Top 14 museum openings & expansions in 2024

After having featured it on our lists of top new museums for the last three years, will 2024 be the year we finally see the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum? By all accounts, construction is complete, and an update on the museum’s website reads:

“The GEM Complex is now offering limited tours to test site readiness and the visitor experience ahead of the official opening. Access is currently limited to the Grand Hall, Grand Staircase, commercial area, and exterior gardens. All other interior spaces, including access to the galleries and collections, are restricted until the official opening.”

In a press conference last year, the project’s general director Atef Moftah said that the new museum will serve as “one house for all ancient Egyptian civilisation” and is “unique among all other museums.”

Moftah called the new museum “a destination, not just a building”, adding “Once the museum is open for the whole world, all those who are interested in this subject will be amazed.”

With a collection of over 100,000 objects covering 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, GEM will be the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single culture. The 500,000 square metre facility will have three storeys with a children’s museum, meeting rooms and a 250-seat 3D theatre. The building will also feature eateries and retail spaces.

The Tutankhamun collection will be a high point. Each of the 5,600 objects discovered in the boy pharaoh’s tomb will be on display in a dedicated exhibition room.

In a press conference in September 2023, Nintendo confirmed that construction on the new Nintendo Museum in Kyoto will be completed by the end of March 2024. During the presentation, Nintendo gave a construction update and revealed a new image showing a giant question block on its roof.

The plan was first announced in 2021. Nintendo is repurposing an old factory building (Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant) and its surrounding land. The venue will be a space where the company can exhibit its historical gaming products. The Nintendo plant, which was used to make playing cards and operated as a customer service centre for product repairs, was originally built in 1969.

In a post on X, Nintendo of America said the museum will “display a wide variety of Nintendo products from the company’s history”.

“Stay tuned for more info, as construction is planned to be completed by the end of March 2024,” it added.

The Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch, which served as Shakespeare’s company’s principal performance space prior to the construction of the Globe, is the location of the new Museum of Shakespeare in London, which is scheduled to open in 2024. The site was first uncovered by archaeologists in 2011.

The new museum will include a projected reconstruction of the original theatre above the remains of the stage and will also use artificial intelligence (AI) to bring the sights, smells and sounds of London in 1598 to life.

The project is a collaboration between Bompas & Parr, Historic England and Museum of London Archaeology. Speaking to blooloop about the design process, Bompas & Parr co-founder Harry Parr said:

“We are making a lot of design decisions focused on getting people to speak to and bond with other people. They will also be the audience later on, so if you have those interrelationships, and you’re doing your soliloquy, you realise that all those marvellous solo features in Shakespeare weren’t soliloquies, but rather dialogues with an active live audience who were participants.

“That, I think, is one of the things that is slightly lost in theatre now. Through building relationships across the show people will then be able to have that much more participatory Elizabethan experience.”

Norway is about to gain a revolutionary new museum. Kunstsilo, in Kristiansand, Southern Norway, opens for business on May 11, 2024. Situated within a painstakingly refurbished grain silo, the museum presents three floors of immersive art, combining the Southern Norway Art Museum with the esteemed Tangen Collection, the world’s largest collection of Nordic modernism.

Nicolai Tangen gave Kristiansand his art collection in 2015. The AKO Art Foundation granted the pieces to the former SørlandetsKunstmusuem for perpetual disposal the following year, and the 1935 grain silo on Odderøya peninsula was proposed as a location. Construction began in 2019 when the project was fully financed.

Kunstsilo will be a place for international exhibitions and interactive digital art. In addition to providing views of the area’s magnificent coastline, the area will host seminars, performances, food experiences, workshops, and other events.

The museum’s website states: “Kunstsilo is going to be a buzz with different artistic experiences and shall also be an arena for innovative digital art interaction. In addition, the silo will host a continuous programme of events and activities such as debates, family workshops, and concerts.”

Image credit: Mestres Wåge/ BAX/ Mendoza Partida

NHM Commons, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s (NHMLAC) new wing and community hub in Exposition Park will open in the autumn of 2024. This unique outside-inside experience, which celebrates the interconnection of science, nature, and culture, offers 75,000 square feet of newly renovated spaces, many of which are free to enjoy.

The project includes a new plaza for events that will serve as the museum’s ‘front porch’ for Exposition Park, a welcome centre, a 400-seat theatre for performances, talks and festivals, and a new cafe and retail space. It will also feature sustainable gardens and the museum has replaced its opaque exterior walls with a transparent glass façade, allowing the public to see inside.

Guests can view the 70-foot green-boned sauropod, Gnatalie, get up close to the iconic painting “L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective” by L.A. artist Barbara Carrasco and take in an exhibition of noteworthy specimens discovered by local community scientists that have been collected and studied by the museum’s own scientists.

“With its unique green color and imposing size, the 70-foot-long Gnatalie will be a great source of wonder for visitors to NHM,” said Luis Chiappe, director and curator of the museum’s Dinosaur Institute. “I’m particularly excited knowing that this mount will live in a community space, which reflects the diverse backgrounds of the people involved in the collecting efforts.”

NHMLAC is also currently reimagining and renovating the La Brea Tar Pits.

Image courtesy of NHMLAC. Rendering by Frederick Fisher and Partners, Studio MLA, and Studio Joseph. 

With a rooftop amphitheatre for enjoying Flagstaff’s renowned dark skies, exhibit galleries, and a state-of-the-art theatre, the 40,000-square-foot, three-story Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation Astronomy Discovery Center will be a hub of curiosity and discovery for visitors from all over the world.

The Lowell Observatory worked closely with the local community to determine the elements of the new centre. These include the 180-seat Universe Theatre, which brings together the classic planetarium experience with a stage of live educators, the Dark Sky planetarium, and the Curiosity Zone, an exhibit gallery for children with interactive displays and take away activities. It will also be home to the Astronomy Gallery exhibition space.

Dr. Jeffrey Hall, executive director of the institution, says, “Every component of the ADC is built with the purpose of communicating the awesome and unexpected wonders of the Universe, and this video gives you a quick glimpse at each of them. We can’t wait to share them in person in late 2024.”

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) has been working on the MASP em expansão project since 2019. This has seen the construction of a brand-new building named after Pietro Maria Bardi. With space for exhibitions, educational programmes, and restoration services, the building will expand the museum’s gallery and multipurpose offerings and give the public more access to culture.

“MASP is thus undergoing the most significant physical expansion in its history, using its own resources,” explains Alfredo Setubal, chairman of the Board, MASP, in a statement on the museum’s website.

“We are going to increase the museum’s exhibition capacity by 66% and integrate the two buildings, a very important investment in São Paulo’s culture. I believe that this expansion will consolidate both the museum and Avenida Paulista as a cultural hub: perhaps the most important cultural hub in Brazil, of which MASP is undoubtedly the anchor.”

The museum moved to its current site in Avenida Paulista in 1968, a relocation project that aimed to give the museum a venue worthy of its collection. The structure was created by modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi and has since become a tourist attraction and a global representation of modern architecture from the 20th century.

The 14-storey Pietro building, which will be connected via an underground tunnel, is expected to be completed in 2024. It will be home to two multifunctional galleries and five exhibition galleries, as well as classrooms, a restoration lab, a cafeteria, a ticket office and a museum store. MASP’s entire area will be 17,680 square metres after the new building opens. The new structure will not only increase the actual area but also broaden the scope of what MASP does on a national and worldwide level.

On 30 March 2024, the new Perth Museum will reopen following a £27 million renovation effort.

One of Scotland’s and the UK’s most important historical artefacts, the Stone of Destiny, popularly known as the Stone of Scone, will be located at its centre. The Stone, which is coming back to Perthshire after more than 700 years away, will serve as the focal point of the new museum and be open to the public for free viewing.

In addition to the Stone, the new museum will feature notable loans and exhibitions from both the UK and internationally, as well as Perth & Kinross’s Recognised Collections of National Significance. Highlights include a rare Jacobite wine glass and Bonnie Prince Charlie’s sword, which will be on public display for the first time.

The museum will be located in an Edwardian structure that was formerly used as a venue for everything from political gatherings and wrestling fights to marketplaces and concerts. Renowned architecture firm Mecanoo has turned this historic location into a significant tourist destination, which will also offer a shop and café, as well as areas for learning and events and a significant programme of temporary exhibitions.

The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Centre will be the first in the National Park Service system to be dedicated to the LGBTQ+ rights movement, with a grand opening scheduled for June 2024.

The nonprofit social advocacy organisation Pride Live is curating works that draw attention to Stonewall’s past. These include moments hand-picked by longtime activist and Stonewall pioneer Mark Segal.

The 3,700 square-foot site will be on Christopher Street, New York City, two doors down from the Stonewall Inn, the scene of the momentous uprising in 1969.

There will be musical performances, talks regarding the LGBTQ+ community and the ongoing fight for equality, and tours. Additionally, there will be two exhibitions that will change on a regular basis: one will showcase emerging LGBTQ+ artists, and the other, which is being produced in collaboration with the Parsons School of Design, will emphasise the experiences of today’s LGBTQ+ youth and allies.

See also: Celebrating LGBTQ+ history & culture at Queer Britain

Created by art collective teamLab, teamLab Borderless is a world of artworks without boundaries. It was previously located at Tokyo’s Odaiba waterfront and will reopen in February 2024 in its new home at the Azabudai Hills urban village. Here, it is within walking distance of several cultural venues, including the National Art Center, Mori Art Museum, and Suntory Museum of Art.

In the new space, artworks move out of rooms, communicate with other works, and sometimes merge with each other to form one borderless world. It will feature new installations such as Black Waves – Megalith Crystal Formation (work in progress); Flowers and People – Megalith Crystal Formation (work in progress); and Bubble Universe: Physical Light, Bubbles of Light, Wobbling Light and Environmental Light.

The first piece of art, Bubble Universe, consists of reflecting spheres with lights inside, which respond to one another as well as to the people that are there. Meanwhile, Megalith Crystal Formation is split into two sections: Black Waves and Flowers and People.

Visitors to Flowers and People will see flowers sprout, bloom, and eventually fade. According to teamLab, “The artwork is not a pre-recorded image that is played back: it is created by a computer program that continuously renders the work in real time.” Lastly, Black Waves investigates the interconnectedness of all oceans.

The Saka Museum will take visitors on a fascinating journey through the Balinese Day of Silence and various cultural expressions based in the Balinese Principle of Tri Hita Karana when it opens to the public in early 2024. The museum‘s name reflects its goal to connect Bali’s past, present, and future through the Balinese Saka calendar.

Bruce Carpenter, a reputable gallerist and art historian renowned for his substantial research on Indonesian art, culture, and history, is leading this project, and an expert group led by Marlowe Bandem, Farah Wardani, and Dr James Bennet has been curating the collection.

The design of the museum was completed in association with Napp Studio & Architects. It has wheelchair accessibility, elevators, accessible restrooms, and tours that can be tailored to individual needs.

Following a sojourn at the iconic Breuer Building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the Frick Collection will move back into its permanent home, the Henry Clay Frick House later in 2024. The Frick Madison, as the temporary venue is called, will close in March 2024, allowing the collection to make the move back to the renovated mansion on Fifth Avenue.

Speaking to blooloop about the $290m renovation of Henry Clay Frick House, director Ian Wardropper said: “One of the principal changes will be that we are opening up the second floor of the original mansion. Those are the private family rooms; the bedrooms, breakfast room, studies, and spaces like that, which are smaller scale than the rooms downstairs.

“It will give us about 25% more space to show our collection. That is a big factor because our collection has continued to grow over the years, and more and more things have been going into storage. Once we move back, we’ll be able to bring out the collection more.”

In addition, the renovated building will have a new dedicated special exhibition space and an education centre. Improvements have also been made to the museum’s infrastructure and its accessibility.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has remained open throughout its $150 million transformation and expansion. The museum broke ground on the redevelopment, which includes upgrades to the collections and exhibit areas, research spaces, offices and classrooms, and the reorganisation of the public galleries, in 2021. Part of the transformed campus opened in 2022, including a new entrance, an updated education wing, and renewed galleries.

The new 14,650-square-foot visitor hall opened in October 2023. This is free to the public and will serve as the heart of the reimagined museum when the overall project is completed in late 2024. It is home to iconic specimens, like the museum’s sauropod dinosaur, which is known as Happy and features in the logo, and the 3.2 million-year-old partial fossil skeleton of the species Australopithecus afarensis, nicknamed Lucy.

Also on view are Balto, the lead dog of a 1925 team of sled dogs, a moon rock on loan from NASA, a model of a bald eagle, and a giant armoured fish called Dunk.

Blackpool’s new museum of fun and entertainment, Showtown, will open its doors to the public in March 2024. Showtown will celebrate the history, legacy, and future of Blackpool’s rich entertainment heritage. It will cover the circus, magic shows, dancing, the celebrated illuminations, and more.

It hopes to draw more than 200,000 tourists annually with its six entertaining, engaging, and family-friendly galleries. Additionally, the museum will boost Blackpool’s economy by bringing in tourists and creating jobs.

The idea for Showtown Museum originated with Blackpool Council’s heritage team, explained Elizabeth Moss, chief executive of the Blackpool Heritage and Museum Trust, speaking to blooloop:

“It curated and held an incredible collection, which was very much under wraps, not really spoken about. This collection comprised ephemera from the days of performance, going right back to the birth of the resort town. There was also costume, and the original lighting design from the illuminations, from the circus under the tower. That was an absolute spectacle back in the day.”

The town, aware the collection should be part of Blackpool’s storytelling, decided a new museum was the best way to display the collection.

“The stories needed to be celebrated in true Blackpool style. It needed to be something special and groundbreaking, putting this collection, the stories, the performers, the residents and the producers, into the spotlight, demonstrating what can be achieved.”

Image courtesy of Casson Mann