Everyone comes to Venice for the Biennale and then discovers it is not a Biennale year, or that the Giardini pavilions are shut, and concludes there is no serious contemporary art to see. They are wrong. Venice has three permanent contemporary-art houses, all on or beside the Grand Canal, all open through most of the year regardless of what the Biennale is doing, and all walkable in a single well-planned day through the Dorsoduro sestiere. Two of them belong to the French billionaire François Pinault and one belonged to Peggy Guggenheim, and together they are reason enough to give Venice a day that has nothing to do with palazzo tours and gondola queues.

A word on the Biennale, since it confuses everyone: La Biennale di Venezia alternates years — the Art exhibition runs in even years and the Architecture exhibition in odd, taking turns — so in any given year only one of the two is running at the Giardini and the Arsenale, and in the gaps the pavilions are dark. The current Art edition, the 61st, In Minor Keys, runs from 9 May to 22 November 2026 at the Giardini, the Arsenale and venues across the city; Architecture returns in 2027. The three museums below are independent of all that. They have their own collections and their own exhibition calendars. You do not need a Biennale ticket, a Biennale year, or a Biennale anything to see them. (If you do happen to be there in an Art Biennale year, all the better — the city fills with collateral shows — but it is not a prerequisite.)

Punta della Dogana

Start at the tip. The Punta della Dogana is the old customs house of the Venetian Republic, the triangular building at the very point where the Grand Canal meets the Giudecca Canal, crowned by the golden weathervane of Fortune. François Pinault took it on a long lease and had the Japanese architect Tadao Ando convert it into a contemporary-art space, which opened in 2009. Ando’s approach is the opposite of a gut renovation: he left the brick, the timber roof trusses, and the worn industrial bones of the customs house exposed, and slid his own austere board-formed concrete walls into the middle of it, so that you move between rough centuries-old Venetian masonry and razor-clean modern concrete. The building alone is worth the ticket. It shows large-scale works and themed exhibitions from the Pinault Collection, which rotate, so check what is up.

The position is unbeatable: you are standing at the literal point of Dorsoduro, with the Salute church behind you and the whole sweep of the lagoon opening out in front. Step outside onto the prow afterward for one of the great free views in Venice.

Palazzo Grassi

The companion Pinault venue is Palazzo Grassi, across the Grand Canal — a grand eighteenth-century palace, the last of the great patrician palazzi built on the canal, also restored by Tadao Ando. Where Punta della Dogana is raw and industrial, Grassi is a formal palace interior, a central courtyard rising the full height of the building under a skylight, and Ando’s interventions here are more restrained — clean grey surfaces threaded through the historic rooms. Grassi tends to host the bigger temporary monographic exhibitions and contemporary surveys from the collection. A combined ticket covers both Pinault venues, and they are close enough — one vaporetto stop, or a walk over the Accademia bridge — that you should do them together.

Both Pinault venues are generally open daily except Tuesdays, 10am to 6pm, last entry 5pm, during their exhibition seasons, which run most of the year with installation gaps between shows. The Tuesday closure is the trap, as it is at most Venetian and Italian museums; plan around it.

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The third, and the one I would not miss, is the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni at Dorsoduro 701, between the Accademia bridge and the Salute. The building is a curiosity in itself — an unfinished eighteenth-century palace, only one storey ever completed, which is why it sits low and white along the canal where its neighbours rise tall. Peggy Guggenheim, the American heiress and collector, lived here for three decades and filled it with the modern art she championed: Pollock (whom she effectively launched), Picasso, Ernst (to whom she was briefly married), Magritte, Brâncuși, Calder, de Chirico, Mondrian. After her death the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation took over the house and collection, opening it to the public in 1980.

What makes it special is that it is still recognisably a home, not a purpose-built gallery — you walk through the rooms she lived in, out onto the sculpture garden, and onto the canal-side terrace where Marino Marini’s notorious bronze horseman faces the water. It is open daily except Tuesdays, 10am to 6pm, with the ticket office closing at 5. The garden café is a fine lunch stop mid-circuit.

Walking the day

Here is the route. All three sit along the southern edge of Dorsoduro on the Grand Canal. Take a vaporetto to Salute or Accademia. Do the Peggy Guggenheim and Punta della Dogana as a pair — they are a short walk apart near the Salute — then cross to Palazzo Grassi via the Accademia bridge or one vaporetto hop. In between, the walk itself is part of it: the back lanes of Dorsoduro, the Zattere promenade along the Giudecca canal with its sun and its gelato, the Gallerie dell’Accademia if you want to add the old masters, and the great baroque Santa Maria della Salute church standing free at the canal mouth.

Budget a full day for the three contemporary houses if you want to do them properly, half a day if you cut one. Check current exhibition dates and the combined Pinault ticket before you go, because the Pinault venues do close between shows. But the larger point stands: Venice is not only its old masters and its Biennale. On the Grand Canal in Dorsoduro there are three serious houses of modern and contemporary art, two of them rebuilt by one of the great living architects, one of them the actual home of one of the century’s great collectors — open, most of the time, to anyone who walks in.

Verification

Reported and fact-checked against primary sources (verified 2026-04-24):

Frequently asked questions

Which contemporary-art museums in Venice are open year-round?
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is open year-round (closed Tuesdays). The two Pinault Collection venues, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana, are open during their exhibition seasons, which typically run most of the year; check current dates before visiting.
Do I need to visit during the Biennale?
No. These three institutions have their own programmes and are independent of the Venice Biennale. The Biennale alternates years (the Art exhibition in even years, Architecture in odd), but these museums are worth a trip in any year.
Where are they and how far apart?
All three sit in or near the Dorsoduro sestiere along the Grand Canal. The Guggenheim and Punta della Dogana are both near the Salute, a short walk apart; Palazzo Grassi is across the canal, one vaporetto stop or a short walk over the Accademia bridge.
What are the hours and admission?
The Pinault venues are generally open daily except Tuesdays, 10am to 6pm, last entry 5pm. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is open daily except Tuesdays, 10am to 6pm. All charge admission; a combined ticket covers both Pinault venues.
Who restored the Pinault buildings?
The Japanese architect Tadao Ando restored both Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana for François Pinault's collection, inserting clean concrete interventions into the historic Venetian structures.