The museum is a privately funded nonprofit institution located in Overton Park in Midtown Memphis.

[3] In 1989, the building was expanded and reoriented by Askew Nixon Ferguson (ANF) Architects & Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The Brooks also has a fine collection of English portraits, including works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Lawrence, and Romney.

The contemporary collection includes paintings by Kenneth Noland, Robert Motherwell, Mark Kostabi and Nancy Graves, plus the nationally known Memphis artist Carroll Cloar.

The Brooks Museum also conserves a selection of 19th and 20th century sculpture and decorative arts, including furniture and textiles.