The latest

Tickets go on sale today for Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, which is scheduled to welcome its first visitors on December 11, 2026, nearly two decades after the project was announced. Designed by Frank Gehry, who died in 2025, the Saadiyat Island museum will surpass Guggenheim institutions in New York, Bilbao and Venice in scale, adding a major new venue to Abu Dhabi’s expanding cultural district.

Details

• Scale and setting: Covering approximately 80,000 square meters, the museum includes 11,600 square meters of indoor exhibition space and 23,000 square meters outdoors. Surrounded by water on three sides and located minutes from Louvre Abu Dhabi, it is positioned where land and sea meet.
• Climate-conscious design: Ten monumental sculptural cones, rising to nearly 88 meters, shape the building’s silhouette. Nine have stainless-steel latticework, while the tenth combines onyx and glass. The structures are designed to provide shade and encourage natural ventilation in the Gulf climate.
• Gallery network: Thirty galleries are arranged around a central atrium as interconnected spaces rather than a conventional linear route. Visitors can move through multiple pathways, while outdoor areas extend the experience beyond traditional galleries and blur the boundaries between architecture, art and public space.
• Collection scope: Developed since 2009, the collection spans modern and contemporary art from the 1960s to the present, including painting, sculpture, photography, installations, video, moving image and new media. Exhibitions will be organized around themes such as abstraction, popular culture, territory, language and storytelling.
• Regional focus: Artists from West Asia, North Africa, South Asia, Africa and other historically underrepresented regions will hold a central place alongside internationally recognized names. Previously announced artists include Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, connected with artists from the Arab world, Africa and Asia.
• Cultural ecosystem: The museum joins Zayed National Museum, Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi and teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island. It is expected to support commissions, research, education and multilingual initiatives for local communities and international visitors, strengthening Abu Dhabi’s tourism and economic diversification strategy.
• Regional setting: The inauguration is set against renewed tensions involving Israel, the United States and Iran, which have affected cultural and tourism activity across the Gulf and Middle East. Art Dubai postponed its edition earlier this year amid the regional security situation.

Background

Abu Dhabi has invested in culture for more than a decade to expand its international profile and diversify beyond hydrocarbons. The Guggenheim adds a US-founded institution to a district anchored by Louvre Abu Dhabi, while Mariët Westermann has described the project as a long-term collaboration combining global reach with regional identity.

What’s next

The museum opens December 11, 2026. The initial exhibition program and full selection of works are due to emerge ahead of the inauguration, when the collection’s thematic, cross-regional approach will be presented to visitors.