46.9 billion won upgrade adds climate-control systems, expanded storage

Reopening exhibitions include first international show 'Future Museology'

An aerial rendering of the renovated Busan Museum of Art [Provided by Busan city]
An aerial rendering of the renovated Busan Museum of Art [Provided by Busan city]

The Busan Museum of Art held a reopening ceremony Thursday at 5 p.m. in the first-floor lobby, marking the completion of a large-scale renovation that took nearly two years.

About 300 people attended the ceremony, including Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo, artists featured in the exhibitions and their families, institutional officials, members of the museum's support association, and prominent figures from the cultural community. The event celebrated the museum's fresh start and its vision going forward.

Since opening in 1998, the museum has served as a cultural hub in Busan, organizing about 330 exhibitions through 2023 along with a range of education programs, lectures, performances and online exhibitions.

The renovation drew on a total budget of about 46.9 billion won ($34.3 million), funding upgrades across the facility — including a new temperature-and-humidity control system, consolidated and reorganized gallery spaces, expanded storage, additional visitor amenities such as a cafe, a reoriented main entrance, and an outdoor sculpture park.

The project also reinforced the museum's core functions of preserving its collection and archival materials, while reconnecting the galleries, children's gallery, visitor rest areas and outdoor sculpture park both vertically and horizontally to create a more flexible, integrated space.

The first international exhibition since the reopening, "Future Museology," was organized in collaboration with a consortium of nine museums at home and abroad. It explores how art institutions can deepen their relationship with society and expand their role as public spaces.

"But We Are Still on the High Waves of This Sea: 1945–1953" examines the social realities of Korea from liberation in 1945 through the Korean War, drawing on artworks and archival materials. The exhibition presents more than 260 works and about 460 archival items drawn from the museum's own collection as well as major domestic museums, galleries and private collectors, tracing the formation of Korean society after liberation through the eyes of artists of the era. Of particular note is the release of materials related to art exhibitions held in Busan during the liberation period, shedding light on the activities of the city's first generation of painters.

"To All the Museums of All These Yesterdays" revisits the long relationship between the museum and Busan's art ecosystem, drawing on institutional and architectural records and collection resources accumulated from the museum's founding through its reopening.

"We will nurture this into a museum that people want to visit often and recommend to others — a place where art feels close and accessible to everyone," Mayor Jeon said.


kaf2002@heraldcorp.com