Ho-Am Art Museum & Heewon
A private art museum in Yongin pairing a major Korean art collection and changing exhibitions with Heewon, a modern garden built from traditional landscape principles
Korean historic art, rotating modern and contemporary exhibitions, traditional garden design, landscape architecture and outdoor stone sculpture
A museum building set within a large garden campus, with renovated galleries, gates, ponds, pavilions, earthen walls and an outdoor stone-sculpture garden
Heewon gives Ho-Am something most private collections lack: the garden has its own author, date and design logic, so landscape and art are two equally deliberate parts of the institution
Character
Heewon’s roughly 750-metre earthen wall, bamboo grove, pond and pavilions were laid out by landscape architect Jung Young-sun as a modern garden built from traditional Korean principles. Restored terrain and borrowed scenery make the surrounding hills part of the composition
The museum beside it grew from Korean art collected over roughly three decades by Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul. Ceramics, painting, calligraphy, Buddhist art and other historic material established Ho-Am as one of Korea’s major private collections. A 2021 Ho-Am exhibition included a Gaya gold crown designated a National Treasure
The experience
Bohwamun, based on a gate at Deoksugung, leads into bamboo, water, pavilions and long earthen boundaries rather than a decorative lawn around the galleries
Heewon’s Old Stone Garden extends the collection outside, gathering historic stone sculpture in the landscape, while paths use walls, planting and changes in elevation to reveal and conceal views
Inside, stone, wood and metal in restrained finishes frame the renovated exhibition rooms. The galleries now accommodate changing displays that can place historic Korean material in conversation with modern and contemporary art
History
Lee Byung-chul began collecting Korean art decades before Ho-Am Art Museum opened on 22 April 1982 to house and display the collection
Heewon followed fifteen years later. Built over about a year and opened to the public in May 1997, the garden was designed by Jung Young-sun across the former approach land in front of the museum. Its walls, gates, pond, stream and pavilions were newly constructed, while the design deliberately recovered traditional ideas of enclosure, borrowed scenery and movement through changing views
Ho-Am reopened in 2023 after a major interior renovation. The project retained the existing architectural identity while rebuilding exhibition spaces with stone, wood and metal used with minimal processing. The reopening also expanded the museum’s use as a venue for rotating exhibitions across historical and contemporary art
Before you go
Entry is tied to a reserved time, so transport delays matter more here than at a walk-in museum. Heewon is fully outdoors and forms a substantial part of the campus visit, while the indoor exhibition content changes with the museum’s program
- Hours
- Open Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00, with ticketing ending at 17:00. Closed Mondays, January 1, Lunar New Year’s Day and Chuseok Day
- Access
- Advance reservation is required. Reservations open 14 days ahead at 10:00, with up to four tickets per booking, and entry follows the reserved time
- Transit
- During exhibition periods, Ho-Am operates shuttle access from the Everland area and near Jeondae–Everland Station Exit 3; service can pause in winter or when no exhibition is running