Artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkiliç are behind the world’s first museum of artificial intelligence, opening later this year.

Situated at The Grand in LA – a mixed use development designed by Frank Gehry – Dataland will explore the ‘intersection of human imagination and the creative potential of machines’.

The museum will feature a range of art experiences ‘blending human imagination and artificial intelligence, establishing a new model for artistic expression at the onset of the digital age.’

According to Anadol and Erkiliç, who are the co-founders of technology-driven art and design practice Refik Anadol Studio, Dataland aims to ‘unite pioneers in diverse fields including the arts, science, AI research, and cutting-edge technology.’

“Los Angeles is the perfect city to launch Dataland, a forward-thinking, revolutionary museum in support of the fields to which I have dedicated my career: art, science, technology and AI research,” said Anadol. “LA has long been a city that looks to the future in art, music, cinema, architecture, and more, and it feels natural to open Dataland here.”

“To have a permanent space for us to develop a new paradigm of what a museum can be, by fusing human imagination with machine intelligence and the most advanced technologies available, is a realisation of one of my biggest dreams.”

“Dataland is a place where human creativity meets innovation, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary,” says Dataland co-founder Efsun Erkiliç. “Having a space of our own gives us a blank canvas to work with, allowing us to truly push ourselves to dream without boundaries.

“We’re building a visionary museum that redefines learning and community, igniting the human spirit and fuelling a journey into the beauty of our collective memories – the world of data.”

Dataland is being developed in partnership with architecture firm Gensler and global consultancy Arup.

The long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is inching closing to opening – now due to launch in 2026.

Co-founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, the museum will focus on storytelling through images, exhibiting works from a collection that includes paintings, sculptures, murals, photography, comic art, books and magazine illustrations.

Highlights include works by illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, N C Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, and Kadir Nelson; comic artists such as Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta, Jack Kirby, and Robert Crumb; muralists such as Judith F Baca and Diego Rivera; photographers including Dorothea Lange and Carrie Mae Weems; chroniclers of African American life including Jacob Lawrence and Charles White; seminal works by artists including Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Robert Colescott; and cinematic archives, including the Separate Cinema Archive and the entire historic Lucasfilm Archive (1971–2012).

The Ma Yansong-designed Lucas Museum will open in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park, and will feature expansive galleries, two state-of-the-art theatres, and dedicated spaces for learning and engagement, dining, retail, and events.

“The stories that art tells are often key to understanding a society and its aspirations—whether our own or others,” Lucas has said. “We hope the Lucas Museum will help audiences better understand the world and build toward a more just and empathetic society.”

Gus Casely-Hayford was appointed director of the V&A East in March 2020 / Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Opening in May 2025, the V&A East Storehouse promises to be a unique kind of museum experience. Housed in a new purpose-built public space designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro within Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, it aims to open up the V&A’s vast collection to the public.

Spread across four levels, the storehouse will display 250,000 objects, 1,000 archives and 350,000 books – these range from huge artefacts such as the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Kaufmann Office to Samurai swords, vintage footballs shirts and instruments owned by musicians including the Rolling Stones and PJ Harvey. Mini curated displays will explore diverse topics ranging from scientific research on conserving fragile plastics to east London’s heritage of artistry, activism and resistance. Visitors can explore the V&A’s newest acquisitions by transgender and non-binary artists, learn about how objects are collected and cared for by museums and watch conservators working on puppets, paintings and other objects.

The new building will also host pop-up displays, festivals, workshops, performances and screenings.

The entire building is open access, so that visitors can come in from the street and explore the collection. Guided tours can also be booked in advance and visitors have the opportunity to ‘order an object’, allowing them to examine items from the collection up close.

The V&A East Storehouse will also feature the David Bowie Centre, showcasing the archive of David Bowie, which was acquired by the V&A in 2023.

“With its open central space, and glass balustrades and floor, you will feel as if you have literally been immersed into the collection,” said V&A East director Gus Casely-Hayford.

“This space will revolutionise access to our collections by providing an unprecedented platform from which to tell new stories of theatre, performance, art and design.”

MAD founder Ma Yansong / © Mark Bolk

Set to open in Rotterdam’s City Harbour in May 2025, the Fenix Museum of Migration aims to explore themes of migration through the lens of art.

The centrepiece of the regeneration of the harbourside neighbourhood of Katendrecht, the museum will be housed in a former historic warehouse, which is being redesigned by MAD Architects. The 16,000sq m building, dating from 1923, will house a series of huge galleries set across two floors, and will be topped with a dramatic metallic helix, named the Tornado.

The Tornado spirals upwards from the base of the building, representing the turbulent journeys of migrants, and will act as an elevated viewing platform.

“When MAD Architects was asked to work on Fenix, we knew we had to create a dialogue with the existing building and its surroundings – and with a past containing so many stories of migration, memories, and uncertainty,” says Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects.

“In designing a new structure, we had to show this dialogue between the future and the past, and so continue the story of the building. The Tornado is all about the future, but it’s rooted in the past. For me, it’s a metaphor for the journeys of migrants who passed through this building.”

The inaugural collection exhibition, All Directions: Art That Moves You, will showcase 150 artworks and objects ranging from the historical to the contemporary, drawn from the Fenix collection and acquired over the past five years.

Fenix will also present The Family of Migrants, an exhibition inspired by Edward Steichen’s famed legendary Family of Man photography exhibition, which was on view at MoMA in 1955.

“The story of Fenix is inextricably linked to Rotterdam and its many communities; but that story is also the world’s,” says Anne Kremers, director of Fenix. “It’s a story of arrivals and departures, and of constant change to face the future.”

Director Marit Album Dvernmo / Lasse Berre © BERRE

Due to open in spring 2025, PoMo sees Trondheim’s Art Nouveau Post Office transformed into a new museum for modern and contemporary art spanning 4,000sq metres.

The museum’s founders, Monica and Ole Robert Reitan – of the Norwegian holding company Reitan – have said that they hope the opening of the museum will put their home city of Trondheim on the world stage in the same way that the Guggenheim Bilbao transformed the Spanish city into a global destination.

The museum will exhibit items from the Reitan’s personal collection, including 55 works by Edvard Munch, as well as iconic works by artists including Louise Bourgeois, Simone Leigh, Katharina Fritsch, Louise Bourgeois and Anne Imhof.

As part of the museum’s permanent exhibition, a dedicated Munch Room will display 15 selected works, including The Scream and Madonna.

Monica and Ole Robert Reitan have said that they hope to create an inclusive and accessible modern and contemporary art museum that welcomes those who may never have set foot in a museum before alongside art aficionados.

According to a statement, the founders have also said that they are committed to ensuring that the collection represents a broad diversity of artists, across gender and origin.

“PoMo will tackle the gender inequality typical of museum collections, by assigning 60 per cent of the acquisitions budget to work made by women in order to tackle inequality in museum collections at large,” said the statement.

“At PoMo, we will place the visitor’s experience at the centre of everything we do, bringing world-class modern and contemporary art to enrich the cultural life of our city, and reimagining our historic building to provide an accessible and intuitive experience for our visitors,” says Marit Album Kvernmo, director of PoMo.

The contemporary art museum is interior designer India Mahdavi’s first museum project, working in collaboration with Norwegian architect Erik Langdalen.

“I wanted this museum to feel inviting and inclusive, engaging both the local community and the international art crowd,” Mahdavi says.

The small rural island of Naoshima, off the coast of Japan, has been nicknamed art island, and is already a major draw for art lovers. Just eight square kilometres, it is home to an impressive range of contemporary art museums and galleries, as well as sculptures and installations by the likes of Yayoi Kusama.

The island’s transformation from sleepy rural island to glamorous art destination is the brainchild of Japanese billionaire Soichiro Fukutake, who has collaborated with legendary Japanese architect Tadao Ando on the creation of a complex of modern museums.

The latest museum to take shape is Naoshima New Museum of Art, designed by Tadao Ando and set to open on a hilltop in the island’s Honmura district this spring. With a focus on contemporary art from Japan and the wider Asian region, it will exhibit works across four gallery spaces in a three-storey building that comprises two basement floors and a ground floor.

The museum will feature both permanent and temporary exhibitions and host a range of public events, including talks and workshops. The inaugural exhibition will feature works by 11 artists and groups, including Aida Makoto, Martha Atienza, Cai Guo-Qiang, artist collective Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group and Takashi Murakami.

According to Tadao Ando, the architecture and the approach leading up to the entrance are designed to connect the experience of visitors with Naoshima’s history and people’s lives. The museum’s exterior features black plaster reminiscent of burned cedar walls, and a stacked pebble fence to blend with the surrounding landscape of the Honmura area.

A café on the ground floor will offer visitors views of the island of Teshima and the local fishing boats coming and going.

Home to the Louvre Abu Dhabi – which opened in 2017 – the Saadiyat Cultural District is set to welcome two new museums in 2025.

The Zayed National Museum will act as the centrepiece of the Saadiyat Cultural District, which will also house the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the National History Museum Abu Dhabi and teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi.

Designed by Foster + Partners, Zayed National Museum will showcase the history and culture of the UAE. Its form has been inspired by a winged falcon in flight, and it features six permanent galleries, one temporary exhibition space and an outdoor gallery. The museum has also been designed as a monument and memorial to the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE.

The six permanent galleries will cover the beginnings of the UAE, evidence of its ancestors, the region’s wildlife and landscapes, the development of its coastal settlements, Emirati identity and past and present connections with the rest of the world.

As well as exhibiting items from its extensive collection – which include one of the oldest known natural pearls and examples of the UAE’s earliest coinage – the museum will host talks, workshops, performances and storytelling.

The Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is expected to complete in 2026, and will showcase modern and contemporary art from 1960 onwards. The global collection comprises more than 600 works, and includes a dedicated focus on the Gulf and West Asia, North Africa, and South Asia.

The 35,000sq m Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi will explore the evolution of the universe and the history of life on earth via ‘exceptional specimens and immersive displays’ and is expected to open towards the end of 2025.

TeamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi is also due to open in 2025, featuring immersive art installations centred on the theme of environmental phenomena.