National Museum of Korea provides major grant to Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

The National Museum of Korea will award the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art $1.4 million as part of its overseas Korean Galleries Support Program. It marks the largest grant ever awarded by Korea's state-run museum to any institution.

The grant will be awarded over four years to help the museum expand the program that aims to deepen the public's interest in Korean art and culture. The program includes reinstalling the museum’s permanent collection of Korean art in a way that engages younger audiences and the community, according to the museum.

The grant will be used partly toward an exhibition of Korean art organized jointly with the National Museum of Korea scheduled for 2025–2026. The upcoming exhibition will feature masterworks recently donated to the National Museum of Korea by the family of former Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee.

“Following our 2023 centennial celebrations, we are embarking in concert with our new partners on our second century with great momentum,” said Chase F. Robinson, the museum’s director, in a statement. “I thank the National Museum of Korea for this pace-setting gift that will allow us to continue to foreground the rich history of Korean arts and cultures as we begin a new chapter in our museum’s history.”

When the museum opened its doors as the Freer Gallery of Art in 1923, it was one of the first in the US to display Korean art, the museum noted in its press release.

The museum's Korean collection includes 500 Korean art objects, including approximately 130 Goryeo-era (918-1392) and 80 Joseon-era (1392-1910) ceramic pieces, according to the NMAA website.

The museum has increasingly shared its historical art collections alongside Korean popular culture in programming featuring film, food, music and performance.

With support from the Korea Foundation, the museum, in April, installed a special edition of the sculpture “Public Figures” by Korean artist Suh Do-ho in front of the Freer Gallery. The installation, commissioned to celebrate the museum’s centennial, is on view until April 2029.

The current exhibition “Park Chan-kyong: Gathering” inaugurates the museum’s new modern and contemporary galleries with the first solo presentation of Seoul-based artist Park Chan-kyong’s work in a major US museum.

The US museum recently appointed Hwang Sun-woo as its inaugural Korea Foundation Curator of Korean Art who will lead and advise Korean art and culture projects.