Museum expansions

Inside the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's major expansion

The Arkansas museum now has 50% more space for its ever-expanding collection and art-and-wellness programming

Expansion plans for Rome's Galleria Borghese draw fierce response

Italian heritage preservation organisations object to new construction for the museum which is located within a historically sensitive area

London’s National Gallery announces architects for new £350m wing

The Tokyo-based Kengo Kuma and Associates, whose previous museum projects include V&A Dundee, will design the building located on the site of St Vincent House

The new New Museum: now with twice the space

The New York institution opens its $82m expansion with a huge exhibition of works by more than 200 artists, from Salvador Dalí to Precious Okoyomon

Plans for €128m Guggenheim Bilbao expansion scrapped following protests

The proposed museum outpost at a nearby nature reserve has been mired in controversy since it was first mooted in 2008

Portland Art Museum to unveil $116m transformation with Mark Rothko at its heart

After more than a decade of planning, the US state’s largest ever capital investment in the arts opens with a new pavilion named for Rothko and a gallery devoted to Black artists

Philadelphia museum opens $20m expansion after winning back cancelled funding from Trump administration

Woodmere Art Museum, which includes thousands of works by generations of local artists, opens a second building to show off more of its collection

London’s National Gallery receives record-breaking donations for new wing—and will start collecting contemporary art

An unprecedented £375m has already been raised for the extension, which will have space for hundreds of paintings—while Tate is collaborating with the gallery on a revised acquisition strategy

Crystal Bridges Museum's expansion will open in June 2026

The Arkansas institution also announced that it has received two gifts totalling more than 200 works by over 100 artists

São Paulo's Museu de Arte to unveil sprawling expansion featuring 14-storey tower

This month’s opening will more than double the museum's space, and help to overcome its infrastructure limitations

Bigger is not better and free admission costs institutions less, museum report finds

Remuseum’s second report concludes that admission fees are raising few funds and keeping out potential visitors—and expansions are often not worth the money

Museu de Arte de São Paulo to finally open $43m expansion project in March 2025

A new building adjacent to the Brazilian museum’s original home will more than double its total space

New-York Historical Society changes its name and reveals plans for new $175m wing

The museum's new wing dedicated to American democracy will open in 2026, just in time for the US’s semiquincentennial

Rising construction costs are leading to smaller, more adaptive museum spaces

According to AEA Consulting’s Cultural Infrastructure Index, arts institutions have been resizing to meet audience needs

$25m gift puts focus on photography at the Art Institute of Chicago

The museum, whose photography collection began with a donation from Alfred Stieglitz, will soon give the medium pride of place again

The big museum openings and expansions of 2024

The Grand Egyptian Museum should open at last, while Masp in São Paulo gets a tower-block extension

Egyptian Museum in Turin to undergo €23m renovation with two-storey ‘agora’ at its heart

The mission of the project, designed by OMA architects, is to make the museum more accessible to the public

Victoria and Albert Museum's ambitious east London storehouse is finally complete

The Art Newspaper goes on an exclusive tour around the building which will open to the public in 2025

An invisible €171m renovation: Dutch royal palace reopens after five-year-long underground project

Designed as a royal hunting lodge in 1686, Het Loo has been transformed with a vast new entrance hall and multiple exhibition spaces hidden beneath the courtyard

Inside Malba: a tour of the largest museum dedicated to Latin American art in the world

On the edges of Buenos Aires, the Museum of Latin American Art has launched a second exhibition space. John Kampfner pays a visit.

First Saudi, now Seoul: Centre Pompidou confirms latest move of global expansion

Paris-headquartered museum brand will open its South Korean outpost in 2025

The oldest art institution in São Paulo adds a $16m wing for contemporary art

Pinacoteca de São Paulo's new building opens with a show by Haegue Yang

Panama Canal Museum to undergo major anniversary expansion—and bring to light troubling national histories

To celebrate 25 years, the institution will add new spaces and programmes, while also rethinking how it can strengthen the local art scene

The big museum openings to look out for in 2023

From the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery in London to the major expansion of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in the US, here is our pick of new museum projects in the coming year

New exhibition space! National Portrait Gallery buys former Victorian public lavatory

Museum in London acquired refurbished ticket kiosk site for £3m with funds from businessman Len Blavatnik

Monumental Sanford Biggers sculpture will welcome visitors to Orange County Museum of Art's new home

The sculpture will be installed prominently outdoors at the Southern California museum's new $93m Morphosis-designed building

Art Gallery of Ontario goes big with plans for new Modern and contemporary wing

The 50,000 sq. ft showplace, dubbed AGO Global Contemporary, is set to launch in 2026-27

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to expand its Islamic art galleries

The museum’s Islamic art collection spans more than 1,400 pieces as well as important long-term loans

Bronx Museum of the Arts to undertake $21m expansion

The project includes the addition of a multi-storey entrance and lobby, and is being supported with state and city funds

Garage Museum expands in Gorky park with move into historic Hexagon pavilion

Sanaa architects masterplan turns 1920s site in Moscow into vast exhibition space and library