Asian Art Museum of San Francisco names Korean art curator

Korean art curator named

Hyonjeong Kim Han, a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has been named curator of Korean art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Kim, who will assume her new duties July 1, will be responsible for one of the most comprehensive overseas collections of Korean art at one of the largest Asian art museums in the Western world.

At LACMA, Kim was instrumental in last year's re-installation of the Korean art galleries -- the largest such galleries outside of Korea. She joined the museum in 2006 and has served as associate curator of Chinese and Korean art and as the department's acting head and curator.

-- Karen Wada This is a day for Mister Rogers

Mister Rogers cared deeply about his neighbors and his neighborhood, both in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and in real life. Now, friends and colleagues of late television icon Fred Rogers want to honor his legacy with a national day of volunteering on his birthday.

Rogers, who died in 2003 after battling stomach cancer, would have been 82 Saturday.

The Won't You Be My Neighbor? Day is beginning this year in partnership with the United Way of Allegheny County, the county in which Pittsburgh is located and where the show was made.

"We're trying to establish this as a national event, but you've got to start small," said David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." "It's really what Fred would want to happen. He wanted to help others."

Suggested volunteer ideas are simple acts, such as lending an ear to someone, offering to return a shopping cart or volunteering at a senior center. Around Pittsburgh, various museums and other institutions are offering free or reduced admissions to mark the day.

-- associated press 'Days of Our Lives' renewed

With CBS' "Guiding Light" having been extinguished last year and its "As the World Turns" due to end in September, there was at last a modicum of reassuring news for daytime soap opera fans Friday: NBC said it had renewed "Days of Our Lives" through the 2010-11 season.

The serial is due to celebrate its 45th anniversary Nov. 8. Executive producer Ken Corday is the son of the show's creators, Betty and Ted Corday.

NBC said its decision was based on improving ratings for the program. Through 25 weeks of the current season, "Days of Our Lives" is averaging 3.3 million viewers, the network said, a 10% improvement from the same point a year ago and its best showing in the past three years.