Curator Jang Sang-hoon: “National Folk Museum to be relocated to Sejong City… Will become a ‘window open to the world'”

Pushing ahead with previous work to open in 2031
Total project cost of 198.1 billion won… On a site of over 50,000 pyeong
Aims to be a ‘World Cultural Museum’…”Will collect materials on world history”, “[Edaily reporter Lee Yun-jeong] “In the future, we hope that the National Folk Museum of Korea will become an “open window to the world” based on an understanding of Korean culture. The new museum to be built in Sejong City will strive to become a place for sharing universal cultures around the world.”
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, “Jang Sang-hoon (56), the newly appointed director of the National Folk Museum of Korea, presented a new vision and goal to transform it into a ‘World Cultural Museum’. The National Folk Museum of Korea is currently working on building a new building in Sejong Special Autonomous City with the goal of opening in 2031.”
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, “Director Jang, during his inauguration meeting held at the Pyeonduljae in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 12th, said, “I hope that the museum will become a place where people from various countries around the world come to understand and empathize with diverse cultures of humanity” and emphasized that “from now on, we will strive to become a museum where we can breathe together with world cultures, compare world cultures, and appreciate them together.””
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Jang Sang-hoon, the newly appointed Director of the National Folk Museum of Korea, is announcing the museum’s future operational plans during a press conference at the Seoul National Folk Museum on the 12th (Photo=Yonhap News).

, “The relocation of the National Folk Museum of Korea to Sejong City is part of the government’s national policy goal for decentralization during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The National Museum Complex in Sejong City, where the folk museum will be relocated, is the first and largest cultural facility in Korea that integrates individual national museums into one place. The National Children’s Museum has already opened, and the National Museum of Architecture and Design Museum are planned to be constructed sequentially. The Folk Museum will be located in Zone 2 of the site with a floor area of 24,088 square meters and a site area of 58,150 square meters. The total project cost is 198.1 billion won. Director Jang expressed his expectations that “sejong City will transform into a premium city due to the relocation of the museum,” emphasizing that “cultural facilities that are concentrated in the metropolitan area need to boldly enter the local areas to achieve balanced development.”
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, “Director Jang plans to actively collect materials on world living cultures for the leap to a ‘World Cultural Museum’. Currently, the Folk Museum has 5,762 items including ‘Traditional Wedding Materials (China, Nepal, Vietnam)’, traditional performances (Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, India), and shamanism (Nepal). This year, they plan to include materials on the Korean lifestyle of Koreans living in Kazakhstan during the Japanese occupation period and items used by foreign families living in Korea, as well as locally purchased baskets from Malaysia. Director Jang explained, “The museum should be a space that shows universal cultures of the world on the basis of faithfully handling community folklore cultures,” and said, “It will be a way to show cultures from each continent by selecting themes that represent universal cultures of humanity, such as ‘Life Ceremonies’ and ‘Customs and Etiquette’.”
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, “Plans are underway to launch exhibitions based on universal human life in preparation for the relocation to Sejong City. In the latter half of the year, special exhibitions such as the donation special exhibition ‘Kkoktu’ and the special exhibition ‘The Dawn of Coffee, 140 Years’ will be held domestically, and a special exhibition ‘Korean Knots’ will be held in cooperation with the Sydney Cultural Center in Australia and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in the Philippines.
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, “This year, an online system will be established to increase the utilization of folklore contents in elementary education. In relation to this, research on the development of tailored folklore contents for elementary education was completed last year. After completing the system implementation, sample contents on themes such as holidays (New Year’s, Daeboreum, etc.) will be prepared for trial operation. Director Jang pondered, “How can we pass on grandfathers’ memories to children,” and emphasized that the plans prepared by the Folk Museum are “innovative and ambitious.”
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, “Since its opening in 1946, the National Folk Museum of Korea has been a museum of living cultures that researches, preserves, and exhibits traditional and modern folk culture. Director Jang stated, “The Folk Museum has served as a bridge of cultural communication connecting generations,” and pledged to make efforts to widely utilize the achievements and accumulations to date.”
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Jang Sang-hoon, the newly appointed Director of the National Folk Museum of Korea, is announcing the museum’s future operational plans during a press conference at the Seoul National Folk Museum on the 12th (Photo=Yonhap News).

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