Museum expansions

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

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

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

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

Diego Rivera's grand vision for Mexico City's Anahuacalli complex realised after nearly eight decades

Thirteen new structures now flank the main museum building of the complex, which houses Rivera's collection of pre-Hispanic art

Queens Museum director on its transformative expansion and learning from the pandemic

Led by Sally Tallant, the community-focused museum is building a new educational centre thanks to a $26.4m grant from New York City

Museu de Arte de São Paulo plans to tunnel its way through to a new 14-storey building

The Lina Bo Bardi-designed museum in Brazil can currently only display 1% of its 11,000-piece collection

New-York Historical Society presents plans for $140m expansion, including a home for a new LGBTQ museum

Design envisages over 70,000 sq. ft of space for classrooms, collection study areas and the fledgling museum, as well as underground library storage