MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The art museum directors formerly known as Brooks are reportedly getting $12.5 million from the State of Tennessee to help with construction.
Though the current Brooks Museum building will maintain it's name and location, the yet-to-be completed new division — the "Memphis Art Museum" — receives the money as part of the state's fiscal 2025 budget.
The new museum should open on the riverfront in 2026, according to museum directors. Once finished, the new 122,000-square-foot museum will include more gallery space and more public spaces than the current museum in Overton Park.
“The new Memphis Art Museum is key to making our downtown into one of the most dynamic and inviting cultural centers in the country,” Mayor Paul Young said. “This is a win for Memphis.”
The new museum broke ground for construction in July 2023 and was designed by Herzog & de Meuron and archimania.
A 10,000 square foot community courtyard is said to be included in the design — the size of two full NBA courts. Other additions are said to include a rooftop with an expansive green-space or "an art park in the sky, complete with an event pavilion, quarter-mile walking path and sweeping views of the Mississippi River, Mississippi flood-plain and the downtown Memphis skyline."
“On behalf of everyone in Memphis, we would like to thank the members of the Tennessee General Assembly and the leadership of Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Governor Randy McNally for making this very significant investment in our city and our art museum,” executive director of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art/Memphis Art Museum Zoe Kahr said.
The new museum's campus is also said to include a new pedestrian plaza shared by the museum and Cossitt Library that will connect the "Bluff Walk," currently terminating behind Cossitt Library and the River Walk on Union Avenue.
