5 Reasons Los Angeles' Broad Museum Is America's Newest Art Hotspot

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Forget the Emmys: the real buzz in Los Angeles this weekend is all about the city’s newest museum.The Broad, housing the top-notch contemporary art collection of billionaire philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad (rhymes with road), was five years in the making and cost a cool $140 million. Last night’s star-studded opening gala was attended by the likes of Bill Clinton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon and art world luminaries from John Baldessari to Barbara Kruger and Takashi Murakami.

The museum opens September 20, across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall in the heart of Downtown L.A. Here are five reasons you’ll want to visit the next time you’re in town. 

1 – The Art: The Broads have been collecting since the 1950s, amassing some 2,000 pieces by the art world’s A-team of the last half-century. The inaugural show prominently features 250 paintings, sculptures and installations by a Who’s Who including Baldessari, Kruger and Murakami, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Liechtenstein, Jasper Johns, Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and some five dozen more. 

Appropriately, artists with ties to the City of Angels (Baldessari, Sam Francis and Ed Ruscha among them) get a place of prominence.

The main gallery is on the top (third) floor. Half of the ground floor is also gallery space, where you should expect to queue for the Infinity Mirror Room (called the Souls of Millions of Light Years Away) by Yayoi Kusama, and I was entranced by the Visitors, a video installation by Icelander Ragnar Kjartansson, featuring 9 friends playing a haunting music simultaneously in different rooms of a kinda creepy mansion.

Sandwiched between the third and first floor galleries is the vault where the Broads’ collection is stored when it’s not on exhibit or loan. Tantalizingly, visitors can catch a glimpse of some pieces through a window on the landing between the gallery floors.

Eli Broad, by the way, is No. 185 on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires, which estimates his net worth at $7.4 billion. He made his fortune through the Kaufman & Broad housing construction company and later life insurance (he purchased Sun Life, later SunAmerica).

2 – The Building: Nicknamed “the veil and the vault,” the museum’s architecture by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro is an integral part of the experience. The lightness of the pure white exterior, which some have likened to a veil (others to the folds of a mattress or a squished honeycomb) belies its concrete and steel structure.

Once inside, a 105-foot- (32-meter) long escalator takes you through a mystery tube from which you catch your first glimpse of the 318 skylights over the 35,000-square-foot (3,250 square meter) top floor gallery. The skylights hover 23 feet (7 meters) above the gallery space and face north for indirect, natural light and can be dimmed as needed to protect the artwork.

I visited during an architectural preview back in February, and the space felt much smaller then, unbroken by the gallery walls that are now up. Fortunately, those walls are only 16 feet (4.9 meters) tall, so that the entire gallery still feels light and airy.

3 – The App: I find most museum smartphone apps somewhat clunky to use and shallow in info, but the Broad’s app is both intuitive and encyclopedic, with detailed biographies of the artists and descriptions of key art pieces, many with audio commentary (bring your own headphones). Several of the works have special commentary for children. Plus, you don’t have to be at the museum to browse the app and learn about the art and artists.

And should you need further information, the gallery staff is trained to do more than just tell you not to touch the art. Staffers can offer everything from detailed descriptions of the art and museum to advice on places to go and things to do after your museum visit.

4 – The Location: Downtown Los Angeles has long been Southern California’s business hub, but in the last decade or so it’s become a hub of culture and – dare I say it? – cool. The Broad is seems to seal that reputation, across the street from both the Museum of Contemporary Art and the landmark Walt Disney Concert Hall (by architect Frank Gehry) and Music Center. Other institutions from the postmodernist Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to the new Grand Park sloping downhill toward L.A. City Hall are an easy walk away.

For a lunch that’s both quick and gourmet, try the many stalls of Grand Central Market, founded in 1917 and incongruously named by Bon Appetit as one of America’s best new restaurants for 2014 – its recent revamp was that impressive. A short ride away are arts districts like Little Tokyo, where the artists of today make works that might someday also appear in the Broad.

And you don’t even need a car to get to the Broad. L.A.’s network of Metro subways stops a few blocks away, or you can catch a local bus or ride-share.

5 – The Price: Admission is free, though advance reservations for timed tickets are advised for the foreseeable future. A reported 100,000 people have already signed up. Get yours via the website.Parking in the museum’s garage costs $12 for three hours, with lower priced options nearby.