The Broad

The Broad is a contemporary art museum located on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, the institution houses their collection of postwar and contemporary art, which spans five decades of collecting. The museum opened on September 20, 2015, and has since welcomed approximately 6.7 million visitors. Guided by the Broads' vision of making art accessible, the museum offers free general admission to its permanent collection galleries, though special exhibitions and events may carry separate fees. The Broad has significantly enhanced the cultural vitality of Grand Avenue and serves as the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation.

The origins of the museum trace back to 2008, when Eli and Edythe Broad and the Broad Art Foundation began evaluating sites for a permanent museum. They considered locations in Beverly Hills, a parcel near West Los Angeles College in Culver City, and a city-owned site in Santa Monica, where the city council approved a 99-year lease for $1 a year plus a $1 million contribution toward design costs. In August 2010, Broad announced the museum would instead be built in downtown Los Angeles, paying $7.7 million for a 99-year lease, officially structured as a grant to subsidize affordable housing at the adjacent Emerson residential tower. An invited architectural competition in 2010 featured six firms, including Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron, Christian de Portzamparc, and SANAA, before Diller Scofidio + Renfro was selected. A public preview in February 2015 drew 3,500 visitors, and the museum officially opened on September 20, 2015, with a ceremony attended by figures including Bill Clinton. Construction delays, primarily regarding the facade, pushed the opening from late 2014, leading to a $19.8 million lawsuit against German fabricator Seele GmbH, though the parties agreed to continue construction while deferring the dispute.

The Broad collection comprises over 2,000 works by nearly 200 artists, representing one of the world's leading holdings of postwar and contemporary art. The Broads focused on acquiring art of their time, building in-depth holdings of influential artists active from the 1950s onward. The collection features deep concentrations of work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Bradford, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Takashi Murakami, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol, alongside an expanding representation of younger artists. Before the museum opened, the collection was shared globally through the Broad Art Foundation, established in 1984 as a lending library for contemporary art. Over nearly 40 years, the foundation facilitated more than 8,600 loans to over 500 museums and galleries worldwide.

The 120,000-square-foot, $140 million building was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler and structural engineering firm Leslie E. Robertson Associates. Adjacent to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the design contrasts its bright metallic neighbor with a porous, honeycomb-like exterior based on the concept of the veil and the vault. The veil is a structural shell composed of 2,500 rhomboidal fiberglass-reinforced concrete panels supported by a 650-ton steel substructure, filtering daylight into the galleries. The vault is a windowless concrete mass forming the building's core, housing storage, laboratories, and offices. Visible from the lobby and a 105-foot escalator that penetrates it, the vault offers views of stored artworks, demystifying museum operations. The museum contains 50,000 square feet of exhibition space, including 35,000 square feet of column-free galleries on the third floor illuminated by 318 skylight monitors. A 24,000-square-foot public plaza, designed with landscape architect Walter J. Hood and featuring 100-year-old Barouni olive trees, cost $18 million. In 2024, the museum announced a $100 million, 55,000-square-foot expansion designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, connecting to the original building via a third-floor passageway and courtyard, expected to open by the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The Broad is located at 221 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, situated across from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) on Bunker Hill. General admission to the permanent collection is free, though fees apply for special exhibitions and events. Since opening, the museum has attracted a strikingly young and diverse audience compared to national arts attendance averages. In addition to its permanent displays, the institution presents rotating temporary exhibitions and an active schedule of concerts, film screenings, and artist talks. The museum is closed on Mondays.