Incheon to Keep Five Museums Open Throughout Chuseok Holiday, Offering a Wealth of History and Cultural Exhibits

【Financial News, Incheon = Han Gap-su】 Incheon Metropolitan City Government will keep five city-run museums open throughout the Chuseok holiday for residents and visitors returning to their hometowns.
Incheon Metropolitan City Government announced on the 23rd that the Incheon Metropolitan City Museum, Songam Art Museum, Geomdan Prehistory Museum, Museum of Korean Immigration History, and Incheon Urban History Museum will operate normally from the 24th through the 27th during the Chuseok holiday.
During the holiday, each museum will offer a variety of exhibitions and hands-on programs highlighting Incheon’s history, culture, and art. Admission to all exhibitions will be free.
The Incheon Metropolitan City Museum will host the special exhibition “Incheon’s Intellectuals Who Enlightened Joseon.” It will showcase around 100 items, including old documents, centered on figures such as Byeongwa Yi Hyeongsang, Sonam Yun Dong-gyu, and Hagok Jeong Jedu, who led Incheon’s intellectual life in the late Joseon period. The exhibition offers a look at the city’s intellectual traditions through the lives and scholarship of scholars and thinkers who settled and worked in Incheon. It runs through the 27th.
Songam Art Museum will present the special exhibition “Craftsmen’s Breath in the Grain of Wood.” The exhibition explores the traditions of woodcraft in Incheon and the value of intangible cultural heritage. It is divided into three sections: “Wooden Furniture and Hwagak Craftsmanship,” “Buddhist Statues and Woodcarving,” and “Architecture and Dancheong Painting.” Visitors can examine the beauty of traditional woodcraft and the skills of its artisans through more than 50 works, including Ganghwa bandaji chests, najeon inlay, and hwagak works. The exhibition runs through November 15.
Geomdan Prehistory Museum will welcome visitors to the 2026 children's special hands-on exhibition “Secrets Hidden in the Boulder: The Story of Incheon’s Dolmens.” The interactive exhibition introduces the history of megalithic culture and Incheon’s dolmen culture in a way that children can easily understand. Families can take part in activities such as placing burial goods inside a dolmen and erecting one themselves, as well as taking four-panel photos with dolmens as a backdrop. The exhibition runs through May 16 next year.
The Museum of Korean Immigration History has been hosting the special exhibition “Days Trapped in Paradise: Records of Korean Prisoners in Hawaii POW Camps” since the 22nd. The exhibition was organized to mark the 80th anniversary of the return to Incheon of some 2,700 Koreans held as prisoners in Hawaii during World War II after leaving their homeland through forced labor and conscription. It revisits the prisoners’ lives through the perspective of Hwang Hae-su, a native of Chungju, North Chungcheong Province. The exhibition continues through February 21 next year.
The Incheon Urban History Museum is hosting the children's interactive exhibition “Let’s Go! The Tidal-Flat City.” Following a black-faced spoonbill friend, visitors can discover the secrets of a tidal-flat city. The exhibition is open to children aged seven and older through elementary school age when accompanied by a guardian. It is located in the children's exhibition hall on the third floor, and a special event for children will also be held during the Chuseok holiday.
From the 24th through the 27th, visitors accompanied by children will receive a “Traditional-Style Spinning-Top Making Kit.” One kit will be provided per child to the first 200 visitors each day. The kits can be picked up at the information desk and decorated in the first-floor lounge.
Kim Tae-ik, director of the Incheon Metropolitan City Museum, said, “We have prepared a variety of exhibitions and events so that residents can experience Incheon’s history, culture, and art up close during the Chuseok holiday as well.”
[email protected] Han Gap-su Reporter