Centre Pompidou to Open 237,000-Square-Foot ‘Art Factory’ in Paris Suburb

One of the most important museums in Paris will soon be expanding its reach in France, with plans to open a gargantuan space in the city’s suburbs in 2025.

The Centre Pompidou has unveiled plans to open what it is calling an “art factory” in Massy, a suburb about 45 minutes by car from Paris in the Île-de-France region. The new art space will sport 237,000 square feet for storage and exhibition space. It is expected to cost around €50 million, or about $55.6 million, to build.

Much of the Massy building’s purpose will be to act as a conservation and storage facility for the bulk of the 120,000 works held by the Centre Pompidou, which have historically been kept at its Paris museum. While at Massy, some of these works will be viewable to the public in a variety of presentations. The Massy Centre Pompidou space will also hold works from the Musée National Picasso-Paris, which owns roughly 5,000 pieces.

Part of the Centre Pompidou’s goal with the Massy space is to bring some of its live programming beyond Paris, and with the art factory, the museum will open a 5,400-square-foot performing arts space. Among the events on deck for the Massy venue is a series of presentations that will be overseen by outside arts figures in collaboration with locals and pay homage to the Surrealist writer and French Culture Minister André Malraux’s idea of the “imaginary museum.”

The art factory is just the latest in a number of expansion projects undertaken by the Pompidou in recent years. The museum currently operates outposts in Brussels and Metz, France, and it is due to open a long-awaited Shanghai space next month.