Description

The Memphis Museum of Art (MAM), formerly the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, will reinstall its American Art collections in a new building, set to open in 2026 on the city’s downtown riverfront. Planned as an inclusive-by-design museum, MAM’s debut installation will feature 12 focused exhibitions of American art on themes that bridge geographies and chronologies and aspire to foreground the richness and complexities of American identities. Building on MAM’s experience as a Luce-funded Museum Partner for Social Justice, the presentation will be guided and shaped through collaborations with artists, scholars, and community stakeholders committed to serving residents of the largest majority-Black city in the U.S., where the poverty rate is double the national average. Exhibition themes will include: Africa as Inspiration; Migration and Circulation; The Future: Time & Technology; and Delta South. Grant funds will support guest curators and all aspects of the reinstallation. MAM will develop related programming in partnership with Memphis public libraries, schools, and cultural organizations and expand outreach to underserved Memphians for whom the former museum proved challenging to access.