Incheon City will hold monthly in-depth expert research seminars until September to develop activation plans for the city art museum scheduled for completion in 2027. The seminars aim to share the construction process and operational direction of the museum with citizens, the local art community, and experts, and will be conducted in three sessions covering various topics.
The first seminar, to be held on the 26th, will feature directors of public art museums discussing "Cases of Domestic and International Art Museum Construction and Opening and Changes in Art Museums." They will discuss specialized strategies for the Incheon City Art Museum through case studies and comparative analysis, changes and future directions in the role and significance of contemporary art museums, and practical perspectives for preparing the construction and opening of the museum.
The second seminar, scheduled for the 27th of next month, will have key artists and exhibition space operators from Incheon share art discourse based on Incheon’s regional characteristics. They will analyze the landscape of the Incheon art scene, the current cultural status and cultural resources of Incheon, and share strategies for establishing Incheon as an East Asian art hub, including networking and regional base strategies.
The third seminar, on September 10th, will bring together cultural policy experts and art critics to discuss "Future-oriented and Sustainable Art Museums." Topics will include cultural policy and arts education directions for regional art museums, detailed strategies for future-oriented and sustainable museums, and operational strategies and technological accessibility approaches for art museums responding to the era of artificial intelligence (AI).
In particular, the seminars will examine the theme of "DEIA: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility" from an art critical perspective, focusing on Incheon’s history of "port opening and immigration."
After the three expert seminars, the city plans to hold a public forum with citizen participation at the end of October. The content presented in the seminars and the public forum will be compiled into research materials and posted on the city’s website and a webpage for promoting preliminary programs, allowing citizens to access and share the information.
An official from Incheon City stated, "We will prepare step-by-step public deliberation processes and various citizen-participatory preliminary programs before the opening of the city art museum, and expand opportunities for communication and cooperation with citizens, the local art community, and experts."
Meanwhile, Incheon City is promoting the construction of Incheon Museum Park on a site at 573 Hakik-dong, Michuhol-gu, with two above-ground floors, one basement floor, and a total floor area of 40,000 square meters. The current city museum, located in Okryeon-dong, Yeonsu-gu, will be relocated here, and Incheon’s first city art museum will be established. Among domestic special and metropolitan cities such as Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Ulsan, Incheon is the only city without a city art museum.
The city plans to undergo the second phase of the central investment review by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in the second half of this year, begin construction in the first half of next year, complete the building by the end of 2027, and officially open the museum in the first half of 2028 after preparation.
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