Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Announces Call for Institutions to Participate in the 'Smart Museum and Art Gallery Infrastructure Development Project'

On the 29th, attendees are viewing the exhibition at the opening press tour of the Seoul Museum of Craft Art in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with the Korea Museum Association, is recruiting local governments and private museums and art galleries to participate in the ‘2022 Museum and Art Gallery Smart Infrastructure Project’ from the 23rd until February 7th next year.

This project was established to discover new content for museums and art galleries using future technologies in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution and to provide visitors with unique cultural experience services. It has been conducted as an integrated public offering since 2021 as part of the ‘Korean New Deal’ initiative.

Through this public offering, the Ministry plans to select local governments to participate in the ‘Smart Museum and Art Gallery Construction Support Project (5.5 billion KRW)’ and the ‘Immersive Content Production and Experience Zone Creation Support Project (4 billion KRW),’ as well as registered private museums and art galleries to participate in the ‘Online Content Production Support Project (900 million KRW).’

The ‘Smart Museum and Art Gallery Construction Support Project’ will select about 55 public museums and art galleries nationwide, providing approximately 100 million KRW per institution. Selected museums and galleries can build various intelligent systems to enhance visitor convenience by utilizing information and communication technologies (ICT) such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), including providing online exhibition services and contactless exhibition guidance.

The ‘Immersive Content Production and Experience Zone Creation Support Project’ will select about 8 public museums and art galleries nationwide, providing approximately 500 million KRW per institution. This project aims to produce ‘immersive’ experience programs using collections and offer engaging opportunities to enhance visitors’ understanding of the collections and exhibitions.

The ‘Online Content Production Support Project’ will select about 23 registered private museums and art galleries under Article 16 of the Museum and Art Gallery Promotion Act, providing approximately 40 million KRW per institution (team). This project was introduced to support private institutions struggling with operations due to prolonged COVID-19 closures and to enhance their online competitiveness.

In this public offering, the final support recipients will be decided through comprehensive evaluations including document screening and presentations. Experts will evaluate the novelty, sustainability, and feasibility of the project plans and award additional points based on regional balance indicators to consider overall regional development. Furthermore, selected institutions will receive expert consultations from the project planning stage to ensure the creation of high-quality content.

Detailed information and application forms can be found on the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism website and the Korea Museum Association website.

A Ministry official stated, “We hope that through this project, museums and art galleries will successfully establish visitor environments utilizing future technologies and provide visitors with innovative experiences. As this is an important project for museums and art galleries to approach the public as attractive spaces, we ask for the active interest and participation of local governments and private museums and art galleries.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.