Museum of Musical Instruments of the World, Korea

The Museum of Musical Instruments of the World (MMIW) was established to preserve traditional musical instruments, which are the most fundamental and creative heritage among all other cultural heritage throughout the world, in an environment where many of them are becoming extinct.

MMIW, located in Youngwol-gun, Gangwon-do Province, holds around 2,000 instruments from 115 countries as of 2013 and has two more branches in Paju (opened in 2003) and Busan (opened in 2007).

The mission of the museum is to preserve and pass on the disappearing artifacts to the next generation, and to enlighten Korean people, who are very much accustomed to their own culture, with cultural diversity.

Collection size: around 2,000 musical instruments

Collection: Ethnic musical instruments from Asia, Europe, America, Africa, Oceania and Middle East; traditional dolls from around 80 countries; various folk artifacts including ceramics, masks, costumes, amulets; and music and anthropology related stamps, audio materials, and books.

Of what value is the ASEMUS network to your museum? Ethnomusicology, which was first originated from Europe, further progressed to other continents around the world. MMIW is also affected by the Western academic achievements on various ethno-musicological materials that have been mostly published in Western countries. MMIW looks forward to active cooperation with museums in this field.