III. Vision_1. Future Plans of Private Art Museums in Korea

Art Museums
Their History, Present Situation and Vision:

the case of the Republic of Korea : through historical survey, the case studies of private art museums and the "Mo-am Collection"

  

 Ho Am Art Museum (호암미술관)

  

 Leeum (리움)

 

1. Future Plans of Private Art Museums in Korea
As I mentioned in the last chapter, the comprehensive master plan for Korean art museums was created by the Korean government in collaboration with the Korean Museum Association and the Korean Art Museum Association. They are trying to promote Korean art museums in quality and quantity. For this purpose, they have researched and benchmarked a variety of successful cases in the U.S. and Europe to set up a tangible and effective administrative ways for art museums in Korea.

According to the plan, the government (the Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea８０) projects to establish the National Museum of Modern Art (2008 – 2018) in the Deoksu Palace. It seems to me that MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea) will transfer the Deoksu Art Museum, the annex of the MOCA, to the National Museum of Modern Art by renovation and extension of the buildings in the Deoksu Palace. However, it is little bit ambiguous to me what the main differences are between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Modern Art. In addition, the MOCA has another project. The MOCA is going to construct the Seoul National Museum of Contemporary Art (2008 – 2018). In my view, the function and role of the National Museum of Modern Art conflicts with the function and role of the National Museum of Contemporary Art and even, the National Museum of Korea８１. Hence, it is my hope that these plans should be carefully reviewed and reconsidered.

The Korean government and Korean art museums are working closely together to promote and develop the status of Korean art museums for the most part. The government is trying to set the best art museum policy and the social and cultural infrastructures in collaboration with the Korean academic world, the Korean Museum Association, the Private Korean Museums Association, the Korean Art Museum Association, etc. And the Korean art museums, including private Korean art museums, are playing very actively with enthusiasm for the development of art museums.

Everything looks good; however, I would like to point out two things. If I look at the master plan for Korean art museums by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, it seems to me that they do focus on the promotion of the numbers of art museums. However, I guess the quality of art museums is much more important. For this matter, it might be necessary for the government and the MOCA to review carefully the master plan. Especially for private Korean art museums, they must try to promote their self-reliance rate to resolve fundamental financial problems. They might create several programs, such as organizing supporting groups, creating cooperation and partnership with Korean enterprises, and so forth. They should also examine carefully the relationship between their activities and the participation of the audience and why the general publics are not interested in the art activities by private Korean art museums. This is very important to create their own audiences, including supporting groups, in their communities. In order to do this, the private Korean art museums might need to solve the art museum concentration in the metropolitan area (Seoul and Gyeonggi)８２. The majority of Korean art museums are located in the particular regions of the metropolitan area. This might be helpful for each other. However, on the other side, they are too competitive especially for creating their own supporting groups to settle their major financial problem in a limited audience. They could move to other places and create new audiences with their specialties in those communities as a community member.

ⓒ 모암문고 www.moamcollection.org