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Notice·National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

MMCA Seoul and Deoksugung free on Wednesday and Saturday evenings — all four free on 28 October

Kang Shin-wookPublished 25 October 20268 sources checkedEditorial policy이 글을 한국어로 읽기
MMCA visiting information, all four buildings (English)

Summary

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) charges nothing at its Seoul and Deoksugung buildings from 6pm to 9pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when both stay open late. Gwacheon and Cheongju close at 6pm and have no free evening, but all four buildings are free on the last Wednesday of each month — 28 October in October 2026. The catch at Deoksugung is the palace: you still pay the KRW 1,000 palace admission, and Daehanmun gate stops letting people in at 8pm. Timed-entry shows such as Do Ho Suh still need a booked slot.

Article

In short

  • MMCA Seoul and MMCA Deoksugung charge no admission from 6pm to 9pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when both stay open late.
  • Gwacheon and Cheongju close at 6pm, so they have no free evening — but on the last Wednesday of each month all four buildings are free.
  • In October 2026 that free day is Wednesday 28 October, and Seoul and Deoksugung stay open to 9pm.
  • At Deoksugung the gallery may be free but the palace is not: KRW 1,000 to enter, and Daehanmun gate admits no one after 8pm.
  • No booking or Korean is needed for the general galleries; the website, labels and Seoul audio guide are available in English.

The most dependable way to see the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) without paying is on a Wednesday or Saturday evening. The Seoul and Deoksugung buildings stay open to 9pm on those two days, and their official visitor pages make the hours from 6pm to 9pm free. On top of that comes the monthly free day on the last Wednesday, which on 28 October takes in Gwacheon and Cheongju as well — all four buildings at once.

Seokjojeon at Deoksugung Palace lit up at night; the building on the left is MMCA Deoksugung
Seokjojeon at Deoksugung at night (spring 2013) — the lit building on the left is MMCA Deoksugung, the west wing of Seokjojeon Photo: Cultural Heritage Administration (now the Korea Heritage Service), via Wikimedia Commons · KOGL Type 1

Which of the four buildings is free in the evening?

The four buildings keep different hours to begin with. Only Seoul and Deoksugung open late, so only they have a free evening. The last-Wednesday free day, by contrast, is printed in the same words on all four buildings' visitor pages.

MMCA opening hours and free entry by building (official visitor pages, checked 23 October 2026)

Seoul
Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun 10am–6pm; Wed and Sat 10am–9pm (open on Mondays) · free Wed and Sat 6pm–9pm · otherwise priced per exhibition, combined ticket KRW 10,000
Deoksugung
Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun 10am–6pm; Wed and Sat 10am–9pm; closed Mondays · free Wed and Sat 6pm–9pm · priced per exhibition, plus KRW 1,000 palace admission
Gwacheon
Tue–Sun 10am–6pm; closed Mondays · no free evening · one KRW 3,000 ticket covers every exhibition
Cheongju
Tue–Sun 10am–6pm (last entry 5pm); closed Mondays · no free evening · KRW 2,000 for the fifth-floor gallery, open storage on floors 1–4 free
All four
Free on the last Wednesday of each month, the government's Culture Day

What is MMCA Seoul like in the evening?

MMCA Seoul opens until 9pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and everything after 6pm is free. Once it is dark the glass exhibition halls and the courtyards are lit, so even a walk around the grounds without going into a gallery is a different place from the daytime building. It is a short walk from Anguk Station (Line 3, Exit 1) and, unlike the other buildings, it opens on Mondays. It closes on 1 January, Lunar New Year and Chuseok, and has announced an extra closure on Tuesday 1 December.

The courtyard and exhibition halls of MMCA Seoul lit up at night
The museum courtyard at MMCA Seoul at night (August 2013; details may differ today) Photo: Kim Sang-beom (김상범), Gongyu Madang · CC BY
The glass exhibition hall at MMCA Seoul glowing from the lights inside at night
The glass hall at MMCA Seoul, lit (August 2013) Photo: Kim Sang-beom (김상범), Gongyu Madang · CC BY
The roofs of the Jongchinbu hanok buildings with the lit modern exhibition halls of MMCA Seoul behind them
The Jongchinbu hanok and MMCA Seoul's exhibition halls at night (August 2013) Photo: Kim Sang-beom (김상범), Gongyu Madang · CC BY
The front of the MMCA Seoul building and its entrance courtyard, seen in daylight
The front of MMCA Seoul (February 2020) Photo: The Seoul Institute, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Check timed-entry shows and last entry separately

The Seoul visitor page does not give a last-entry time for the free evening hours. The Do Ho Suh exhibition is timed-entry — you need a booked slot or a same-day ticket to get in — and its exhibition page does not say whether the evening slots are free as well. If that show is the reason you are going, check the price shown when you book.

Why you have to be at Deoksugung before 8pm

MMCA Deoksugung is inside Deoksugung Palace, in the west wing of Seokjojeon. So even when the gallery is free you still pay the KRW 1,000 palace admission, and the palace's main gate, Daehanmun, stops admitting visitors at 8pm. The gallery is open until 9pm, but after 8pm you cannot get into the palace to reach it. The Deoksugung building is closed on Mondays.

Daehanmun, the painted main gate of Deoksugung Palace, and the square in front of it
Daehanmun, the main gate of Deoksugung — it admits visitors until 8pm in the evening Photo: revi, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 KR

The compensation is the palace at night when you come out: Junghwajeon and the Geumcheongyo bridge are floodlit, and the office towers of central Seoul show above the palace walls.

Junghwajeon hall at Deoksugung at night, its red columns and roof lit by floodlights
Junghwajeon at Deoksugung at night (April 2013) Photo: Cultural Heritage Administration (now the Korea Heritage Service), via Wikimedia Commons · KOGL Type 1
Junghwajeon at Deoksugung seen from the front at night, with lit office towers behind
Junghwajeon at night against the city's towers (November 2015) Photo: Rtflakfizer, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The stone Geumcheongyo bridge at Deoksugung and the trees around it under evening lights
Evening lights around Geumcheongyo at Deoksugung (May 2013) Photo: Cultural Heritage Administration (now the Korea Heritage Service), via Wikimedia Commons · KOGL Type 1

What is different on the 28 October free day?

28 October is the last Wednesday of October 2026, which is the free day on all four buildings' visitor pages. Because it is a Wednesday, Seoul and Deoksugung are open until 9pm. What changes from an ordinary Wednesday is that admission is free from opening time rather than only in the evening, and that Gwacheon and Cheongju, which have no free evening, are free too.

  • Whether separately ticketed exhibitions (Do Ho Suh, Korea Artist Prize 2026 and others) are also free that day is not stated on their exhibition pages.
  • Whether the Deoksugung palace admission is also waived that day could not be confirmed from 2026 official material. Take KRW 1,000 to be safe.

Culture Day is now every Wednesday — so is MMCA free every week?

Not yet. On 3 March 2026 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that the cabinet had approved widening Culture Day from the last Wednesday of each month to every Wednesday, with effect from 1 April. But each institution decides what it offers, and as of 23 October MMCA's visitor pages still give the free day as the last Wednesday of the month. What is certain every Wednesday is the free 6pm–9pm at Seoul and Deoksugung.

What is worth seeing on a Wednesday evening?

The free evening hours cover the exhibitions at Seoul and Deoksugung. These are the main ones, with dates and usual prices checked on their official exhibition pages.

Main exhibitions at Seoul and Deoksugung (usual prices)

Do Ho Suh
Seoul, basement galleries 3–5 and MMCA Studio on level 2 · 27 August 2026 – 9 February 2027 · KRW 8,000, timed entry
Korea Artist Prize 2026
Seoul, gallery 1 (level 1) and gallery 2 (basement) · 24 July – 6 December 2026 · KRW 2,000 · Lee Haeminsun, Lee Jungwoo, Jeon Hyunsun, Hong Jinhwon
Lee Dae-won retrospective
Deoksugung galleries 1–4 · 6 August – 8 November 2026 · KRW 2,000 (plus KRW 1,000 palace admission)
The red-brick former Defense Security Command building at MMCA Seoul, seen from the front
The former Defense Security Command building (red brick) at MMCA Seoul (September 2025) Photo: Vanbasten 23, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
The MMCA Seoul courtyard with the glass hall, the Jongchinbu hanok and the Bugaksan ridge in view
The MMCA Seoul courtyard with the glass hall, Jongchinbu and the Bugaksan ridge (2016) Photo: jens kuu, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

The Lee Dae-won show at Deoksugung is MMCA's first retrospective of the painter, with about 120 works and some 100 archive items. It closes on 8 November, so only a handful of free Wednesday and Saturday evenings are left to see it.

The colonnaded front of MMCA Deoksugung, the west wing of Seokjojeon
The front of MMCA Deoksugung (the west wing of Seokjojeon) Photo: Shene81, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0

Getting there, and how much needs Korean

MMCA Seoul: Anguk Station (Line 3) Exit 1, Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3) Exit 4 or Gwanghwamun Station (Line 5) Exit 2, each about ten minutes on foot. MMCA Deoksugung: go in through Daehanmun, the palace gate opposite Seoul Plaza by City Hall Station (Lines 1 and 2), pay the palace admission, and the gallery is the west wing of the stone hall, Seokjojeon. The two buildings are roughly 2 km apart, so one evening can take in both if you start at Deoksugung before 8pm and walk or take a taxi to Seoul afterwards.

Language: you need no Korean for a free evening. Admission to the general galleries needs no booking, MMCA runs a full English website, wall texts and labels are generally in Korean and English, and an English audio guide is published for the Seoul building. Gallery talks are mostly in Korean. The one thing that needs planning is a timed-entry show such as Do Ho Suh, where slots are released online a week at a time.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What time is MMCA free on Wednesday evenings?
MMCA Seoul and MMCA Deoksugung are free from 6pm to 9pm every Wednesday and Saturday, when both are open late. At Deoksugung you still pay the KRW 1,000 palace admission.
Q. Are MMCA Gwacheon and Cheongju free on Wednesday evenings?
No. Gwacheon and Cheongju close at 6pm, so they have no free evening. All four buildings are free on the last Wednesday of each month, though.
Q. When is MMCA's free day in October 2026?
Wednesday 28 October, the last Wednesday of the month. Seoul and Deoksugung are open until 9pm that day, and Gwacheon and Cheongju are free too. Whether separately ticketed exhibitions are included is not stated on their pages.
Q. Is Deoksugung Palace free during MMCA Deoksugung's free evening?
No. The gallery is free but the KRW 1,000 palace admission still applies, and Daehanmun gate admits no one after 8pm, so arrive before then.
Q. Is it worth going if I do not read Korean?
Yes. The general galleries need no booking, wall texts and labels are generally bilingual, MMCA has a full English website and an English audio guide for the Seoul building. Only the gallery talks are mostly in Korean.

Editor's note · Kang Shin-wook

For anyone in central Seoul with a free Wednesday or Saturday evening and no wish to pay for a gallery. Getting to each building is covered in our MMCA visiting guide; for the timed-entry Do Ho Suh show, see how its weekly ticket release works.

Sources

  1. Official notice (Korean)
  2. MMCA Deoksugung hours and admission (Korean)
  3. MMCA Gwacheon hours and admission (Korean)
  4. MMCA Cheongju hours and admission (Korean)
  5. MMCA — Lee Dae-won exhibition page (Korean)
  6. MMCA — Do Ho Suh exhibition page (Korean)
  7. MMCA — Korea Artist Prize 2026 exhibition page (Korean)
  8. Newspim — Culture Day widened to every Wednesday from 1 April, 3 March 2026 (Korean)
Official notice (Korean)

Written in our own words from the sources above, never copied from them, and every date and price checked against at least two pages. The originals are in Korean. Spotted a mistake? Ask for a correction.

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