The museum underwent a $60 million expansion and renovation project from September 2012 to March 2016, designed by architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY architecture.

[5] During the closure, the museum opened Local Speed, a satellite space in Louisville's East Market District (NuLu) for rotating exhibitions, programs, and events.

The expansion created a space for larger special exhibitions, new contemporary art galleries, a family education welcome center, a 150-seat cinema, indoor/outdoor café, museum shop, and a multi-functional pavilion for performances, lectures and entertainment.

Additionally, the new Elizabeth P. and Frederick K. Cressman Art Park and Public Piazza was created for the display of sculptures.

1934 – The museum received its first major donation, a valuable collection of North American Indian artifacts given by Dr. Frederick Weygold.

1964 – Recently donated paintings and furniture from the collection of Mrs. W. Blakemore Wheeler go on view including works by Mary Cassatt, John Constable, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

1973 – The North Wing of the museum opens, giving new space for a theatre, offices, indoor sculpture court, and library.

Newer lighting, heating and cooling systems, multi-layered labels about the collection, the Laramie L. Learning Center, and Art Sparks Interactive Family Gallery are put into place.

2012 – The museum begins another major transition with a $60 million expansion project that will create a space for larger special exhibitions, new contemporary art galleries, a family education welcome center, 150-seat cinema, indoor/outdoor café, museum shop, and a multi-functional pavilion for performances, lectures and entertaining.