Zayed National Museum
Named after the UAE’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, this Foster + Partners-designed museum will showcase Emirati history and culture through six permanent indoor galleries.
Opening late 2025, visitors can expect to journey through 300,000 years of local and regional history, including the evolution of the nation’s unique desert landscape, the settlement of Bedouin ancestors, жесткий анальный секс and the role of the UAE as a global trading hub.
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Opened in 2017, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is the first international outpost of the iconic French museum. Its 23 galleries showcase a range of works, from Ancient Egyptian sculptures to Italian Renaissance masterpieces to 20th-century abstract paintings. The collection includes a number of works of regional significance, too, including a 3,000-year-old Middle Eastern gold bracelet, and the oldest known photograph of a woman wearing a veil.
The museum — designed by Pritzker Prize-winning French architect Jean Nouvel — has become an Abu Dhabi icon, with a domed roof and geometric patterns inspired by elements common in Islamic architecture.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
First opened in New York in 1959 in a groundbreaking building by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum now has outposts in Bilbao and Venice, and very soon, Abu Dhabi.
The collection of contemporary art will be housed in an experimental building designed by American architect Frank Gehry, and construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
Focused on work produced since the 1960s, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will particularly highlight West Asian, North African and South Asian art and commission original works for its expansive galleries.
teamLab Phenomena
Japanese art collective teamLab opened its first immersive digital art experience in the UAE earlier this year with teamLab Phenomena in Saadiyat Cultural District. Designed in collaboration with Abu Dhabi firm MZ Architects, the 17,000-square-meter (183,000-square-foot) cloud-like building is teamLab’s largest location to date and features 25 installations that blend science, art, and technology.
For example, “Floating Microcosms,” an exhibit in the “wet” area of the museum, features unanchored ovoid sculptures in ankle-deep water. As visitors wade through the water, the waves ripple out, toppling the sculptures and changing their sound and color, creating tactile, unique experiences.
