The museum has a 50,000-square-foot sculpture garden that covers the whole roof at 55 S. Front St. A quarter-mile path called the James R. Humphrey Rooftop Meander runs past large commissioned works and native Mid-South plantings out to overlooks on the bluff. The museum describes the river view up there as "virtually unchanged from two centuries ago." Starting Sunday, Dec. 6, any Shelby County resident with a government-issued ID can walk that path, and the galleries below it, without buying a ticket.
The free admission doesn't end after opening season. The museum's June 17 announcement says admission will always be free for county residents. An anonymous donor, described as a former AutoZoner, is paying for it. With admission off the table for residents, the open hours become the main limit. That changes how a first visit, and every visit after it, is worth planning.
A Paid Outing Becomes a Free Stop
The old Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Overton Park closed to the public on Sept. 27. WKNO reported that the closing date was set ahead of the move downtown. That leaves the city about ten weeks without its main art museum, ending Dec. 6. In its farewell photo essay, the Memphis Flyer called the Overton Park building "the jewel box in the park" and said its future is "as yet unknown."
The new building is a different kind of place. Herzog & de Meuron designed it, with archimania as the local architect of record. The museum says it has 50 percent more gallery space than the Brooks and 600 percent more free public space with art in it. The free admission covers every community in the county. The museum names Memphis, Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington, along with every other Shelby County community.
For comparison, visitors from outside the county pay $25 per adult, $23 for adults 55 and older and college students, and $22 for ages 5 to 17. Children 4 and under get in free. So a family of two adults and two school-age kids from outside the county would pay $94 at the door. A family from Cordova or Collierville pays nothing as long as they bring a government-issued ID. Mayor Paul Young framed it this way in the museum's announcement:
"Memphis Art Museum being free for every Memphian, forever, isn't just a gift–it's an invitation: to come in, to come back, and to come often."
Coming back often only works if your free time lines up with the hours the doors are open.
Plan Around the Weekly Schedule
The gallery schedule starting Dec. 6 runs five days a week, with one late night:
- Monday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Tuesday: closed
- Wednesday: closed
- Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Friday through Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
These hours cover more than the galleries. The Skyline Park page lists the same weekly schedule, and the museum says Hyde Square, the 10,000-square-foot courtyard at the center of the building, is available during all museum hours. So the rooftop garden and the courtyard close on Tuesday and Wednesday too.
For anyone with a weekday office job, Thursday is the only evening the museum stays open past 5 p.m. That makes Thursday after work the easiest weekday window for a 9-to-5 schedule. Weekends are the other option, and those will be the busiest days in the first weeks.
A Short First Visit
Because admission is free, you don't need to see everything in one trip. The building is laid out as a single-story loop of galleries around the interior courtyard, with several entry points. Five of the galleries look out on either the Mississippi River or Hyde Square. That layout makes it easy to see a couple of galleries and leave. A good one- to two-hour first visit:
- Start with Hyde Square. The museum calls the courtyard a primary gathering place and one of its main free public spaces, named for philanthropists Barbara and Pitt Hyde.
- See Making Beauty: Hooks Brothers Studio, 1907–1984. The lead opening exhibition, presented with the National Civil Rights Museum, surveys the Memphis photography studio that documented Black life in the urban South during the Jim Crow era and after. It runs through July 5, 2027, so you have months to come back to it.
- Pick one collection presentation. The opening program includes The River Calling, Towards Liberation, Medieval Bodies, Rhapsodies in Black and Head to the Sky, among others.
- Finish on the roof. Skyline Park has Jordan Ann Craig's Sharp Tongue; The Sky and the Heart Aflame, which the museum calls the artist's largest public work to date. Sean Scully's Stack Blues and The Smoke Coin by LaKela Brown and Mario Moore are up there too. Other commissions by Yunhee Min, Carlos Rosales-Silva and Memphis designer Eso Tolson are part of the building as well.
Opening day is its own event. The Dec. 6 Grand Opening Day is a free, all-day public celebration with gallery tours, live music and family activities. Opening day is a good time to see the building at its busiest. Quieter visits can come later.
The Restaurant Opens in January
Food service will be limited in the opening weeks. John-Paul Gagliano's family-owned group, which runs Ecco, Libro and Tonica, will operate the museum restaurant as a version of Libro, and it's scheduled to open in January 2027. First Draft, in the lobby, is described as the museum's café, coffee shop and public meeting space. The museum notes that hours for the restaurant, café and store may differ from gallery hours. The Museum Store, presented by ARTSmemphis, is open whenever the museum is open.
For a December visit, the museum's Downtown Memphis page points visitors to nearby South Main and Beale Street, and it says much of downtown is walkable. Two recent arrivals are Walt & Ricky's Seafood Kitchen at 1 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. Ave., which the Commercial Appeal included in its October roundup of new restaurants, and The Dame, the cocktail bar inside Hotel Pontotoc at 69 E. Pontotoc Ave., just off South Main.
Parking, the Trolley and the Library Next Door
The museum's secure garage sits under the central courtyard, with visitor access from Riverside Drive. The museum's directions put the entrance beneath the building on Monroe Avenue. The main pedestrian entrance is on Front Street. Check the museum's parking page before you drive down.
MATA's Main Street Trolley Bus runs past the museum area for $1 one way. It runs 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, about once an hour. With service only once an hour, check the schedule before you leave the galleries.
The two closest neighbors fit the museum's schedule in different ways:
- Cossitt Library, next door at 33 S. Front St., is open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's closed Sunday. Thursday is the one day the library and the museum both stay open until 8 p.m. On Sundays the museum is open and the library is closed.
- Tom Lee Park is a 31-acre riverfront park, open daily from 6 a.m. until 30 minutes after sunset. Memphis River Parks unveiled the Memphis Flyway there on June 12, 2026. From November through February, the park's Hi Neighbor Café is listed as open Friday and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.
Put the museum's schedule next to these and the easy combinations stand out. On a Thursday evening, the galleries and Cossitt are open late. On a Friday or Saturday afternoon, you can pair the museum with the riverfront and the Tom Lee café. Tuesday and Wednesday are museum-free days, whatever the rest of downtown is doing.
Front Street gains a free, open-five-days-a-week destination on Dec. 6, and changes on that scale tend to show up in how downtown blocks are used and valued over time. If you own property in Shelby County or are thinking about buying downtown, Memphis Real Estate Advisors can show you what the numbers look like near Front Street and the riverfront right now. Get Your Free Market Report.