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The Broad

Los AngelesAttractionart museum
The Broad
Photo: photo source

A porous white veil wraps a free contemporary-art museum whose building and collection reward looking slowly.

Guide's tip. Reserve a free timed ticket when possible and choose one room instead of rushing for famous works. Compare the honeycomb exterior with the cave-like lobby and visible collection storage. The museum is closed Monday; other closing times vary by day. Walt Disney Concert Hall is 0.13 miles away.

On a walking tour. Stop 9 of 10 on the walking tour Los Angeles, Downtown origins to Grand Avenue, every stop on a map in walking order.

Open till 17:00 · about 90 min for a visit

The story

The Broad opened in 2015 to present the Broad collection of postwar and contemporary art in a building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Its exterior veil filters daylight around a solid central vault that stores artworks not currently displayed. Visitors move between those two systems, from a compressed lobby into galleries lit through the honeycomb skin.

Choose one room and look longer than the photo queue suggests. Notice how scale, repetition, surface and installation change your body’s relationship to an artwork. The visible storage windows also remind visitors that any museum display is a selection from a much larger collection.

General admission is free, and timed reservations are recommended. The museum is closed Monday; published hours vary from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. by day. Universal Gallery can extend a clearly identified label, but it must not guess from appearance alone or claim current display status without evidence.

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Nearby in Los Angeles