ARTIUM is located in the centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz, next to the city’s Medieval Quarter and the main business and entertainment areas of the city. Together with the Montehermoso Culture Centre and the Playing Card, Archaeology, Natural History museums, all situated within the Medieval Quarter, ARTIUM also forms part of the city's cultural axis.

The Museum stands on a trapezoidal, almost rectangular square, edged by the following streets: Francia, La Paloma, La Esperanza and Prudencio María Verástegui. The Museum's architect, José Luis Catón , opted to create a large, open space for public use. As in the 18th-century Plaza de España and the Plaza de la Provincia, this would provide the inhabitants of the densely populated city centre with a place for relaxation and social intercourse. Located at the North and South sides of this place, you can see two sculptures by Jorge Oteiza, Mirador mirando, and by Vicente Larrea, Broca Kenkenes.

The building is arranged around and underneath this square: as in a winery, a large proportion of this building lies underground. To the West, a large white concrete cube frames the main entrance to the centre-museum and to a number of additional spaces and services: the main lobby, the Auditorium, the Plaza Room, the Cube Restaurant, ticket office and cloakroom, among others.

In the main lobby, visitors' attention is divided between two works, the “Mural cerámico” by Joan Miró and Llorens Artigas and the monumental sculpture “Un Pedazo de Cielo Cristalizado”, by Javier Pérez. The anteroom of the centre-museum, which provides access to the galleries, is situated seven metres below ground level. Artist Anabel Quincoces has created for this space a sculpture made up with a lot of glass pieces, each of them created with the glassblowing technique. Their bluish and greenish shades remember an underwater atmosphere. To the right and left, one finds the entrances into the South Gallery and North Gallery that lie under the square and communicate with two more galleries, the Lower East and Higher East galleries, forming a kind of "U".

On ground level once more, situated over the Lower East and Higher East galleries, there is a grey granite building that closes off one side of the square and contains the didactic and image workshops, the Library and Documentation Centre, and the administrative services of the Museum.