Thao My

Internship period : October 21th 2021 to December 22th 2021

Hello! This is Thao My from Acopia. With Acopia, I was given many opportunities that I am grateful for. The time I spent as an ISKA Artist was meaningful, as, through dance and art, I helped build the goal of a bigger and more understanding multicultural society in my way. ISKA, the International Student Korean Association, had a goal that I understood very well. Every week, ISKA trainees and artists would perform live on Instagram with our prepared dances and songs.

Another activity I did during my ISKA work was helping the Acopia Gallery. Again, art can act as a medium for cross-cultural exchange. Using my fluency in Vietnamese, I was able to contribute by advertising and contacting several Vietnamese artists. Vietnamese artists are often overlooked in the global art narrative, seldom can you find works by them in many museums. By breaking the narrative that fine art can only be produced in highly developed countries, Acopia Gallery seeks to push the viewer to reevaluate socio-cultural prejudices and opinions.

The purpose of ISKA was very meaningful to me. ISKA seeks to build a better multicultural world through art. Art has always been an important part of my life, and art will always dictate joy and sadness. But it is through art we also form bonds. Bonds that I hope will guide Korea and the World to being more and more accepting. Maybe it’ll take one step at a time. Maybe it will take just one dance performance or one beautiful painting, but the progress will happen.

As an intern, I was tasked with reporting and working for Acopia News. There was a wide range of newspaper topics, but I was particularly assigned to focus on reporting on K-POP and K-Media. As someone with strong academic passion, I wanted to write insightful articles on new happenings in Korean media. It is important to carefully and critically analyze the world around us. Merging morality, sociological, and psychological analysis with seemingly simple topics helps us as people reconsider the depth of the media industry. For example, an article I enjoyed writing was about Squid Game. Despite the long historical list of great Asian media, Western news outlets and society continue to paint new Asian works as “unexpected” and “break-out”. It is one thing to simply report on the popularity of Squid Game, but being analytical helps form more insightful reflections on the world around us.

In my reports and daily life, I was able to go around and explore Korea. Acopia provided many audition opportunities and chances for incredibly fun public broadcast performances. Although I am young and still learning, Acopia continued to allow me room and chances to grow. For that, I am grateful for the incredible and talented staff at the company. In my five months so far in Korea, I know I want to continue to discover more and more about this country