Activities of Local Museums from the Perspective of Ecomuseology – Focusing on the Sokcho Museum –

The purpose of this study is to reflect on identity establishment of a community of displaced people and the role of a museum which contributes to the transmission of their tangible and intangible heritages, and to take a view of the community’s future. To this end, the Abai Village and the Sokcho Museum located at Cheongho-dong, Sokcho, Gangwon-do Province is explored as its main research target, and the historical, contemporary context of the community is looked into from the perspective of ecomuseology. Besides, the activities of the museum is examined how to contribute to the preservation and transmission of the people’s memories about evacuation and settlement. At present, it is not easy to find the activities of museums working on the displaced in Korea, and there are few opportunities to experience the traditional culture of the northern regions before the national division. In this regard, this paper would be very significant to expand the ground of cultural studies.Now, a museum faces the demands of the times that it should develop more subdivided, in-depth programs, apart from the functions of collecting, managing, preserving, surveying, researching, exhibiting and educating intangible and tangible heritages of mankind, and that it should present solutions to the problems of a local community from the cultural perspectives. The magnified role of a museum in handling socio-cultural problems, which cannot be possibly solved through political, or economic logic, is attributable to manifestation of a new museum movement, and its practical efforts.A museum in modern times has begun to transform itself through its acceptance of a challenge in order to portray diverse social needs while showing the tendency to get involved in the problems of a local community a little more aggressively. Sometimes it heals the wounds of a local community and carries out the function of social integration.The Sokcho Museum displays the life of displaced people in a permanent exhibition of ‘A Refugee Culture: Folklore \& Mingling Culture of Sokcho People’. In addition, the museum makes many efforts to preserve and pass down the culture of the displaced while operating Displaced Civilians Folk Village as an outdoor exhibition area, and performing relevant educational programs.The museum has also conducted out collecting and recording the collective memories of the first-generation displaced people. In collaboration with the Sokcho Municipal Art Company, it has preserved and re-created the archetypes of intangible heritage in the North Korean regions such as Bukcheong Sajanoreum. The museum provides regular performance programs continuously for the general public.Besides, the museum carries on substantive planning and projects, playing an intermediate role in connecting the relationship between the community of displaced people and Sokcho-si in enjoying their cultural festivals. In the relationship among environment, community and museum, Sokcho-si, the community, and the Sokcho Museum show an inter-connected structure. The activities of the museum assumes an element of a core museum which acts as a base for an ecomuseum while transmitting tangible and intangible heritages to the next generations, and contributing to the environment.