Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Releases Evaluation Results of 55 Public Art Museums Nationwide

Seoul Museum of Art exterior view.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 22nd that it evaluated 55 public art museums that have been registered for more than three years under the "Museum and Art Gallery Promotion Act" and certified 41 of them as excellent.

This evaluation was conducted across five categories (14 indicators): 'Achievement of Establishment Purpose,' 'Appropriateness of Organization, Personnel, Facilities, and Financial Management,' 'Faithfulness in Collection and Management of Materials,' 'Performance in Hosting Exhibitions and Conducting Educational Programs,' and 'Public Responsibility.' The total score was out of 100 points, composed of 58 points for quantitative evaluation and 42 points for qualitative evaluation.

The institution that received the highest score among the certified organizations was the Seoul Museum of Art. In the category of 'Appropriateness of Organization, Personnel, Facilities, and Financial Management,' the Busan Museum of Art received excellent evaluations. The Nam June Paik Art Center was recognized for excellence in the 'Faithfulness in Collection and Management of Materials' category, and the Seoul Museum of Art was also highly rated in the 'Performance in Hosting Exhibitions and Conducting Educational Programs' category.

Among the evaluation categories, the achievement of 'Public Responsibility' was the lowest at 69.5%. The achievement rates for the 14 indicators were lowest in the order of win-win cooperation (58.5%), material collection (61.8%), visitor development (61.8%), and financial management (68.5%).

The public art museum evaluation and certification began in 2020 after a pilot operation in 2017 to solidify museum operation performance and improve cultural services. It is conducted biennially in principle. In particular, the evaluation covers overall operations, but to prevent disadvantages to museums due to differences in operating entities (metropolitan and local), establishment purposes (artist-centered institutions and local government representative institutions), scale, and personnel, the evaluation reflected the operational improvement performance of each institution over the past three years (2017?2019), regardless of scale or nature.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to hold a joint training session in March to share the evaluation and certification results with public art museum staff. In the second half of the year, to enhance the operational capabilities of national museums, public museums, and art museums, it plans to share best practices with staff and provide consultations on insufficient cases by evaluation categories and indicators.

A policy official from the Ministry stated, "Through nationwide public art museum evaluation and certification, we hope to objectively review museum operation performance, supplement shortcomings, and overall improve public art museums."

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