From a noisy, performative and unapologetically non-European Yorùbá cultural centre in Lagos, Nigeria, to the much-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, 2024 was a big year for museums opening in the developing world. A number of projects will also be inaugurated in 2025, offering an abundance of new museums to visit in 2025. Here are some of the best of them:
Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza, Egypt
The much-delayed project, which will be the world’s largest archaeological museum and has already cost more than $1bn (£800m), has yet to open fully but visitors have been getting a chance to experience its main galleries during a limited opening as a trial run.
They are greeted by a colossal red granite statue of Ramses II, from 1279-1213BC. The statue became a familiar object in Egypt after it was erected in one of Cairo’s busiest squares in 1955 and remained there for 50 years, exposed to traffic pollution and tremors from nearby passing trains.
The museum’s interior and exterior design are heavily influenced by the pyramids of Giza, which can be seen from the top of the grand six-storey staircase. The 12 main galleries showcase royal statues, sphinxes, sarcophagi, obelisks and granite columns. The galleries cover a vast period, spanning from prehistoric times to the Roman era, with the coffin of Khnum-Nakht and kneeling statue of Queen Hatshepsut among the highlights.
The John Randle Centre for Yorùbá Culture and History, Lagos, Nigeria
In the cultural heart of Lagos island, the Yorùbá centre is on the site of a former swimming pool and memorial that were built respectively in the 1920s and 1950s. The popular compound – which evoked a sense of pride under colonial rule – fell into disrepair and closed down in the late 1970s.
In November, the centre’s new pool and state-of-the-art museum opened to the public. The museum building rises from the ground in a fractal structure, a nod to Yorùbá principles of housebuilding. The external walls are finished in earth-coloured pigments reminiscent of the mud features in old Yorùbá settlements.
“If you go to a western museum, the African section is often in the basement, it’s dark. This museum pops with colour and sound to highlight the vibrancy and the dynamism of the Yorùbá culture,” Seun Oduwole, the site’s lead architect, told the Guardian.
Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Based in the Saadiyat cultural district, the Zayed national museum – expected to open in 2025 – in Abu Dhabi will celebrate the United Arab Emirates’ rich history, culture and stories from the ancient past to modern day. The architect behind the museum is Lord Norman Foster, of Foster + Partners, who designed five steel structures that rise above the museum inspired by the wings of a falcon, the national bird, in flight. Glass panels evoke a traditional Emirati barjeel (wind tower).
The museum will showcase archeological finds from the past 50 years, from the world’s oldest falaj irrigation system to evidence of bronze age copper mining, and includes highlights such as the Magan Boat, an 18-metre reconstruction of a bronze age boat; the Abu Dhabi Pearl, one of the world’s oldest natural pearls; and folios from one of Islamic art’s finest manuscripts – the Blue Qur’an.
Peter Magee, the museum’s director, says: “This is the first time that a museum of this scale and ambition has showcased how the United Arab Emirates was a thriving hub of cultural exchange, from ancient times to today.”
Hampi Art Labs in Karnataka, India
Nestled in a spectacular setting next to the Tungabhadra River, Hampi Art Labs is a place “where art, heritage, and nature intermingle”, according to its founder, Sangita Jindal. The centre, which opened in early 2024, is located near the ruined temple city of Vijayanagara (modern-day Hampi) in Karnataka, in the south of India.
The history of the Unesco world heritage site, which is dotted with ruins, temples and monuments, is integral to the centre’s ethos, as the ancient city was a vibrant hub for art, architecture and literature between the 14th and 16th centuries. Today’s centre has exhibition spaces, studios and a series of artists apartments, with access to workshops for ceramics, printmaking and 3D printing. Visitors also have access to green roofs.
The building was designed by Mumbai-based Sameep Padora, principal architect at sP+a, who was inspired by the organic contours and flowing shapes sculpted by the Tungabhadra River and the nearby boulders that dot the landscape.
The Bët-bi Museum near Kaolack, Senegal
On a site in the Senegambia region of West Africa famous for its Unesco-listed ancient stone megaliths, the Bët-bi Museum complex will have exhibition spaces, a community centre, a library and a cafe as well as an area for local artisans to sell their work. Bët-bi means “the eye” in Wolof, a language spoken primarily in Senegal.
“Bët-bi’s core goal is to bring the joys of visual art to a population that may not previously have had access to museums,” according to the museum. Ancient crafted household objects, masks and sculptures will be exhibited alongside modern and contemporary African art.
Mariam Issoufou, the architect from Niger, says the strongest inspiration was “the history of the site itself”. “By sinking the galleries below the ground, we are referencing back to the sacrality of the land, honouring what came before while creating a space for art and creative expression. For far too long the region has been a place where cultural wealth is pillaged to profit museum collections.” The museum is expected to open in 2025.
The Saka Museum in Bali, Indonesia
The Saka Museum is a new cultural hub in the grounds of the Ayana resort on the Indonesian island of Bali. The museum’s name is a reference to the Balinese ancient Saka calendar, which starts with Nyepi Day (or day of silence) when all “Balinese Hindus must stay in their homes and refrain from all work, travel and entertainment”, according to the museum, and even the island’s airport is closed.
Among works commissioned by the museum, are 10 ogoh-ogoh giant effigies built by local artisans for the Pengerupukan parade on the eve of Nyepi Day. Next year, it is planning several new exhibitions linked to the calendar: an immersive Nyepi experience, a heritage gallery devoted to Balinese art and an exhibition showcasing the Unesco-listed Subak agriculture system, an ancient Balinese practice.
