In these recessionary times, any contribution to the arts is a cause for celebration. Such a state of affairs makes the opening of the Daegu Art Museum (DAM) in May 2011 in Daegu, South Korea, an especially joyous event.

The museum, sited on a hilltop overlooking the city on a spacious property, houses the most expansive spaces in South Korea for large-scale exhibitions. It was built to showcase the cutting-edge installations of world-class artists from Korea, Japan, and China, and its museum director, Kim Sunhee, sees a pivotal role for DAM in local cultural life, referring to the museum as "a vital institution bridging contemporary Korean culture and the world of Korean arts from the recent past, pre-modern and ancient times."

DAM's vast exhibition spaces leave quite an impression on the viewer. One of the exhibits currently on display is "Box Construction in Daegu," a towering installation by the Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata. Making a powerful statement about the importance of everyday objects in this apple growing region, Kawamata uses countless wooden apple crates to create a cascade that runs from the roof the museum building onto the ground below. Visitors approaching the museum are sure to be struck by the raw beauty of the tumbling mass of crates, which form a stark contrast to the polished metallic exterior walls of the museum.