Discover the Sainsbury Museum and Art Centre, where art lives

Discover the Sainsbury Museum and Art Centre, where art lives.

The Sainsbury Centre has become Sainsbury Museum and Art Centre – reverting back to the museum’s original name as specified on the founding documents in 1973. The Sainsbury Museum and Art Centre has a unique perspective on how art can foster cultural dialogue and exchange. Following a radical relaunch in 2023, the museum formally recognises the lifeforce of artworks, opening the door for people to build relationships across a dynamic art landscape.

The living art of the Sainsbury Museum and Art Centre can help reframe and answer the most important questions people have in their lives. More than a museum to learn more about artists, cultures and movements such as Francis Bacon, the Tang Dynasty or modernism, it is a place of experience, where collections are animate and visitors are invited to build emotional connections with artworks.

The Sainsbury Museum and Art Centre was one of the first museums in the world to display art from all around the globe and from all time periods equally and collectively. In 1973, Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury donated their non-conformist collection, which transcended traditional barriers between art, architecture, archaeology and anthropology, to the University of East Anglia, and created an entirely new type of museum.

Housed in Sir Norman Foster’s revolutionary debut public building, the space aimed for an interactive relationship between visitor, object and landscape, placing artworks from the collection within an open yet intimate ‘Living Area’.

Welcome to the Sainsbury Museum and Art Centre. Art Lives Here.