Ground Breaks on New Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Ground broke Thursday morning on the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s new home Downtown.

Officials turned the ceremonious first shovels of dirt at the space on Front Street between Monroe and and Union. Demolition work has been underway for months at the site razing a parking garage and the headquarters for the Memphis Fire Department.

Officials also announced that, so far, they have raised 75 percent of the $180 million fundraising goal for the project.

”The excitement around this project is incredible.” said, Zoe Kahr, the Brooks’ executive director. “Memphians invested $100 million in their new art museum before seeing a single rendering. Tennesseans committed another $35 million to their oldest and largest art museum before construction began. Today, together, as we break ground on Memphis’ art museum I know the excitement has only just begun.”

The new 122,000 square-foot building will feature nearly 50 percent more gallery space than the museum’s current home in Overton Park. The space will be used to to exhibit Memphis’ growing permanent art collection, as well as new spaces for education and art-making for all ages. Officials said the new Brooks will include “600 percent more art-filled public spaces than the current facility.”

The new Brooks will have a restaurant and gift shop, highlighting Memphis markers and artists. A community courtyard in the heart of the building will be 10,000 square feet, the size of two full NBA courts. The rooftop will provides visitors with an expansive green-space: an art park in the sky, officials said, complete with an event pavilion. Both the courtyard and the rooftop will be open to the public without museum admission.

The museum campus will include a new pedestrian plaza shared by the museum and Cossitt Library as well as connecting the Bluff Walk, currently terminating behind Cossitt Library, and the River Walk on Union Avenue.

“Today’s groundbreaking is one more sign of the strong growth and private investments in our city,” Mayor Jim Strickland said. “Memphis’ new art museum is a civic asset that will become the front porch for our city and a magnet for tourism.”

Construction for the new facility is expected to be complete by the end of 2025. The building will likely open in early 2026. The Brooks in Overton Park will remain open until the new building officially opens.