Suwon Museum of Art

Character

Before the museum opened, local artists stood outside the construction site with placards opposing the planned name Suwon Ipark Museum of Art. HDC Hyundai Development was building the museum for donation to the city; cultural groups objected to putting its apartment brand on a public art institution

After the museum opened in 2015, Na Hye-seok—born in Suwon and regarded as Korea’s first female Western-style oil painter—became the starting point for sustained research into feminist art

The experience

The Haenggung main building has five galleries: Galleries 1, 2 and 5 on the first floor, with Galleries 3 and 4 upstairs. A library, education rooms, two multi-purpose exhibition halls and Pony Chung Hall share the building, while the underground level contains parking and service space

A 2022 collection exhibition showed Na Hye-seok’s *The Elderly Buddhist Nun* alongside work by artists active in Suwon and a feminist section ending with Na’s *Self-Portrait* facing Baek Namsoon’s *A Grain of Wheat*

History

Suwon and Hyundai Development Company signed the museum agreement in 2012. Construction began in 2014; the company spent about 30 billion won on the building and transferred it to the city

The museum opened on 8 October 2015 with IPARK still in its official name. Its early program quickly established Na Hye-seok as a major research subject, and later collection policy emphasized both feminist art and the history of Suwon artists

In 2022, Suwon’s municipal ordinance was amended to remove IPARK from the name. By the end of that year, exterior and interior signs had been changed to Suwon Museum of Art, seven years after opening

Before you go

The main building stands immediately beside Hwaseong Haenggung, so it fits naturally into the palace and old-city area without requiring a separate cross-city trip. Five galleries make the visit exhibition-dependent: one floor may hold several distinct shows at the same time