Alissandra Cummins, President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), praised the achievement of Korean museums and their protection of intangible cultural heritage. She visited Seoul last week for the editorial and advisory meeting of the International Journal of Intangible Heritage of the ICOM-ICME ― International Committee for Museums of Ethnography ― which took place at the National Folk Museum of Korea.
“Over the last ten years, I have become more aware of the Korean system for protecting intangible cultural heritage and what has been impressive is their knowledge about what they have and what is important in terms of representing different aspects of cultural life in the country and then reflecting that in a number of different ways,” Cummins said in an interview with The Korea Times.
The ICOM president emphasized the whole system of living human treasures, which is often difficult to find.
“Only a few countries do it. It is a process that we think really it should deserve a lot of attention. Korea has been very good about informing other countries and helping them to become aware of these kinds of systems, indeed, developing knowledge about the importance of apprenticing younger people to learn from the master traditional bearers is the important aspect of that,” she said.
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