The Korean Cultural Center New York marked the opening of its fourth-floor K-Zone on Oct. 14 with a Korean culture event for UN staff. Members of UN KCS, a Korean culture club for UN employees, tried MUDS merchandise and beauty products and made rice balls with Korean ingredients.
The Korean Cultural Center New York held a Korean culture event with UN staff on Oct. 14 at the K-Zone, its new hands-on space on the fourth floor.
Participants were members of UN KCS, a Korean culture club made up of UN employees. In the K-Zone and the kitchen area, they tried out MUDS, the cultural merchandise line of the National Museum of Korea, as well as Korean cosmetics, and made rice balls with Korean ingredients.
The K-Zone is a space the center newly set up on the fourth floor in late September. It is divided into three corners: traditional culture, K-beauty and K-food. The traditional culture corner features MUDS items such as a miniature of the Gilt-bronze Maitreya in Meditation, a miniature of the Baekje Gilt-bronze Incense Burner and a cup shaped like a gat, the traditional Korean hat. The K-beauty corner was set up with the KOTRA New York Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency office, so visitors can try Korean cosmetics themselves, while the K-food corner displays sauces such as gochujang and doenjang, as well as Korean rice.
The center has said it plans to develop the K-Zone into a space that links cultural events with cultural merchandise. The idea is for visitors who come for an exhibition or performance to naturally encounter related products, and for programs tied to K-Zone products to be held in stages. The UN staff event was the first group program held under that plan.
The center is in Midtown Manhattan, like the UN headquarters, so UN staff can walk between the two. The K-Zone is free for anyone to look around, with no reservation required.