Downtown's holiday calendar is mostly single dates. The tree lights once, the parade runs once, and each Fire Pit Friday happens on one evening. Starting Sunday, December 6, Downtown will also have something that stays put. Memphis Art Museum opens at 55 S. Front Street, and any Shelby County resident can walk in free on any day it's open, this December and every month after.
The museum used to be the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. The Commercial Appeal reported that the 110-year-old institution closed its longtime Overton Park home on September 27 and will reopen in a new $222 million, 123,500-square-foot building on the riverfront. Opening day is 17 days after this post runs. The museum's hours and its free admission are the pieces that let you plan the rest of a Downtown December around it.
"Free Forever" Covers More of the County Than You Might Expect
Here is the museum's own wording on its hours and admission page:
"Memphis Art Museum will welcome Shelby County residents by offering free admission forever. This includes cities Bartlett, Germantown, Lakeland, Memphis, and Millington; towns Arlington and Collierville; and unincorporated communities Cordova, Eads, Whitehaven, Barretville, Benjestown, Brunswick, Egypt, Ellendale, Fisherville, Kerrville, Lenow, Northaven, Rosemark and Shelby Forest."
You'll be asked to show a government-issued ID. For anyone from outside the county, adult tickets are $25. Adults 55 and older and college students pay $23, and youth ages 5 to 17 pay $22. Children 4 and under, members, and active-duty military get in free. The museum also takes part in Blue Star Museums, which extends free entry year-round to active-duty, National Guard and Reserve personnel and their families. Tickets go on sale December 6, online and at the door.
The math adds up fast when relatives visit. Two out-of-town adults with a teenager would pay $72 at the door. The Shelby County hosts walking in beside them pay nothing.
The Hours Decide Which Days Work
The museum is open five days a week, and the schedule lines up with the recurring holiday events Downtown already runs.
| Day | Museum hours | What else Downtown has that day this season |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | South Main Lights from 4 p.m. |
| Tuesday | Closed | South Main Lights from 4 p.m. |
| Wednesday | Closed | South Main Lights from 4 p.m. |
| Thursday | 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. | The museum's late night |
| Friday | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Fire Pit Fridays at Tom Lee Park, 4 to 6 p.m., on Dec. 4 and 18 |
| Saturday | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Christmas Tea at Chez Philippe, noon to 3 p.m. |
| Sunday | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Christmas Tea at Chez Philippe, noon to 3 p.m. |
Thursday is the only day you can visit after work, since it's the only day the museum stays open past 5 p.m. Friday works well in a different way. The museum closes at 5, and Fire Pit Fridays at Visionary Grove have already started at 4. Visionary Grove sits just south of the green roof at Beale Street Landing. An afternoon in the galleries can end at a fire pit on the river. On weekends, Chez Philippe's Christmas Tea at 149 Union Avenue runs Saturdays and Sundays from November 28 through December 20. It costs $78 per adult and $48 per child for the Duckie Tea.
What Opening Day Holds
The museum's Grand Opening Day listing runs all day on Sunday, December 6, and is marked free. It promises gallery tours, live music, family activities, performances, and 20 opening exhibitions. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The museum's exhibitions page names these opening shows:
- All That Glitters: Reframing the Dutch "Golden" Age
- An Inner Vision: Selections from the Hyde Collection
- Design, Interrupted
- From Park to River: Building the Museum's Collection
- Head to the Sky
- How to Carry Water
- Making Beauty: Hooks Brothers Studio, 1907-1984
- Medieval Bodies
- Plastic Arts
- Rhapsodies in Black
- Rooted: Global Gardens and Their Communities
- Speaking in Shapes: The Language of Geometric Abstraction
- The River Calling: Storytelling in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta
- Things to Come: Time, Technology, and the Future
- Towards Liberation
Three of these tell a Memphis story. Making Beauty covers the Hooks Brothers Studio across almost eight decades. The River Calling is about storytelling in Memphis and the Delta. From Park to River follows the collection's move from Overton Park to Front Street. A free admission policy means you don't have to see all of them in one visit.
What's Open Inside on Day One
You can get coffee and shop on opening day. Dinner comes later. The lobby café is called First Draft, and the shop is the Museum Store. The museum's full restaurant, run by John-Paul Gagliano, is scheduled to open in January 2027.
If you're driving, the building has a secure garage under its courtyard, and the garage entrance is on Monroe Avenue.
The Rest of Downtown's December, Date by Date
The museum is the one stop you can make on any open day. These are the events with fixed dates around it, starting the day after this post runs:
- Friday, Nov. 20: Fire Pit Friday at Visionary Grove in Tom Lee Park, 4 to 6 p.m., with storytime and photos with Santa starting at 4:15.
- Saturday, Nov. 21: The Downtown Holiday Tree Lighting & Holiday Market at Main and Peabody, 4 to 6 p.m., with free Santa photos, train rides, local vendors, music, cookies and hot cocoa. Deck the Diamond Holiday Spectacular also opens that day at AutoZone Park, 200 Union Avenue, and runs through January 3. The reworked event adds a 9,600-square-foot ice rink, walk-through lights and visits with Santa. General admission is $14.75, or $34.50 with skating, taxes and fees included.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Christmas Tea weekends start at Chez Philippe.
- Friday, Dec. 4: Ugly Sweater Night at Fire Pit Friday.
- Sunday, Dec. 6: Memphis Art Museum's Grand Opening Day.
- Saturday, Dec. 12: The Memphis Holiday Parade on Beale Street, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Friday, Dec. 18: The last Fire Pit Friday of the year, with a holiday pop-up market and caroling with Keri Lee.
The fire pit events depend on the weather. South Main Lights stay on every night from 4 p.m. to midnight through January 2027, on Main Street between GE Patterson and Butler. That makes them an easy walk after a Thursday evening at the museum, or on a Tuesday or Wednesday when the museum is closed.
One More Date the City Is Aiming For
Mayor Paul Young's newsletter set a target of December 15 for bringing trolley service back to Downtown, WREG reported in October. MATA had earlier told the city council it planned to run four trolleys on Main Street. According to the Commercial Appeal, the rail trolleys have been out of service since August 2024 because of brake problems, and a rubber-wheeled trolley that doesn't need the Main Street rails has run in their place. December 15 is a target set by the city. Until the cars are carrying riders, the rubber-wheeled trolley is what runs on Main.
Our Downtown agents follow this calendar as closely as they follow the listings. If the new museum on Front Street has you thinking about spending more of your weeks near the river, Ware Jones can show you how this part of Downtown works day to day. Connect with a Memphis neighborhood expert.
