Memphis Art Museum will have free admission for Shelby County residents

By Elle Perry – Reporter, Daily Memphian

April June 24, 2026

When the Memphis Art Museum opens on Dec. 6, it will complete the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s relocation from its Overton Park home to a new building on Front Street and Union Avenue Downtown. 

The Memphis Art Museum will offer free admission to Shelby County residents in perpetuity. The free admission is made possible by donations from an anonymous former AutoZone employee, according to the museum. 

“If you look back at our history, the museum was founded as part of the City of Memphis, so its core mission has always been to serve Memphians,” MAM executive director Zoe Kahr said ahead of the Wednesday, June 17, announcement. “We know from all of the data over the years — we have been free on Saturday mornings for the last three years — when you were able to offer free admission, you see a spike in admission. So we know that price really is a barrier for many people.”

MAM is a project Kahr has been working on for nearly four years; she joined the Brooks Museum staff in late 2022. 

“It’s really thrilling to think that in less than six months … we’re going to be opening our doors to Memphians and making good on this promise we made so long ago,” she said. “Even beyond that, the team is already looking well beyond the opening just in terms of what we’re going to be able to deliver for the city, and we’re planning exhibitions and events in the new building and we’re just so excited to welcome Memphians and tourists, right? Because we’re getting so much excitement about this new building outside of Memphis.”

In the new 123,500-square-foot space, designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with local architect of record Archimania and landscape studio OLIN, the museum plans to host more than 400 events annually. 

Kahr said the museum will try to be open and accessible nearly seven days a week. The new building includes both a restaurant (with a separate operator) and a gift shop on the ground floor. 

“(Museums) engage really broad swaths of the community,” Kahr said. “We serve audiences of all ages, from our youngest Memphians to our oldest Memphians, with dedicated programs,” Kahr said. 

The new museum expands gallery space by 50% and provides 600% more free public space. The museum will open with nearly 20 exhibitions in a single-story loop surrounding the central courtyard. 

“Making Beauty: Hooks Brothers Studio, 1907-1984,” the main opening exhibition, is a survey of the Hooks Brothers Studio. C. Rose Smith, assistant curator of photography for the museum, curated the exhibition, which features more than 150 photos. The Memphis Art Museum and the National Civil Rights Museum organized the exhibition. 

Thirty thousand square feet of gallery space will be used for the other 19 smaller exhibitions, which the museum refers to as “short stories.” Those will feature works from the museum’s collection.

Once it opens, Kahr said she hopes the museum, which has already been booked for weddings, will see both tourists and Memphians returning to and enjoying Downtown. 

“The museum is in this amazing location, kind of connecting (the) South Main Arts District to the northern end of Downtown, where we have the (Renasant) Convention Center and St. Jude (Children’s Research Hospital),” she said. “One of Downtown’s geographic challenges is that it’s very long and very skinny. And for this linchpin in the middle to create more activity and push people back out in either direction, I think will be really helpful to Downtown.”

The Memphis Art Museum sees its next-door neighbor, Cossitt Library, as a partner. The City of Memphis is considering closing Monroe Avenue between the two facilities. 

The project would be a newly developed park or plaza connecting the museum to the library. If approved, the museum could collaborate with the library there. 

“One of the big opportunities that we see with the plaza on Monroe Avenue is for us to collaborate on shared programming, whether that’s community days or how we serve school groups together,” Kahr said. “That’s a possibility we’re exploring. ... (It’s) just a huge opportunity to build stronger institutions by collaborating together.”

The museum itself is naming its 10,000-square-foot central courtyard — “the beating heart of the museum” — after the Hydes. 

A rendering of the Memphis Art Museum's courtyard, which will be named Hyde Square, for Barbara and Pitt Hyde. (Herzog & de Meuron).

“You will see the courtyard from Front Street,” Kahr said. “You’ll see it from the galleries. You can access the rooftop from the courtyard. You can access the river from the courtyard. … On an average weekday, we’ll have cafe furniture out there and you can come read a book or meet a friend, or on the weekend, we could do a huge community event in there. … To me, it’s a really public-facing, really welcoming part of the museum. Heart and soul of the museum. And that feels so appropriate, given the incredible leadership the Hydes have shown in bringing this museum to fruition.”

Kahr said the MAM rooftop includes a quarter-mile walking path, along with a 50,000-square-foot sculpture garden. 

“My dream is that this is a museum that Memphians come to over and over and over, right?” Kahr said. “Like it’s not a once-a-year thing. It’s a, ‘Oh, I’m going to take my coffee break up on the rooftop, or I’m going to meet a friend and we’re going to walk through the galleries at lunchtime.’ So part of the advantage of being free is that we are removing any barrier to coming any time you want. As much as you want. I’m excited about these spaces that will reinforce that further.”

The new museum doesn’t stop at displaying art.

Along with viewing galleries at the Memphis Art Museum, there will also be opportunity for art-making. 

While the Overton Park space has offered art classes for all ages and drop-in workshops on Saturdays, once the Memphis Art Museum opens, there will be a dedicated space.

“If you’re in the museum and you’re in the mood to make something, do something creative,” Kahr said.

It’s called the Open Studio.

“So anytime you come to the museum and anytime our galleries are open, you can drop in and get creative, and there’ll be an array of different ways to do that,” Kahr said. “Whether that’s in projects or you can make your own still life … you can read a book … there’ll be lots of supplies you can pick up.”