Amsterdam

driftmuseum.com

Amsterdam’s immersive new museum comes courtesy of Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, who founded Studio DRIFT in 2007. They have teamed up with Dutch entrepreneur Eduard Zanen to take over the refurbished Van Gendt Hallen factory buildings with DRIFT’s cutting-edge experiential sculptures, installations and performances. The multidisciplinary studio has exhibited around the world, but it might be best known for “Franchise Freedom,” a 2023 performance that launched more than a thousand illuminated drones into the night sky over New York’s Central Park. DRIFT’s ambition is to harness technology to manifest the patterns and phenomena of nature, from flowers to flocks of starlings.

New York

studiomuseum.org

A hub for artists of African descent and an important center for Black culture, the museum is to reopen this fall in a new purpose-built home. Designed by Adjaye Associates and taking inspiration from the neighborhood, it offers more space for the permanent collection, special exhibitions, educational and public programs, aspiring to be a cultural anchor for the Harlem community. The inaugural exhibition is dedicated to Tom Lloyd (1929-96), the artist, educator and activist who was the subject of the Studio Museum’s first exhibition in 1968.

London

vam.ac.uk/east

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s new venue, opening on May 31 in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, invites you behind the scenes of its massive collection: half a million objects that run the gamut from Dior haute couture to the Glastonbury festival archive. The V&A East Storehouse offers unprecedented access to the museum’s stores, with guided tours, events, curated displays and more. Anyone can book to see a specific object using the “Order an Object” service, a world first. Fans of David Bowie can see his archive—acquired by the V&A in 2023—in its new home from September 13. The nearby V&A East Museum is scheduled to open in spring 2026.

London

nationalgallery.org.uk

Plans to refurbish the Sainsbury Wing on the west side of the National Gallery were approved in 2022, with the aim of opening up the existing space for an ever-increasing number of visitors. The architectural competition was won by the New York-based studio of Annabelle Selldorf, who says she is creating “a more generous and welcoming space.” The wing, which first opened in 1991, is home to some of the gallery’s finest Renaissance paintings, including works by Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Uccello and Botticelli. After being scattered throughout the main building’s galleries during the redesign, they will be reunited again when the wing reopens in May.

New York

newmuseum.org

An extension designed by OMA, the practice led by Rem Koolhaas, is set to double the footprint of the New Museum. Artist residencies and public programs are moving into the space, along with the museum’s digital art affiliate Rhizome and cultural incubator NEW INC. The expansion will create a new public plaza at the intersection of Bowery and Prince Street for art installations, gatherings and performances.

New York

frick.org

The Frick Collection is returning to its historic Beaux-Arts home on Fifth Avenue/East 70th Street for an April reopening, following its first major renovation since 1935. Led by Selldorf Architects, the redesign will increase display space for the collection by opening up the mansion’s second floor, once the private living quarters of the Frick family. Special exhibitions are destined for a suite of new galleries, beginning in June with “Vermeer’s Love Letters,” and the museum will be unified physically with the adjacent Frick Art Research Library.