The new museums of 2022: antiquities, theatre, archaeology and even digital art

Enjoy the new museums opening their doors in 2022 and their amazing exhibitions.

The year 2022 is full of new developments, including the opening of museums around the world dedicated to art, theatre, archaeology and much more. New museums in 2022 add to the list of museums that opened in 2021, so you can enjoy more exhibitions and variety on your getaway.

NFT Museum in Seattle (USA): digitisation comes to museums

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are bursting onto the art scene. They are pieces of digital crypto-art that can be used to authenticate objects, which allows them to have many possibilities in the art world. Now, they are going one step further to create the first NFT Museum, located in Seattle, USA.

NFT art is registered and traded usingblockchain technology, so that each token is stored. This facilitates the acquisition, sale and authentication of the artworks. The creators of the museum are two art-loving entrepreneurs, Jennifer Wong and Peter Hamilton. They did it with the aim of bringing the NFT community together in one physical space to provide visibility and education to this new way of perceiving art.

The museum wants to break down the barriers between the digital and the physical. For this reason, its exhibition has more than thirty screens to visualise the works of different artists. Each installation is linked to the meta data of the work, the history of the artist and more interesting details to complete the experience. Participating artists include H+ Creative, Robbie Trevino and Blake Kathryn.

It is scheduled to open on 14 January 2022.

Address: 2125 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121, USA

Datong Art Museum (China): a new cultural destination in China

After nearly a decade under construction, the Datong Art Museum opens its doors to the public. Designed by architects Foster + Partners, its structure resembling four interlocking pyramids makes the museum appear to grow out of the ground.

The museum is intended to be a social centre for the people of Datong. An urban ‘living room’ that brings people, art and artists together to interact. At the heart of the building is the large gallery, a flexible exhibition space designed to accommodate both large-scale works as well as performing arts and other events.

In addition, Foster + Partners also designed education and learning areas, such as a children’s gallery, a multimedia library, an archive and art storage facilities.
The Datong Art Museum is now open to the public.
Address: China, Shanxi, Datong, 华严街下寺坡街14号

The Burrell Collection in Glasgow (Scotland): the museum reopens with 35% more space for its exhibits.

The Burrell Collection is one of Scotland’s most famous museums with a large collection of fine art and antiquities. The building is located in Glasgow’s Pollok Country Park and has been closed since 2016. With a focus on the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the museum features artefacts from Europe from up to five millennia ago. It also features Chinese and Islamic art, objects from ancient civilisations and fine art collections.

The museum was started by the magnate Sir William Burrell, a contemporary art enthusiast who gave his collection to the city of Glasgow in 1944. For this reason, it also includes an exhibition with reconstructions of some of the rooms in Sir William Burrell’s house. In addition, there will be an exhibition on his family, with special emphasis on Sir William’s mother, Isabella, and sister, Mary.

The renovation of the museum has served to renew the building, as well as the collections. The Burrell Collection offers its best-known paintings and works, but it is also launching itself into the digital world. There will be interactive and digital exhibitions on craftsmanship and the exploration of materials. Another space will be dedicated to country life through the years, focusing on hunting and nature.

It is scheduled to reopen in March 2022.

Address: Pollok Country Park, 2060 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, G43 1AT

The New National Museum in Oslo (Norway): the National Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Norwegian Decorative Arts and Design come together under one roof.

The New National Museum will be dedicated to arts, crafts, design and contemporary art. It will have a permanent exhibition of 5,000 objects and will show connections between collections that have already been shown in the other three museums. In addition, some of Edvard Munch‘s most famous paintings, such as The Scream (1893) and Madonna (1894), will be on display.

The building has been designed by Kleinhues + Schuwerk Gesellschaft von Architekten and is based on the concepts of dignity and longevity. The main objective was to balance the museum with its surroundings and existing monuments, such as Oslo City Hall and the Akershus Fortress. The building has an exhibition hall and a rooftop terrace. In addition, the square in front of the museum will become an urban meeting point with benches and a café.

In August 2021, the museum bookshop opened and is now open for visits, as is the Bollebar café. In addition, the Mellomstasjonen point, a temporary information centre, has also been set up.

The museum will celebrate its opening on 11 June 2022.

Address: Universitetsgata 13, 0164, Oslo, Norway

Broadway Museum in New York (USA): a yellow brick road through Broadway history

In the heart of Times Square is this brilliant Broadway Museum. After delays in its opening due to the pandemic, the museum will be able to welcome visitors in 2022. The exhibits are designed as an interactive experience that will tell the story of the theatre industry’s most important and historic moments.

The creators of the initiative are producer Julie Boardman and entrepreneur Diane Nicoletti. Together with a great team, they will set up the four main exhibitions: the first, The Timeline, a timeline of Broadway’s history, showing the theatre’s pioneers, the most socially progressive moments and the premieres of the most famous musicals. The second, The Map Room, will show in an immersive format with map projections the migration of theatres from Union Square and Herald Square to Times Square.

The third exhibition, The Game Changers, will showcase some of the most significant musicals through digital installations created by Broadway artists and designers. Finally, The Making of a Broadway Show provides an opportunity to visit the backstage of a theatre to showcase the work of professionals both on and off stage.

The museum will open in summer 2022.

Address: 145 West 45th Street, New York City

The Great Egyptian Museum at Giza (Egypt): the world’s largest archaeological museum dedicated to a single civilisation.

The Grand Egyptian Museum is located just two kilometres from one of Egypt’s most important monuments: the pyramids of Giza. The museum’s exhibits will be devoted exclusively to Egyptian culture and will include more than 100,000 objects from Egypt’s prehistoric era, from the thousands of years of Pharaonic civilisation and from the more modern Greek and Roman periods. In addition, for the first time, it will be possible to visit the complete collection of King Tutankhamun‘s treasures.

The modern building is a tribute to the pyramids, as it replicates their forms from the details to the most general. The museum has 24,000^m2 of permanent exhibition space, a Children’s Museum and other conference facilities, educational areas, a conservation centre and extensive gardens both inside and around the museum.

The museum has suffered numerous setbacks that have slowed down its construction and opening. The project began in 2005, but due to environmental, financial and political problems it was severely delayed. In 2011, with the events of the Arab Spring, construction was halted again. In 2014, with the restoration of the government, the plan continued until, in 2020, the pandemic brought it to a halt again. Now, it looks like the project, designed by Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects, may finally be completed by the end of 2022.

The museum is due to open its doors in November 2022.

Address: الهرم ا،, Kafr Nassar, Al Giza Desert, Giza Governorate, Egypt.

A 2022 full of novelties

This new year arrives with surprising new developments in the area of culture. These museums are adapted to the tastes and needs of everyone and will be inaugurated throughout 2022. And you, which one do you choose?