Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism has announced the official opening date for Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, nearly two decades after the project was first announced in 2006: December 11, 2026.
Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, the museum will become part of the Saadiyat Cultural District, which already includes Louvre Abu Dhabi and will soon be home to the Zayed National Museum, the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi. Spanning more than 80,000 square meters, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be the largest museum in the international Guggenheim network, which previously had locations only in New York, Venice and Bilbao.
The building houses 30 galleries and roughly 11,500 square meters of interior exhibition space, connected by a central atrium and glass bridges, along with more than 23,000 square meters of outdoor exhibition space in the form of metal cones and surrounding terraces. The cones, clad in stainless steel mesh as well as onyx and glass and reaching heights of up to 88 meters, draw inspiration from the region's traditional wind towers and industrial architecture.
The museum will focus on modern and contemporary art from 1960 to the present, aiming to offer a global art narrative that incorporates geographic and cultural perspectives traditionally underrepresented in major Western museums. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, described the opening as a milestone in the emirate's cultural journey. More details on the museum's inaugural exhibitions and commissioned works are expected to be announced in the coming months.