National Intangible Heritage Center

A campus built around transmission

One building stores archive material; another has large and small stages; another is fitted for craft and performing-arts training. The National Intangible Heritage Center spreads the work of keeping living traditions alive across an eight-part campus in Jeonju

The 59,930-square-metre site divides that work among eight named spaces. Eolssumaru contains the theaters; Yeollinmaru holds the permanent galleries, archive stacks and the UNESCO-affiliated Asia-Pacific intangible-heritage center; Nurimaru adds temporary exhibitions and the Bookmaru library; Jeonseungmaru has separate craft and performing-arts training rooms. Eoulmaru handles conferences, Doummaru administration, Sarangchae houses trainees, and Dream Narae is the digital experience hall

Connected buildings place exhibition, rehearsal, study and administration beside one another instead of hiding the institution behind a single museum entrance. A visitor in the public galleries is occupying only one part of a working national center

What a living tradition leaves behind

Permanent Hall 1 deals with forms that resist a display case most obviously: music, dance, ritual, games and traditional knowledge. Its 2022 redesign uses recordings and interactive media to keep practitioners present. In a pavilion-like setting, instruments and notation accompany hyangje julpungryu; an interactive installation lets visitors hear holders perform the five surviving pansori madang; Cheoyongmu appears across historical and contemporary recordings

Hall 2 shifts toward craft and everyday practice. Finished objects sit beside tools and process material: a brass rice container made by bronzeware master Lee Bong-ju, an arrow made by bowmaker Yu Yeong-gi, and pieces that break down the work behind gat, tanggeon and manggeon headwear. Process material makes the sequence of work visible beside the finished object

Dream Narae moves the same problem into digital media, using VR, motion recognition and multi-sided projection for games, performance and craft. These formats sit alongside live transmission elsewhere on campus, giving visitors several ways to approach practices whose core knowledge still passes from person to person

From protected properties to living practice

Korea’s state system for intangible heritage began under the 1962 Cultural Heritage Protection Act, which placed intangible cultural properties inside the same national protection framework as physical heritage. The system recognized skilled holders and structured transmission, but it also faced criticism for a narrow focus on designated forms and preservation of an “original” model

UNESCO’s 2003 Convention used a broader definition of safeguarding: documentation and preservation remain important, alongside research, education, transmission, revitalization and the participation of the communities that maintain a practice. It specifically encourages training spaces, performance venues and documentation institutions

The Jeonju center opened in October 2014 with permanent exhibitions and invited performances of UNESCO-listed traditions from four countries. In 2016, Korea’s separate Act on the Safeguarding and Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage took effect. The mix visible on the campus today—archive, stages, teaching rooms, exhibitions and international cooperation—fits that wider model of safeguarding

In July 2026 the center organized daily performance showcases during UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meeting in Busan, putting preservation organizations and practitioners onstage for an international audience

Before you go

The campus functions as several institutions sharing one address. Yeollinmaru is the main exhibition and archive anchor, Eolssumaru is the performance venue, and Dream Narae is a separate digital-experience space. The permanent galleries form a complete visit on their own; performances and digital sessions add separately scheduled layers