The Broad, a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles, continues to attract long lines of people since opening in 2015. After seeing so many Instagram photos at The Broad, I finally decided I should check out the museum myself.
Notes About The Broad:
- Entrance into The Broad is free!
- Parking is a different story, as parking in their garage is currently $15 for the first couple of hours after you get it validated. It is definitely cheaper than paying for tickets, especially if you are visiting with a handful of people. To validate your parking ticket you need to ask one of the workers at the museum, who carry around the validation in their pouches around their necks. I learned this after searching for a validation machine for way too long.
- Since The Broad is so popular right now, you can either attempt to wait in their standby line, which I have heard can take around two hours, or reserve your tickets online. The tickets usually fill up a week ahead of time, and more importantly the good reservation times usually fill up a couple of weeks ahead of time. If you would like to visit at a time earlier in the day when there is usually less traffic then you should start looking a few weeks before the date you are considering. Also, they ask that you check in within thirty minutes after your time, or you can lose your spot.
- My personal favorites from the museum include Keith Haring and Andy Warhol pieces(who are two of my favorite artists in general) as well as paintings from painter Mark Tansey. I also loved the whimsical sculptures by Jeff Koons.
A Keith Haring Painting.
My favorite piece from The Broad is the bright blue painting by Mark Tansey. I also loved these set of four paintings by him as well.
Two fun sculptures by Jeff Koons.
- My only initial complaint about the museum was that it felt smaller than I expected. I can see why they try to set up reservations for visitors as it felt very crowded during the day on a Friday even with timed entries. My friend had a good comment though, which is that in most art museums she actually feels overwhelmed and misses out on a lot of the art, so at The Broad she can fully enjoy every piece.
- Not only does The Broad display some great works, but the building itself is a piece of beautiful architectural design.
- While children are allowed into the museum, some of the pieces contain mature content so I would be prepared.
- I have seen so many Instagram posts about the giant furniture on display at The Broad. Honestly, when the museum first open I thought it was filled only with giant sculptures of everyday household items. In reality the giant dining room set is located in a small corner with a line of people trying to get a quick picture standing next to it. I think it is The Broad’s most popular attraction, even though it is just giant brown furniture.
- Overall I was truly impressed with the collection at The Broad (and I realized I have been pronouncing the name wrong since 2015).
