The World’s Best New Museums

There are already lots of excellent museums around the world, but it can’t hurt to have a few more, can it? And 2024 is shaping up to be a fairly big year for arts and culture. A gigantic new wine museum is opening in China, a weird collection of canoes that you can really paddle to in Canada, and (hopefully) the long-awaited grand inauguration of Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum. This year will also see big new extensions to existing museums and much-anticipated reopenings. What a lot to take in, eh? Better start planning. Here are the ten most exciting museum openings (and reopenings) in 2024.

1. Stonewall National Monument Visitor Centre, New York City

The Stonewall Riots began 55 years ago in New York, and it has been eight years since former US President Barack Obama declared Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn as a national monument. On June 28, the exact anniversary of the Inn’s raid in the 1960s, a tourist facility documenting the LGBTQ+ rights movement will open to the public close to the Inn. We can’t wait to check out this brand-new inclusive environment, which will have talks, musical events, onsite visits, and an inspiring collection of paintings.

2. Sarjeant Gallery, New Zealand

After a four-year makeover, New Zealand’s Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui will reopen, with some significant improvements. The gallery is placed right by the Whanganui River on New Zealand’s north island, and its original structure has been rebuilt and upgraded to withstand earthquakes. The museum has also added a whole new wing made of black granite and glass that simulates the light of the river. The museum’s collection of nearly 9,000 works spans 400 years of art from New Zealand and around the world, and it will dazzle in its rebuilt home.

Opens later in 2024

3. Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo

We don’t want to jinx anything, but it appears like the Grand Egyptian Museum, which was scheduled to open late last year, will finally welcome visitors in 2024. It has been a work in progress for over ten years and is expected to be the world’s largest archeological museum, housing over 100,000 artifacts. Not only will there be a viewing gallery with a view of the Pyramids, but there will also be relics from Tutankhamun’s tomb that have never been displayed in public before. Fingers crossed that it finally opens its doors.

Opens late spring 2024

4. The Nintendo Museum, Kyoto

Since its announcement in June 2021, little has been said about Japan’s new Nintendo Museum – but as the opening date approaches (estimated to be around the end of March), we know a bit more. It will take over the site of a former Nintendo factory in Kyoto, where toys and products were repaired, and will include old consoles, games, and other little remnants from the brand’s history – sounds like the perfect excuse for a walk (or Mario Kart ride) down memory lane.

Opens March / April 2024

5. The Museum of Homelessness, London

The Museum of Homelessness has been around for a decade, but this year it will move into its first permanent home in London. The museum is set in an old gatekeeper’s cottage in Finsbury Park, so expect a small space (about 25 people at a time). The Ministry of Homelessness will serve as a creative hub for performances, speeches, and workshops created by people who have experienced homelessness and want to influence public perception.

Opens May 24, 2024

6. Pietro Maria Bardi building at Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo

The São Paulo Museum of Art, also known as the ‘Masp’, is getting a major enlargement this year. An underground tunnel will join the present museum with a new 14-story tower block above the road. Currently, only about 1% of the collection’s 11,000 objects are on display, but five floors of this additional structure will be dedicated to new galleries. The property will even be renamed, with the original building named after Lina Bo Bardi, the architect, and the new partner building after her husband, Pietro Maria Bardi.

Opens late 2024

7. SAKA Museum, Bali

Named after the Balinese Saka calendar, this museum has curated its collection to connect Bali’s past, present, and future. When it opens to the public in 2024, the new cultural centre will guide visitors on a captivating journey through various Balinese cultural practices and expressions. Visit when it opens in the spring and learn all about Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence, where the people of Bali practice quiet, fasting and meditation.

Opens early 2024

8. Canadian Canoe Museum, Ontario

Yes, you read it correctly. A beautiful, boat-shaped canoe museum will be built on a lakeside in Peterborough (approximately an hour and a half from Toronto) to house the world’s greatest collection of canoes and kayaks – over 600 in all. And, while there are plenty of unique rafts to admire, that isn’t the best part: guests can not only try their hand at paddle carving, but also take a canoe out for a spin from the onsite dock. Pretty awesome, right?

Opens May 11, 2024

9. Universal Wine Museum, Beijing

The world’s second-largest wine museum will open this year in Fangshan Valley, southwest of Beijing. It will be much more than just a collection: in collaboration with the Cité du Vin de Bordeaux (the world’s largest wine museum), this project will not only take visitors through the history and process of winemaking, but it will also house restaurants, a wine school, workshops, and conferences.

Opens sometime in 2024

10. Kunstsilo Nordic Art Museum, Norway

Many galleries have found homes in repurposed buildings, such as the Musée d’Orsay, which was once a rail station and the Tate Modern, which was a power station. It’s now – and not for the first time – the flour mill’s turn. Kunstsilo, a brand-new art museum sitting on the quayside in Kristiansand, Norway, will open in May, welcoming visitors to a world of Nordic art housed inside a mill dating back to 1934. Originally a grain silo, it received a national award for its modern functionalist construction, and the museum will now have three levels of exhibit space.

Opens May 11, 2024