Seongbuk Modern Literature Museum Wins Publication Prize at Annual Museum Awards

The Seongbuk Modern and Contemporary Literature Museum, operated by Seoul's Seongbuk-gu, has won the publication category at this year's Museum and Art Museum of the Year Awards.

The award recognized the museum's permanent exhibition catalog, which systematically documents the writers who made Seongbuk-gu their base and the district's literary and cultural heritage.

The awards ceremony was held Friday at the Daejeon Convention Center during "Museum Night," a side event of the 2026 Museum and Art Museum Expo.

The Museum and Art Museum of the Year Awards have been presented annually since 2021 to recognize outstanding institutions that have contributed to the growth and vitality of South Korea's museum sector. Public, private and university museums and art galleries nationwide compete across three categories — special exhibitions, education programs and publications — with one winner selected per category.

The winning publication is a permanent exhibition catalog that systematically compiles research on major modern and contemporary Korean writers who lived and worked in Seongbuk-gu — among them Han Yong-un, Yi Tae-jun, Jo Ji-hun and Park Wan-seo — alongside the district's broader literary and cultural heritage. The catalog traces the historical arc of Seongbuk literature and its significance across different eras in an accessible format, faithfully capturing the landscapes and stories of the neighborhood as they appear in the writers' works.

The catalog also chronicles the cultural history of artists from fields including visual art, music and theater who gathered, exchanged ideas and collaborated in Seongbuk-gu around a shared literary scene. Judges praised it for combining the depth expected of a scholarly publication with strong visual design that reflects the museum's identity and a well-organized editorial structure.

Seongbuk-gu has consistently pursued museum operations, literary archive research, and exhibition, education and publication projects to preserve and promote the district's historical and cultural value. The district plans to continue systematically uncovering and studying literary materials scattered across the area, and to share the results with the public through expanded exhibition, education and publishing initiatives.

"This award is a meaningful achievement born of our consistent efforts to uncover and document Seongbuk's precious literary and cultural heritage, together with the expertise of the museum's staff," District Mayor Lee Seung-ro said. "We will continue to share the literary value that Seongbuk holds with the rest of the country, and work to develop it into a leading literary and cultural city in Korea — one where people of all generations can enjoy literature and culture as part of their everyday lives."