian Languages & Cultures from UCLA. Her most recent articles have been published in the Journal of Asian Studies and the Journal of Korean Religions. Her book Carving Status at Kůmgangsan was recently published by University of Washington Press.  She is currently working on her second book project, Korean Buddhist Temple Economy, which highlights several strategies including fundraising and manufacturing that Korean temples use(d) to become economically self-sufficient

HANNAH KLEMM

Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Saint Louis Art Museum

She curates the museum's "Currents” and “New Media Series” exhibitions. Klemm previously was the Fisher Collection Graduate Curatorial Fellow at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she has worked on the contemporary German art collection. She holds a doctorate from the University of Chica go, a master's degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a bachelor's degree in art history with honors from Sarah Lawrence College. Klemm has received several fellow ships and awards, including a 10-month research fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service at Humboldt University in Berlin. 

MEE JEY

Multidisciplinary Indian Artist with many distinguished awards and exhibitions

She is an Indian artist-mother, whose sensibilities are shaped by the mythologies and folk lore of India, historical accounts of past, archaeological remains of ancient India and her travels to the length and breadth of Indian subcontinent.  She has MFA from Sam Fox School of Arts, Washington University in St. Louis (2019), Master's degree in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University and MPhil in Liberal Arts from Ambedkar University in Delhi. Recipient of McDonnell International Scholarship (2017-19) and USA States Fellowship LFP (2017), Mee's works have been exhibited in India and in St. Louis. Currently she is practicing from St. Louis, USA 

SCHEDULE

5:30 PM         Reception at the lobby in front of the Auditorium

6:00 PM         Performance Art by Janet Park, Board of Director, GKF  “Movement within stillness”

6:30 PM         Program at the Farrell Auditorium, SLAM Welcome and Introduction:  Min Jung Kim, The Barbara B. Taylor Director, SLAM Introduction:  Young Hie Nahm Kromm, DanO Committee Chairperson, GKF

 6:45 PM          K-Pop Dance Performance by Ethereal

 7:00 PM         Presentation:  Maya Stiller “How Korean is K-Pop?”

7:30 PM          Conversation:  Maya Stiller, Hannah Klemm, & Mee Jey “Global Connections to K-Pop”

 8:00 PM         Q&A

 8:10 PM         Closing Remarks:  Seungkwon You, Chairperson, GKFMaster of Ceremony:  Amanda Thompson Rudahl, Director of Learning and Engagement, SLAM

For information about the Museum’s safety protocols, visit slam.org/covid-19-response.

 This program is underwritten in part through a grant from the Creative Impact Fund for Diversifying the Arts partnership between the Arts and Education Council and local community leader

ABOUT DANO

Celebrating May 5th by the lunar calendar is a shared tradition among East Asian countries, but the activities differ widely.  DanO, the Korean celebration, began as a day of spiritual rites during the Manhan Period (1st century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.  Today, DanO celebration includes traditional outdoor and indoor activities including swinging on swings, wrestling, making special cakes with fresh harvested spring herbs, women washing their hair with Sweet Flag Iris, and giving gifts of fans for use in the coming summer.  The tradition appears in some well-known artwork from the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392-1910): in the eighteenth-century painting by Shin Yun-bok (Women on DanO Day) and Kim Hong Do (A Dancing Boy). And a famous love story, the “Story of Ch’unhyang” circulated both through written text and through an oral performance tradition called p’ansori, a good rendition of the DanO celebration.