The Shortlist
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville
June 2026
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened only in 2011, but this year it unveiled a vast expansion, adding two new collection galleries, studios, a learning and engagement hub, new space for temporary exhibitions, and an elevated cafe overlooking a childrens’ play area to Moshe Safdie’s distinctive design of eight interconnected pavilions in an Ozark ravine. The expansion coincides with a rehang of the museum’s collection of five centuries of American art.
Hull Maritime Museum
August 2026
Hull Maritime Museum has reopened after a six-year, £20m refit. Housed in a Dock Office building built in 1871, the museum has displays about whaling, Arctic exploration and migration, with objects ranging from the skeleton of a North Atlantic whale skeleton to dockworkers’ tools. The transformation opens previously inaccessible spaces, including one of the building’s domes, which visitors can access via a new spiral staircase and offers views across Hull’s docks and waterways.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art – David Geffen Galleries
April 2026
The David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) opened in April to great fanfare. Peter Zumthor’s hulking concrete-and-glass edifice has allowed for a complete rethink of the vast permanent collection. The display is structured not according to period or style but around four bodies of water: the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean – an innovative approach to the idea of a ‘universal’ museum in the 21st century.
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse
December 2025
Toulouse’s most important museum was originally an Augustinian convent. It has an exceptional collection of Romanesque carvings and a strong body of French art by the likes of Vigée Le Brun, Delacroix and Rodin, as well as minor masterpieces by artists associated with Toulouse. In December 2025 it opened half of the €14m restoration – the Romanesque hall and the painting and sculpture galleries – while this October it unveiled a transformed church and gothic gallery.
Princeton University Art Museum
October 2025
Last year Princeton University Art Museum opened its new building, a 13,500-square metre modernist edifice designed by Adjaye Associates (with final construction overseen by the architect Cooper Robertson) at the heart of the university’s campus. It doubles the space for exhibition displays and education at the museum and, as well as allowing more room for the permanent collection, it gives prominence to contemporary art, with installations by Nick Cave, Diana Al-Hadid and four other artists unveiled at the opening.
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
November 2025
The Studio Museum closed in 2018 for redevelopment and for seven years left a big gap in the cultural life of the city. It reopened towards the end of 2025 in a purpose-built home in Harlem designed by Adjaye Associates. The permanent collection is on rotating long-term display and a more than 50 per cent increase in gallery space gives the museum a chance to show off the full scope of its important holdings.
The winner will be announced on 19 November.
The Shortlists | Artist of the Year | Museum Opening of the Year | Exhibition of the Year | Book of the Year | Acquisition of the Year
