Renting the Art Hall at Seocho Culture & Arts Center, and what parking costs

The Art Hall at Seocho Culture & Arts Center (서초문화예술회관), the borough-run venue in Seoul's Seocho district, sits on the ground floor three minutes' walk from Exit 9 of Yangjae station on Line 3 and the Sinbundang Line. It hosts the borough's two long-running programmes: the Seocho Friday Concert every Friday and Wednesday Cinema every Wednesday.

How many seats does the Art Hall have?

Seocho-gu Office's own rental page lists the Art Hall as 833㎡ with 645 seats. KOPIS, Korea's performing-arts registry, records the same hall at 690 seats, so the two figures are 45 apart. If you are contracting on a seat count or issuing tickets against one, confirm it on +82-2-2155-8303 before you commit.

The hall is a single ground-floor auditorium with no balcony levels. The building itself was completed on 10 August 1989 and runs from one basement level to four floors above ground.

When and how do you apply to rent the Art Hall?

The Art Hall and the Nabi Hall gallery are let by quarter only. You apply online through the rental menu on the Seocho-gu Office website during the application window for the quarter before the one you want, attaching an application form and an event plan; decisions are notified on the last day of the month you applied in.

As of September 2026 the next window is 1–20 November 2026, for the first quarter of 2027.

You submit one copy each of the application form, the undertaking and the personal-data consent form, all downloadable as HWP files from the rental page. Cancellations are refunded in full five days before the booked date, at 50 percent four days before and at 30 percent three days before.

What does three hours in the Art Hall cost?

The base fee for the Art Hall is 600,000 won for three hours on a weekday daytime, for an ordinary performance. A seminar, lecture or briefing costs 800,000 won and a commercial event 1,200,000 won, before time-of-day surcharges and equipment fees.

Surcharges apply to the whole base fee: 10 percent for a weekday evening (after 18:00), 20 percent for a weekend or public-holiday daytime, and 30 percent for a weekend or holiday evening. Running past the three-hour block adds 50 percent for under an hour and 100 percent for an hour or more.

Equipment is priced separately, and the same schedule covers the Renaissance Hall and the music practice room as well as the Art Hall.

Worked through at the published rates: three hours on a Saturday afternoon for an ordinary performance is 600,000 won plus the 20 percent weekend daytime surcharge, so 720,000 won. Add a piano at 100,000 won and two microphones at 40,000 won and the total is 860,000 won. The same show on a weekday evening has a base fee of 660,000 won. The invoiced figure is settled by the rental office.

What else in the building can you rent alongside it?

If you want an exhibition or a rehearsal room next to your performance, the Nabi Hall, the Baroque Hall and the Book Cafe conference rooms are all in the same building — but each has a different application cycle and a different booking channel.

The Baroque Hall takes first-half bookings on 1–20 November of the previous year and second-half bookings on 1–20 May. The phone numbers differ too: +82-2-2155-8303 for the Art Hall and Nabi Hall, +82-2-2155-8304 for the Baroque Hall and the conference rooms.

What does parking cost at Seocho Culture & Arts Center?

The first 30 minutes are free on a weekday and the first hour on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday; after that it is 500 won per 10 minutes. Charges only apply between 07:00 and 20:00, on weekdays and holidays alike, and the machines take credit cards only.

There are 58 spaces in total: 52 standard, 3 accessible and 3 with EV charging. With 645 seats in the hall and 58 spaces outside it, a full house leaves no realistic chance of parking. The unattended payment machine runs 24 hours.

Reductions are fixed by category. Holders of national-merit status (and their bereaved families), disabled visitors and May 18 Democratic Movement merit holders get 80 percent off. Light cars, low-emission vehicles displaying the sticker, and Dadungi Happy Card holders get 50 percent off. A voting certificate presented within three months of an election is worth a one-off 2,000 won reduction.

How much is parking for a Friday evening concert?

Because charging stops at 20:00, an evening concert is cheap to park for. Arriving at 18:30 on a Friday and leaving at 21:00 means only the 90 minutes from 18:30 to 20:00 are chargeable. Take off the 30 free minutes and 60 minutes remain, which at 500 won per 10 minutes is 3,000 won. That is the published rate applied by hand, so the machine may settle on a slightly different figure.

When are the Friday Concert and Wednesday Cinema, and what do they cost?

The Seocho Friday Concert starts at 19:00 on Fridays in the Art Hall and costs 5,000 won, or 2,500 won for Seocho residents. Wednesday Cinema runs year-round at 14:00 every Wednesday in the same hall and is free. Wednesday Cinema does not run on public holidays.

Each Friday Concert gets its own notice on the Seocho-gu Office concert board, and the online booking window and the box-office times are given in that notice. There are no cancellations or refunds on the day of the concert, and anyone who booked at a discount has to bring the supporting document — ID, a residence certificate or a welfare card.

Which seats in the Art Hall have the best view?

The Art Hall is a single-level auditorium, so there is no floor to choose between; a centre aisle splits the seating into blocks. The control room sits at the centre rear and the floor rises gently towards the back.

The centre block faces the stage square-on, which suits concerts and lectures where the whole stage matters equally.

The side blocks see the stage obliquely, but the auditorium is not wide enough for the far side of the stage to disappear.

For a screening like Wednesday Cinema, the middle and rear rows are actually the comfortable ones, because the screen fits in view.

How do you get there from Yangjae station?

It is a three-minute walk, about 70 metres, from Exit 9 of Yangjae station on Line 3 and the Sinbundang Line, heading towards the Seoul Family Court. By car, take Gangnam-daero towards Seongnam and turn right at the Yangjae intersection for about 300 metres.

Village buses Seocho 08, 09, 18, 18-1 and 20 stop nearby, and branch buses 3412, 4432 and 4435 plus trunk buses 140, 400, 405, 421, 440, 441, 452, 470, 471, 541 and 542 all pass through Yangjae. Counting the express and intercity routes there are more than 60 in all, so the full list on the venue's directions page is the faster read.

Inside the building there is a cafe on the ground floor and a 311.85㎡ book cafe on the fourth, both useful if you arrive early.

In short

1. Renting the hall is all about the window. The Art Hall is let quarterly only — 1–20 November, February, May and August — and decisions come on the last day of the month you applied in.
2. The fee starts at 600,000 won for three weekday daytime hours, with a 20 percent weekend daytime surcharge, a 30 percent weekend evening surcharge and equipment fees on top.
3. If you are going as an audience member, do not plan on parking. There are 645 seats and 58 spaces, and Exit 9 at Yangjae station is three minutes away.

Fees, application dates and facility details here come from the Seocho-gu Office rental page for the arts centre (last updated 20 August 2026) and its venue introduction page; programme details come from the Friday Concert board and the Wednesday Cinema board, all checked in September 2026. The 690-seat figure used in the comparison is the one registered with KOPIS. Rates and schedules change, so confirm rentals on +82-2-2155-8303.