Nominations Received for OMPA 2026

• Art Gallery of New South Wales

  

  The Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of Australia’s flagship art museums and the state’s leading visual arts institution, situated on the lands of the Gadigal people on the edge of Sydney Harbour.

• Associação Acervo da Laje

  

  Founded and maintained by the teachers Vilma Santos and José Eduardo Ferreira Santos and their respective families, Acervo da Laje, located in the Subúrbio Ferroviário of Salvador,a peripheral, Black, and poor area of the city, but rich in natural resources, was created from a perspective that brings together education and art as central pillars for the critical, reflective, and aesthetic development of the people who pass through it.

• Ateneo Art Gallery

  

  Widely recognized today as the first museum of Philippine modern art, the Ateneo Art Gallery was established in 1960 through Fernando Zóbel’s bequest to the Ateneo of his collection of works by key Filipino post war artists.

• Blanton Museum of Art

  

  The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin stands as a singular institution at the intersection of academia, educational engagement, and artistic innovation. As both a recognized university art museum in the nation — ranking first in visitor attendance — and the third most visited art museum in Texas, the Blanton occupies a distinctive dual role: serving a research university while anchoring the cultural life of one of America's most dynamic cities.

• CAM - Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian

  

  CAM is an art and culture centre with a collection of contemporary and modern art which includes the largest representation of Portuguese artists to date. Envisioned as a venue to house a collection of modern and contemporary art in 1956, CAM holds the largest representation of 20th and 21st Century Portuguese artists gathered to date.

• Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (CaSa)

  

  Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (CaSa) was founded in 2006 by artist Francisco Toledo (1940–2019) to engage with contemporary culture through its exhibition program, education and production departments, and residencies. CaSa occupies a place at the intersection of contemporary art, artisanal knowledge, and community engagement, and forms part of a wider network of cultural centers also founded by Toledo, with complementary focuses on graphic arts and photography.

• Dr. Bhau Daji Lad [BDL] Mumbai City Museum

  

  The BDL Museum, established in 1857 as the Victoria & Albert Museum, Bombay, is a modern and contemporary art museum. It represents the emergence of an Early Modern aesthetic movement in India that reflects a radical canonical shift in the subcontinent, serving social, political, and economic goals through a colonial gaze.

• Elgiz Museum

  

  Elgiz Museum, founded in 2001 in Istanbul as Proje4L and renamed Elgiz Museum in 2005, is Turkey’s first non-profit private contemporary art museum. Established by the Elgiz family, it was created to support emerging artists and curators at a time when contemporary art was just beginning to gain recognition in Türkiye.

• EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

  

  EMST | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens is Greece’s leading national institution dedicated to modern and contemporary visual culture and one of the most significant contemporary art museums in Southeast Europe..

• Instituto Inhotim

  

  Instituto Inhotim, a museum of contemporary art and botanical garden, operates at the intersection of art, nature, and territory. Across 140 hectares of visitation area, it brings together galleries, site-specific works, and a living botanical collection structured around conservation, research, and environmental education.

• Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiruna

  

  Kin Museum of Contemporary Art is one of the northernmost art museums in the world, located in Giron/Kiruna 200 km north of the arctic circle, on the Swedish side of Sápmi, the homeland of the Sámi people, and also the location of the world’s largest underground iron ore mine, LKAB. It is a place where the climate crisis is highly palpable. The museum, which opened in 2018, is municipal and regional, it has a collection.

• Kunsthaus Baselland

  

  Kunsthaus Baselland is considered one of the leading institutions for contemporary art in the tri-national region of Basel. Designed by Basel-based architects Buchner Bründler, its new building opened in April 2024, after ten years of planning and fundraising, and has alreadyreceived two prominent awards.

• Limbo Museum

  

  Limbo Museum is a contemporary arts institution dedicated to rethinking the role of museums in West Africa. The museum operates at the intersection of art, architecture, and interdisciplinary practice, fostering site-specific, research-driven projects that engage both local communities and international audiences.

• Ludwig Museum Koblenz

  

  Ludwig Museum Koblenz is a contemporary art museum whose collection and program focus on modern and contemporary art, with a distinctive emphasis on French art after 1945 in dialogue with German, American, and international positions. Conceived as a contemporary museum from its founding, the museum was established in 1992 on the basis of works donated by Peter and Irene Ludwig.

• Museo en los Cerros (MEC)

  

  Museo en los Cerros is a photography museum located in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, in northern Argentina, dedicated to modern and contemporary photographic practices with a focus on Latin American visual culture.

• Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson

  

  The Franklin Rawson Museum of Fine Arts, a museum dedicated to the conservation, acquisition, exhibition, and promotion of cultural heritage, houses one of Argentina’s most significant art collections.

• Museu Bispo do Rosario Arte Contemporânea

  

  The Museu Bispo do Rosario Arte Contemporânea is dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and dissemination of Arthur Bispo do Rosario’s oeuvre, while fostering a continuous dialogue with contemporary art practices.

• Museum of Art of Rio Grande do Sul – MARGS

  

  The Museum of Art of Rio Grande do Sul – MARGS is a public institution dedicated to modern and contemporary art in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Its mission is to preserve and promote artistic and cultural heritage by collecting, researching, and presenting the history of art and the visual artistic memory.

• Museu Oscar Niemeyer

  

  The Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) is a museum located in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, linked to the Paraná State Secretariat of Culture. Inaugurated on November 22, 2002, it is housed in two iconic buildings designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. With more than 15 exhibition spaces, approximately 20 exhibitions are held each year, attracting over 720,000 visitors in 2025.

• Museu Vassouras

  

  Museu Vassouras is a cultural institution housed in a historical building from 1848 with more than 3.300m2, originally built as the first hospital in the city of Vassouras. Rebuilt after a great fire in 2008 and almost falling into a ruin, the institution was inaugurated in December 2025.

• Museum of Art & Photography

  

  Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) is a modern and contemporary art museum in Bengaluru, India, committed to expanding access to art and visual culture from India, South Asia, and globally. Over the years, MAP has positioned itself as a space for dialogue, research, learning, and community engagement with a strong emphasis on accessibility, inclusive participation, and meaningful engagement with digital technologies.

• Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź

  

  Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź is one of Europe’s oldest museums dedicated to modern and contemporary art and a key institution in the history of the avant-garde in Central and Eastern Europe. Founded in the early 1930s around the pioneering International Collection of Modern Art initiated by the a.r. group, most notably Katarzyna Kobro and Władysław Strzemiński, the museum has maintained a long-standing commitment to experimental artistic practice, critical reflection, and transnational exchange.

• New Castle Art Gallery

  

  Newcastle Art Gallery is Australia’s largest regional public gallery. The Gallery’s collection and artistic program reflect a deep commitment to the importance of art and artists

• Pinacoteca do Ceará

  

  The Pinacoteca do Ceará is a premier museum dedicated to the preservation, research, and dissemination of modern and contemporary visual arts. Situated within the Estação das Artes cultural complex, it serves as a vital hub for artistic creation and audience development, bridging historical memory with the vibrancy of the present.