The Korean Cultural Center New York has opened the K-Zone, an interactive space on the fourth floor of its East 32nd Street center in Manhattan where visitors can view and try Korean lifestyle products. It consists of a traditional culture corner featuring "MU:DS," the cultural merchandise brand of the National Museum of Korea; a K-beauty corner organized with the KOTRA New York Trade Office; and a K-food corner with items such as sauces and rice. It is free and open to everyone during the center's operating hours.
The Korean Cultural Center New York on East 32nd Street in Manhattan now has a space where visitors can see and touch Korea's latest household goods. The center (Director Lee Jung-mi) announced on Sept. 29 that it has redesigned its fourth floor as the K-Zone, an experience space for Korean lifestyle products, and opened it to the public. Intended to extend interest in Korean culture into interest in and purchases of actual Korean products, the space is free and open to anyone visiting the center, with no reservation required.
The K-Zone is divided into three corners: traditional culture, K-beauty and K-food. The traditional culture corner is stocked with National Museum of Korea merchandise known as "MU:DS." On display are products that reinterpret Korean cultural heritage in a modern way, including a miniature modeled on the national treasure Gilt-Bronze Maitreya in Meditation, a miniature of the Baekje Gilt-Bronze Incense Burner, a masterpiece of Baekje metalwork, as well as a cup shaped like a gat (traditional Korean hat) and badges featuring the magpie and tiger characters. The MU:DS Maitreya in Meditation miniature is the very product that sold out in Korea and sparked a "museum merchandise craze."
Get a Skin Analysis and Make Your Own Toner
The K-beauty corner was organized with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) New York Trade Office. Products from various Korean cosmetics brands are on display for visitors to try on themselves. To mark the opening, visitors can also make their own personalized toner using a beauty device that formulates cosmetics based on skin analysis results. The K-food corner offers food and household items, including sauces such as gochujang and doenjang, and Korean rice that can be ordered with a choice of milling degree.
The center plans to develop the K-Zone into a space that connects cultural events with cultural products. It aims to let audiences who come for exhibitions or performances encounter related products naturally, and it will gradually hold programs linked to the products in the K-Zone. "We feel that interest in the Korean lifestyle people encounter locally through K-content continues to grow," said Director Lee Jung-mi. "We will work to make the K-Zone a place that turns this interest into experience of and demand for actual K-lifestyle products, and that creates new interest as well."
Visitor Information
The K-Zone is open during the center's operating hours, Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Sunday and Monday. The center is located on East 32nd Street in Manhattan between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue (122 E 32nd St), a five-minute walk from Koreatown. In October, the same building will host a Korean contemporary dance performance (Oct. 9–10) and the first New York Korean Independent Film Festival (Oct. 15–25), so visitors attending a performance or film may also want to stop by the fourth floor. For inquiries, call 212-759-9550.