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| ▲ Seoul's Jung Ward officials and residents clean a street in Myeongdong on March 18 |
SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap) -- The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Thursday it will launch a “K-Culture Special Program” at five national cultural institutions in Seoul from Friday, in conjunction with the return concert of BTS set to take place in the Gwanghwamun area on Saturday.
Participating institutions -- the National Museum of Korea, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the National Folk Museum of Korea, the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History and the National Library of Korea -- will offer a wide range of programs, including exhibitions, hands-on activities, performances and educational events, each reflecting its own characteristics.
On Saturday, the National Museum of Korea will release English-language videos introducing artifacts such as the “Pensive Bodhisattva” and “Moon Jar,” which are known to be of interest to BTS members. The museum’s cultural foundation, in collaboration with HYBE, will also develop cultural merchandise using items from the museum’s collection, to be sold starting March 20 at museum gift shops and other outlets.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art will run “MMCA: Meet the K-Art,” an English-language guided program for foreign visitors, from March 20 to April 19. Visitors will be able to experience BTS music through media projection at the large-scale “BTS Sound Cube,” a 384-cubic-meter installation set up in the outdoor yard of its Seoul branch.
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| ▲ Police stand guard around the stage for a free concert by K-pop group BTS at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 16, 2026, with the group set to put on a comeback concert at 8 p.m. on March 21. (Yonhap) |
The National Folk Museum of Korea will host a special program titled “K-Culture Folk Traditions with BTS” from March 20 to April 30. The program will offer guided exhibitions on artifacts that have drawn the members’ interest and feature a “K-Playground” in the outdoor yard, where visitors can try traditional games such as tuho, top spinning and jegichagi, which appeared in the YouTube series "RUN BTS."
The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History will exhibit a time capsule donated by BTS along with related videos through May 31. It will also run a children’s educational program titled “Arirang of Rock” from April to June, highlighting “Arirang” as a piece of popular culture in modern and contemporary history by linking the 100th anniversary of director Na Un-gyu’s film "Arirang" (1926) with BTS’ "Arirang" (2026) performance.
The National Library of Korea will hold a book exhibition under the theme “Books That Inspired BTS Music” from March 20 to April 12. The exhibition will feature literary works that inspired BTS members, including "Until the Peony Blooms" by Kim Young-rang and "Boy" by Yun Dong-ju, along with related research materials and publications. It will also run an ongoing interactive media art exhibition titled “Writer’s Note,” allowing visitors to experience Korean literary works.
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