Memphis Art Museum will reopen on December 6 in a newly expanded home designed by Herzog & de Meuron, marking a major step forward for one of Tennessee's key cultural institutions. The 123,500-square-foot campus nearly doubles gallery capacity and adds significantly more public space for visitors to explore.
Formerly known as the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the institution's new setting is built around a two-acre site shaped by the Mississippi River bluff. The project includes a 10,000-square-foot courtyard, a 50,000-square-foot rooftop art garden, an outdoor amphitheater, a pedestrian plaza, and bright education areas designed to support learning and community engagement.
The museum says Shelby County residents will receive free admission, broadening access to its collection of more than 10,000 works spanning 5,000 years. The galleries will present art through a fresh curatorial approach, including a collection display organized into 19 thematic "short stories" rather than a strict chronological path.
Opening exhibitions will spotlight photography with Making Beauty: Hooks Brothers Studio, 1907-1984, a presentation developed with the National Civil Rights Museum. The show will feature more than 150 images and highlight the legacy of Henry A. Hooks Sr. and Robert B. Hooks, whose work documented Black life in Memphis with lasting cultural significance.
Additional commissions by Jordan Ann Craig, Yunhee Min, Carlos Rosales Silva, and Memphis-based designer Eso Tolson will be installed throughout the campus, adding contemporary voices to the museum's historic collection. With its expanded footprint and layered programming, the museum is positioning itself as a dynamic civic space where architecture, art, and public life meet. Its opening may help shape a more connected cultural future for Memphis and the wider region.
