The Broad Contemporary Art Museum

The Broad is a new contemporary art museum in Downtown Los Angeles founded by philanthropists Eli and Edy, who also funded the Broad Contemporary building at LACMA. The distinctive white honeycomb-covered building is located just south of the Disney Concert Hall across Grand Avenue from the Museum of Contemporary Art. The addition of The Broad to the Museum of Contemporary Art's two downtown campuses, Gallery Row and the Downtown LA Arts District makes Downtown a world-class destination for contemporary art, from fine art to street art.  

The Building

The three-story building, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is a "veil-and-vault" concept, where the museum's "vault" is both the exhibit area and the museum archive, on view through special windows in concrete alcoves on the stairway. The "veil" is the lacy, honeycombed covering of the building, which allows natural light through.

A green plaza on the south side of the museum connects Hope Street and Grand Avenue, providing an outdoor program space for the museum and green space for the neighborhood. The museum's restaurant, developed by LA restaurateur Bill Chait with Chef Tim Hollingsworth, will be located on the plaza, outside the main museum building.

The Mobile App

The Broad's free mobile app includes multiple audio tours on the art and architecture, including a family-friendly tour narrated by LeVar Burton, and supplementary materials on the artists and artwork in the collection. You can also use the app to make and review reservations.

Free Admission

Admission is free, but timed tickets are recommended to avoid long waits and can be reserved online at www.thebroad.org/tickets. Tickets are also available on site for same day or future visits, but you may have a long wait for same day visits. You can follow @TheBroadStandby on Twitter for updates on how long the wait is in the standby line.

The Broad
221 S. Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 232-6200
thebroad.org   
Admission:  Free
Parking: $12 for 3 hours weekdays, $12 flat rate weeknights after 5 and weekends with validation in the garage under the museum. $8 parking with validation in the California Plaza garage off Olive St.  Check BestParking.com for other nearby lots.
Metro: Red or Purple Line to Civic Center/Grand Park Station (4 blocks)
The Broad Hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday and Wednesday: 11 am to 5 pm
Thursday and Friday: 11 am to 8 pm
Saturday: 10 am to 8 pm
Sunday: 10 am to 6 pm
Closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day

The contrasting architecture of The Broad museum seen with its next-door neighbor, the Disney Concert Hall.

A giant stack of plates "Untitled" (1995) by Robert Therien welcomes visitors on the first floor of The Broad, a museum of contemporary art in Downtown Los Angeles, California, USA.  The lobby is a series of gray concrete caves that lead to different exhibit spaces, the escalator and the gift shop.

The escalator ride up to the third-floor galleries at The Broad gives you an expanding view of the rooftop portion of "The Veil," architect Elizabeth Diller's name for the white "lace" or honeycombed surface that completely covers the building, allowing natural light through.

One of the highlights of the collection on initial exhibit at The Broad was Yoyoi Kusama's "Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away." You step into a mirrored room with a reflective pool and the door closes. You're all alone with your many reflections and a galaxy of lights reflecting infinity. Each visitor gets 45 seconds alone in the room.

Due to demand, you can schedule an appointment to have a turn inside so you don't have to wait as long. Check for a tablet near the entrance to electronically check in with your phone number and receive a text when it's your turn to line up. They were testing out the system during the press preview, so it remains to be seen if it works up to their expectations.

Jeff Koons' "Tulips" is one of many pieces by the artist who has been a long time favorite with Eli and Edythe Broad. They're made of mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating, a technique he has used on a number of pieces in the collection.

Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (Blue) is another one of his mirrored stainless steel pieces at The Broad, a museum of contemporary art in Downtown Los Angeles, CA, USA. This particular gallery is filled with work by Koons, including the painting on the wall, "Party Hat." 

Robert Therien's "Under the Table" is a giant table and chairs that takes up an entire gallery. It's big enough to walk under the table and get a toddler or pet's perspective.

The Vault, or archive, at The Broad museum is on display to the public via windows in the stairway from the 1st to the 3rd floor. Don't worry, there's also an escalator straight to the 3rd-floor galleries and an elevator that also stops at the 2nd-floor offices, so you can take a peek. The flow is designed for visitors to take the escalator up to the top first, then make your way back down the stairs to the first floor exhibits and gift shop.

In most areas, you don't actually see much through the "veil" covering the entire Broad museum, but at the north end from the 3rd-floor galleries, there's a peek at another architectural landmark, the Disney Concert Hall next door.​

The costumes, "Tichy 4" and "Tichy 5," worn by live models, are components of Polish-born, London-based artist Goshka Macuga's larger concept tapestry "Death of Marxism, Women of All Lands Unite" (2013) at The Broad in Downtown Los Angeles. It depicts a picnic at the grave of Karl Marx in London's East Cemetery incorporating photos taken by the Czech photographer Miroslav Tichy.

Sending off this little slideshow with a night photo of The Broad by Iwan Baan courtesy of The Broad.