Norton, the former head of the Chicago-based Acme Steel Co., moved to West Palm Beach upon retirement and decided to share his collection of paintings and sculptures.

In 2013, the museum unveiled a $60 million[2] master plan designed by the British architect Norman Foster that would nearly double its gallery space and add an education center, auditorium and restaurant.

A new entrance and forecourt along the main thoroughfare, South Dixie Highway, re-established the axial layout of Norton's original 1941 Art Deco building.

It reopened on February 9, 2019, adding 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of gallery space, new classrooms, a restaurant, a 210-seat auditorium, and the sculpture garden.

On the top floor of the museum, there are noteworthy paintings by late Medieval Italian painter Jacopo Da Firenze, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Joos Van Cleve and Studio, Marcantonio Franceshini, Nicolas Largilliere, Peter Paul Rubens, Anton Van Dyck, David Teniers and Studio, Jan Thomas Yperen, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Giovanni Panini.

In 2018, the Norton Museum of Art received a gift of more than 100 works from the collection of Howard and Judie Ganek, including artworks by Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke, Ed Ruscha, Kara Walker, Donald Judd, Matthew Barney, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and Pipilotti Rist, among others.