Surpassing 1 Million Visitors Since the 2013 Opening of Seoul Hall
Popular Among the 2030 Young Generation
Last year, the number of foreign visitors to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) reached 220,000. This is the highest record since its opening.
On the 2nd, the MMCA announced that the number of foreign visitors to the museum last year increased by about 6% compared to 2023. This figure represents a 36% increase compared to 160,000 visitors in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the opening of the Seoul branch in 2013, the cumulative number of foreign visitors across all four branches has surpassed one million. The nationality with the highest number of foreign visitors last year was the United States at 27.0%, followed by Europe at 26.4%, China at 18.8%, Japan at 8.5%, and Southeast Asia at 7.0%, with Western visitors accounting for more than half of the total.
The Seoul branch recorded 190,000 visitors in 2024, accounting for 86.2% of all foreign visitors across the four branches. The exhibition with the highest number of foreign visitors was "Back to the Future: Exploring the Contemporaneity of Korean Modern Art," which attracted 50,000 viewers. This was followed by the exhibitions "Jung Young-sun: For All That Breathes on This Land" and "What Dreams Do Objects Dream?" each drawing about 30,000 visitors.
A painting on ceramics is exhibited at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi Province. On the far left is "Baekja Cheonghwa Giwoo" (Boy Riding an Ox), a white porcelain piece by Andong O (1919?1989) with a painting by Kim Ki-chang (1913?2001), part of the "Lee Kun-hee Collection." Photo by Yonhap News.
The MMCA analyzed that this increase in foreign visitors is the result of growing inbound tourism after the COVID-19 period and the museum's efforts to expand foreigner-oriented services in various ways.
Last year, the museum provided tailored services including ▲strengthening communication about the museum and exhibitions to foreigners through a newly issued English newsletter ▲promotion of Korean art wave content series and short-form videos produced with English narration and subtitles ▲development of educational programs for foreigners residing in Korea ▲operation of foreigner supporters (#helloMMCA) and communication and feedback on museum and Korean art content on social media in 20 languages worldwide.
Among all domestic and international visitors last year, those in their 20s accounted for 41.3%, and those in their 30s accounted for 24.4%, showing that the proportion of visitors in their 20s and 30s was 66%, indicating a clear increase in young visitors.
The exhibitions that gained popularity among this age group were found to be △What Dreams Do Objects Dream? △Back to the Future: Exploring the Contemporaneity of Korean Modern Art △Variable Collections.
Kim Sung-hee, director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, said, “With the global interest in Korean art growing, we will strive to prepare differentiated exhibitions as a national museum and develop services and programs for both domestic and international visitors.”
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