History, art and design will be celebrated in their many forms, and disciplines, at new institutions from Paris to Los Angeles and London to Cape Town

Museum Barberini, Potsdam, Germany



In the magnificent reconstructed palace from which it takes its name, the Museum Barberini is a significant new attraction in the city of Potsdam’s already impressive historic centre. The museum will host exhibitions ranging from the old masters to contemporary art. It is opening with the show Impressionism: The Art of Landscape, which will include works by Monet, Renoir and Caillebotte.

• Opening late January, museum-barberini.com

Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Artist’s impression of the Zeitz MOCCA. Photograph: Heatherwick Studio

A landmark opening, and not just for South Africa, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa will be the biggest museum to open on the continent for over a century. It will be an influential place too: the $38m institution will be filled entirely with work created since the year 2000, and house the impressive collection of Jochen Zeitz (German philanthropist and former CEO of Puma), while it continues to acquire work of its own. The museum will be inside the 57-metre-high Grain Silo, a towering reminder of Cape Town’s industrial heritage – and soon to be a symbol of its creative future.

• Opens 23 September, zeitzmocaa.museum

National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Athens

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Visitors walk on a corridor leading to the top of the new museum. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

The reconstruction of EMST has been quite a tale, with over a decade financial and bureaucratic setbacks. Still, in October 2016 it was finally ready for a soft launch, inaugurating the temporary exhibition space with the show Urgent Conversations: Athens–Antwerp in its newly reconstructed home in the old Fix brewery. The permanent collection is pegged to be unveiled in autumn 2017, when the museum is expected to finally open in its entirety.

• emst.gr

Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Artist’s impression, by MET Studio Design, of the museum interior.

Indonesia will get its first museum dedicated to international modern art this year, when MACAN, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, opens its doors. With spacious interiors designed by London-based MET Studio Design, the museum will feature works from the collection of Indonesian philanthropist Haryanto Adikoesoemo, who says he has dreamed of creating a museum for the people of Indonesia for over a decade.

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Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Concept drawing of the ICA. Photograph: theicala.org

With a new logo designed by Mark Bradford, which is meant to evoke the unique urban pace of Los Angeles, the ICA LA represents a rebranding and rehousing of the Santa Monica Museum of Art. It opens in the autumn in a new location in the Downtown LA arts district. Its new space aims to bring together “architecture, urban design, and sustainability to create cutting-edge environments for exhibitions, education, dialogue, and collaboration”.

• Opening in autumn, theicala.org

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The new Sackler Courtyard at the V&A. Photograph: V&A

July 2017 will see the V&A get an upgrade, with the completion of the Exhibition Road project: the largest architectural scheme the museum has undertaken in the last 100 years. It will consist of a new temporary exhibition space, the Sainsbury’s Gallery, the Sackler Courtyard and a grand new entrance, the Blavatnik Hall. The open courtyard will be used for events, installations and a cafe, revealing a part of the historical facade of the museum’s west side to the public for the first time.

• vam.ac.uk

Design Society, Shēnzhèn, China

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Artist’s rendering of the new centre in Shēnzhèn. Photograph: Maki and Associates

The V&A will also be expanding beyond its London home in 2017, by collaborating with a Chinese partner to create a new cultural hub in Shēnzhèn. Design Society will span all creative disciplines and include a theatre, shops and a roof garden. The V&A will also have its own gallery within it, focusing on 20th- and 21st-century design and will host two major touring exhibitions over the next two years.

• designsociety.cn

Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Workers hang a mural depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill as preparations for museum opening continue. Photograph: Jacqueline Larma/AP

With US politics as polarised as it is, there has perhaps never been a better time to reflect on the history of the country. This museum does just that; taking a non-partisan view of the revolutionary period through thousands of objects, artworks, manuscripts and artefacts. Exhibitions will take visitors on a chronological journey, from the roots of resistance to the legacy of its outcome.

• Opens 19 April, amrevmuseum.org

Musées Yves Saint Laurent, Paris and Marrakech

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A display at the Paris museum. Photograph: Luc Castel

One of the world’s most influential fashion designers, Yves Saint Laurent is also the only designer of his generation who has systematically archived his work since creating his couture house in the 1960s. This year two museums will open, in Paris and Marrakech, to house the thousands of garments, accessories, sketches, photographs and objects that represent his life’s work. The Parisian museum will be in the historical couture house at 5 avenue Marceau, which has been converted over the last year. The Marrakech museum will be an impressive new build, near Jardin Majorelle – a garden long associated with the designer.

• Opening in autumn, fondation-pb-ysl.net

Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The construction site of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, pictured in November 2014. Photograph: Caren Firouz/Reuters

This epic international collaboration between France and Abu Dhabi has had its opening date pushed back several times over the years (it was originally to be completed in 2012). This year, however, will hopefully see the ambitious new museum open its doors to the public. Designed by award-winning architecture firm Ateliers Jean Nouvel, the museum “city” consists of a series of white buildings inspired by the Arab medina.

• louvreabudhabi.ae

This article was modified on 12 January 2017 to correct the opening date of the Yves Saint-Laurent museum to autumn 2017 and to remove reference to the American Civil War in the entry for the Museum of the American Revolution.