Our Story
Memphis's art museum since 1916
For more than a century, Memphis’s art museum has grown through the efforts of people who believed art should have a lasting place in the city’s life.
Today, its collection spans centuries and continents, including art made here in Memphis. Its new home on the Mississippi River will give people more room to spend time with art and one another.
The museum grew out of years of local advocacy. Bessie Vance Brooks committed $100,000 to build it in memory of her late husband, Samuel Hamilton Brooks.
Designed by James Gamble Rogers, the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery opened in Overton Park in 1916. At the dedication of the Beaux-Arts building, constructed of white Georgia marble, Bishop Thomas F. Gailor read Bessie’s statement in her presence:
“I hereby give and donate this building to the public use as a repository, conservatory, and museum of art, to be kept and maintained forever. . . for the free use and service of students of art and for the enjoyment, inspiration, and instruction of our people.”
Serving the Mid-South
Over the course of the next seven decades, extensive additions to the original building were necessary to keep pace with the institution’s ever growing permanent collection. In 1983, the institution was renamed the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art — or simply “the Brooks” to most Memphians.
By the museum’s final expansion in 1989, what started as a 8,200-square-foot building housing 19 paintings had grown to 86,000 square feet containing nearly 10,000 works spanning 5,000 years of global human history. In that same year, the Brooks became a fully private entity, with the City of Memphis still retaining ownership of the building, just as Bessie Vance Brooks intended.
Our Next Era
On June 1, 2023, the museum broke ground on a new home overlooking the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron with archimania, the new campus will open on December 6, 2026, as Memphis Art Museum.
The new home carries forward the collection and relationships built during 110 years in Overton Park. With permanently free admission for Shelby County residents, it will give local visitors the freedom to return often and make art part of their everyday lives.
Memphis Art Museum stands as a testament to Bessie Vance Brooks’s original vision and the enduring legacy of her namesake museum, while celebrating Memphis’ evolution into the vibrant cultural hub and world-class arts destination it is today.
