Busan Museum of Art to close for two years for remodeling project

The Busan Museum of Art [BUSAN MUSEUM OF ART]

The Busan Museum of Art (BMA) will begin a two-year major remodeling project next Monday.

“The museum is expecting to reopen in 2026 after closing on Dec. 18 and begin construction next April,” BMA director Suh Jin-suk said in a press conference on Monday. It was Suh’s first appearance before the press since being appointed on Oct. 16.

The last day to see exhibitions at the BMA will be this Sunday.

The exhibition space will be expanded to two floors underground and three floors above ground, with increased art storage space. The BMA building does not currently exhibit anything in the basement second floor.

The third floor exhibition space will be opened as one big area, and there will be upgrades to the building's children’s gallery, education center, main entrance and reference room.

The general outline of the exhibition spaces will be transformed to be interchangeable so that they can fluidly accommodate different art genres, like paintings, installations and media art, departing from its current box-shaped design.

The total budget is set at 43 billion won ($32.8 million).

Since opening in 1998, the BMA has had multiple cases of water leaks and has been undergoing minor construction to patch up and prevent future leaks. Takashi Murakami’s solo exhibition, which took place earlier this year, was initially planned for September last year but had to be postponed due to another leak in the building.

BY LEE EUN-JU, SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]