If you're a culture vulture in search of new haunts, you're in luck. A smattering of new museums are opening, with subjects ranging from Shakespeare's life and plays to art produced by female artists. One of the most exciting debuts is the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum, which will house all King Tutankhamun's tomb treasures in one place for the first time ever when it opens later this year. Whatever your interest, these are the most exciting museum openings for 2024 and beyond.
Click through the gallery to discover this year's most exciting new museum openings, and look ahead to 2025 and 2026 launches too...
It’s all very hush-hush but Nintendo is planning to turn its former factory site into a museum, tentatively called the Nintendo Gallery. The museum, expected to open in March 2024, will sit on the site of the former Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant in Kyoto and is set to highlight the company’s history of creating toys and games – even as far back as the days of making Hanafuda playing cards in 1889.
Located in DC's historic Anacostia neighbourhood, the groundbreaking Go-Go Museum is set to celebrate go-go music, often said to be the official soundtrack of DC. It's a blend of funk, R&B, salsa and hip hop, and was created in the 1970s by the music legend Chuck Brown. The museum, located on Martin Luther King Jr Avenue, aims to preserve the history and culture of this musical movement through interactive exhibits. There will also be an on-site cafe highlighting food and flavours from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, parts of the world that are all closely associated with go-go music.
Spring 2024 will see the opening of a new museum within Dolly Parton's delightful Dollywood. The Dolly Parton Experience will chronicle the singer-songwriter's childhood and career, and fans will be able to see a whole host of previously unseen Dolly Parton mementos, including her signature bedazzled stage costumes in the Behind the Seams exhibit. Visitors can also expect a number of interactive elements to make guests feel as if they were alongside Dolly as she journeyed from her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee to stages around the world.
Blackpool's long-awaited new museum will open on 15 March 2024 on the city’s waterfront, celebrating its world-famous entertainment industry. Six galleries will bring together 800 artefacts relating to the city's connection to performance art, circus and magic performers, with Punch and Judy sets and costumes as well as a learning space for school trips.
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More than 20 years in the making, the Grand Egyptian Museum has been teasing its opening for four years now. When it finally opens later in 2024, as anticipated, it will be the largest archaeological museum in the world. Not only will more than 100,000 ancient artefacts be on display here, but the museum will also house 5,000 objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb that have never been seen by the public before. There’ll also be a children’s museum, where youngsters can learn more about the ancient Egyptian world via state-of-the-art visual depictions.
Set within the AYANA Estate in Jimbaran, this new museum is dedicated to showcasing Balinese culture. Dedicated to the history of the island and the Balinese philosophy of Tri Hita Karana (roughly translated as 'three causes of wellbeing'), the temple-like building exudes serenity on the outside while its interiors, created by Hong Kong designers Napp Studio, emphasise natural features and shape serene garden views through triple-height windows.
The curtain will rise in spring 2024 on a new Museum of Shakespeare, where AI will help visitors imagine what a day in the life of the famous playwright was like. Located at the site of the recently excavated 16th-century Curtain Playhouse, where Shakespeare may have staged his early performances of Henry V and Romeo and Juliet, the museum will be set in 1598, 10 feet (3m) underground. The museum will include multi-sensory experiences and a chance to walk on the stage where Shakespeare presented his plays.
One of the most anticipated museums of 2024, the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park will transport visitors deep into the Earth's archaeological past. Perched above an active research ground and quarry (home to 66-million-year-old fossils from the Cretaceous Period), the New Jersey museum will feature immersive prehistory exhibits as well as the opportunity to go fossil hunting yourself.
The innovative Museum of Homelessness is finally moving into a permanent bricks-and-mortar location in London's Finsbury Park this spring. The museum aims to educate and enlighten visitors through a variety of exhibitions and instalments with stories told by the people who have experienced homelessness. Hoping to change the perception of homelessness, the museum is run run by people with direct experience of homelessness and also aims to fight injustice through research and campaigns.
Moving to a brand new lakefront campus along the Trent-Severn Waterway, the new Canadian Canoe Museum will feature an impressive 600-strong collection of watercraft, from a colourful decal-covered fibreglass canoe that travelled 12,000 miles (km), earning a Guinness World Record for the longest canoe journey; to birch-bark canoes crafted by Indigenous makers. The museum has been working closely with Indigenous community members to ensure accuracy and fair representation of their stories within the exhibits.
Set to be the second-largest wine museum in the world after Bordeaux's Cité du Vin when it opens in May 2024, the Universal Wine Museum in Beijing has a massive footprint of four-and-a-half acres (18,000sqm). Most of the generous space will be dedicated to a permanent exhibition focusing on the story of wine production and world wines, while an organic vineyard will sit adjacent to the museum. The building design is inspired by the silhouette of the city of Saint-Émilion in southwestern France, famous for its red wines with a history dating back to the Roman Empire.
A new so-called ‘universe of art’ is opening its doors in southern Norway's coastal city of Kristiansand in May 2024. Kunstsilo, housed in a restored, eye-catching grain silo, will bring together Nordic Modernist art, displaying works from the Tangen Collection, the Southern Norway Art Collection and Christianssands Picture Gallery to make up its permanent collection. Meanwhile, interactive displays and international collections will be spread across three more floors.
June 2024 will see the opening of Europe's first museum solely dedicated to the works of women artists. British art collector Christian Levett's private museum used to hold Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts at the now-closed Mougins Museum of Classical Art in France. Levett’s space just outside Cannes has now undergone a two-year transformation to become the Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins. Plans include exhibiting works by artists such as Joan Mitchell, Barbara Hepworth and Tracey Emin.
While most museums are focused on the past, this innovative museum in Seoul will give its visitors a glimpse into the future. Tipped for a July 2024 opening, the new museum will not only be a place to interact with robots but also understand the future of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other tech we can expect to see in the future. The 80,000-square-foot (7,432sqm) museum is the first of its kind in South Korea and will offer four floors showcasing the capabilities of AI and robotics tech.
Slated for a 2025 opening, the new Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi will double up as a permanent memorial to the late founder of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and a natural history museum focused on the UAE. The centrepiece of the city's Saadiyat Cultural District, its stunning exterior features five steel wings which will help draw out hot air, while cooling pipes will control the temperature in the lobby.
Opening next year in Rotterdam's City Harbour, the FENIX Museum of Migration will showcase the stories of global migration through art, architecture, photography and history. One of the most touching installations is expected to be The Maze – a monumental piece of 2,000 donated suitcases. The project also includes the revamping of the existing building and the addition of a new, dynamic feature called the Tornado, representing the tumultuous journeys of migrants globally.
Founded by legendary filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will reveal the history of all forms of visual storytelling, from painting and photography to performance and video. The $1bn museum will feature expansive galleries, exhibition spaces and two theatres displaying daily film screenings.
Australia's largest museum group, Powerhouse Sydney, is currently working on bringing one of Australia's most significant museums to life. Powerhouse Parramatta in Western Sydney is tipped for a 2025 opening and is the country's largest cultural development since the Sydney Opera House. The pioneering new museum is set to challenge the norms of what a museum is and will bring together seven large-scale exhibition spaces and learning and digital studios, as well as a cinema and theatre.
Set to open next year, this innovative museum is spearheaded by the art duo Drift, who have collaborated with entrepreneur and owner of the building Eduard Zanen to create an experiential space. Located in an industrial hall in central Amsterdam, the energy-neutral museum will include an exposition of the duo's most impressive work – drifting and hovering concrete blocks.
Nearly 20 years in the making, the long-awaited Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi is finally set for a 2025 opening. Another groundbreaking design for the city's Saadiyat Island, the museum is designed by architect Frank Gehry and will become the largest of the four Guggenheims around the world. The museum is planned to house a varied collection of global modern and contemporary art, with a focus on works from West Asia, North Africa and South Asia.
Wrexham is the epicentre of Welsh football – it’s home to the oldest professional football club in Wales, after all – so it makes sense that the county borough is opening the Football Museum here (development work has already started). The new museum, slated for 2026, will celebrate the history of Welsh football from its grassroots clubs to its national team, along with Wrexham’s other historic sporting achievements. Although it will be based on the upper floor of the current Wrexham Museum, new galleries will be installed across the rest of the site.
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