Toledo Museum of Art’s Biggest Makeover in Decades — Main Galleries Reopen Fall 2027
Toledo’s hometown museum is getting its biggest makeover in nearly 40 years — and when the main galleries reopen in fall 2027, visitors will see the collection in a whole new light.
Photo: The Toledo Museum of Art. Photo by Ɱ via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Toledo Museum of Art’s main galleries are due to reopen in fall 2027 with more room for the collection and a different way to move through it, according to Lake Erie Inquiry. Reopened doorways will restore a loop through the building, and longer views between rooms will help visitors see connections among works from different places and periods.
Glass — the art form Toledo is known around the world for — takes center stage in the new plan. Canaday, formerly a special-exhibition gallery, will trace the history of glass, and ancient glass also returns to Classic Court. The trade-off: the museum will have one major gallery for temporary exhibitions instead of two.
Other beloved spaces are coming back, too. The French period room, the Château de Chenailles, returns after more than a decade off view. And the former Gothic Hall becomes a quieter respite gallery, with fewer works, more seats, and reopened windows — a place to pause and take it all in.
Near Libbey Court, a window into a new conservation lab will let visitors watch artworks being cared for, in the old gift-shop space. The redesign also adds more gallery-floor restrooms, an accessible north entrance with a shorter route toward the Glass Pavilion, and rooms for nursing, quiet reflection, and visitors with sensory needs.
The work pairs new displays with replacement of aging heating and cooling equipment, so the collection will not have to be moved twice. Deputy Director Andrea Gardner and architect Michael Maltzan described the changes at a September town hall (posted online Sept. 17).
There’s plenty to enjoy while the work goes on. Open now are the Glass Pavilion, education wing, library, and sculpture garden. Admission and parking are free. The main galleries remain closed — but fall 2027 can’t come soon enough for Toledo art lovers.
Learn more at the Toledo Museum of Art.
