The expanded New Museum—Manhattan’s only museum exclusively dedicated to contemporary art—will open its doors to the public on March 21, 2026. The 60,000 square-foot addition to the SANAA-designed flagship building was envisioned by OMA—led by Shohei Shigematsu, director of the Dutch firm’s New York office—in collaboration with executive architect Cooper Robertson. The seven-story expansion doubles the museum’s gallery space, improves vertical circulation with the introduction of an atrium stairway and additional elevators, and augments public areas. The ground floor includes an enlarged lobby and bookstore and a new 100-seat restaurant, while the upper floors incorporate a studio for artists-in-residence, as well as a permanent home for the non-profit cultural incubator NEW INC.

To inaugurate the space, the New Museum will host New Humans: Memories of the Future, which will bring together more than 200 artists, writers, scientists, architects, and filmmakers to examine how technological and societal changes spur new ideas of what it means to be human. Works by Sophia Al-Maria, Cyprien Gaillard, Pierre Huyghe, and Tau Lewis—to name a few—will be featured. The institution will also unveil commissions that will be on display long-term, including an installation by Tschabalala Self for the building’s laminated glass and metal mesh facade and a sculpture by Klára Hosnedlová for the atrium stairway.  The David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will also open this spring to the general public on May 4—a year after the building’s completion. The 110,000 square-foot exhibition space was designed by Swiss Pritzker laureate Peter Zumthor. The curved concrete volume—Zumthor’s first project in the United States—stretches across Wilshire Boulevard, hovering over lanes of traffic. It replaces four structures from the 1960s and ‘80s by William Pereira and Associates and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, which were razed in spring of 2020. Though the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the contentious plan in 2019, the design was met with fierce criticism from locals and spurred a “protest competition” showcasing alternative designs. L.A. Times art critic Christopher Knight received a Pulitzer Prize for his dissection of the plans. LACMA leadership has staunchly defended the scheme throughout the process.

The amoeba-shaped building, which comprises the Elaine Wynn Wing and the Ressler Family Wing, holds approximately 2,500 to 3,000 objects from the institution’s global collection at one time. The exhibition is organized by geographic zones—Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea—rather than period or medium, with the aim of emphasizing cultural exchange, migration, and commerce as it relates to art history. From April 19 through May 3, the galleries will open to LACMA members, giving them an exclusive first look at the space. Throughout the spring and summer, the museum will host special art activations, events, and programs.