About LACMA

With 100,000 objects dating from ancient times to the present, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is the largest art museum in the western United States. A museum of international stature as well as a vital part of Southern California, LACMA shares its vast collections through exhibitions, public programs, and research facilities that attract nearly a million visitors annually.

LACMA’s seven-building complex is located on twenty acres in the heart of Los Angeles, halfway between the ocean and downtown. The campus is undergoing a ten-year expansion and renovation known as the Transformation and designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The first phase of the project opened in early 2008, introducing an open-air pavilion called the BP Grand Entrance as well as the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA, featuring 60,000 square feet of exhibition space on three floors. BCAM's inaugural installation includes expansive spaces devoted to the art of Richard Serra, Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Chris Burden, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and many more.

LACMA’s collections encompass the geographic world and virtually the entire history of art. Among the museum’s special strengths are its holdings of Asian art, housed in part in the Bruce Goff-designed Pavilion for Japanese Art; Latin American art, ranging from pre-Columbian masterpieces to works by leading modern and contemporary artists including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco; and Islamic art, of which LACMA hosts one of the most significant collections in the world.

In April 2006, Michael Govan became CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of LACMA. Formerly president and director of Dia Art Foundation and deputy director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Mr. Govan is the seventh director in LACMA’s forty-six-year history.

Mission Statement
To serve the public through the collection, conservation, exhibition, and interpretation of significant works of art from a broad range of cultures and historical periods, and through the translation of these collections into meaningful educational, aesthetic, intellectual, and cultural experiences for the widest array of audiences.

History
1910
LACMA is established as part of the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art. The cornerstone is laid in Exposition Park. The museum opens without an art collection nor the means to acquire one. Instead, art is loaned to the museum for its inauguration.

1920s-30s
Considerable support in the community significantly expands the collection. A new wing is added to the original building to house it. Noticeable strengths include Asian art and costumes and textiles.

1945-55
The decade sees a dramatic increase in traditional works of European and American art, as well as Egyptian art, in the collection, largely through gifts of William Randolph Hearst. The Board of Governors (Trustees) begins to consider establishing an independent art museum. Allan Hancock donates land on Wilshire Boulevard for it.

1961
LACMA is established as a museum separate from the Museum of Natural History; its Trustees and staff mandate a museum that will embrace the entire range of the history of art.

1965
The new museum opens. At the time, it is the largest new museum to be built in the United States after the National Gallery of Art. The permanent collection is housed in the Ahmanson Building, special exhibitions are presented in the Hammer Building, and the Bing Theater provides seating for audiences of 600 people.

1967
LACMA establishes a center for the conservation of its collection.

1986
The Modern and Contemporary Art building is completed along Wilshire Boulevard.

1988
LACMA opens the Pavilion for Japanese Art, designed by the visionary architect Bruce Goff.

1989
LACMA expands and renovates the Balch Art Research Library.

1994
The museum purchases adjacent property, formerly part of the May Company department-store chain, enlarging its site by 30 percent. This facility is now known as LACMA West.

2000
LACMA renovates and replants the surrounding park. A new curatorial section for Latin American art is established. The Dorothy Collins Brown amphitheater is built for outdoor performances

2004
LACMA’s Board of Directors unanimously approves plans to dramatically transform the museum campus with the addition of exhibition galleries, public spaces, gardens, and a new building devoted to contemporary art. Renowned architect Renzo Piano is selected to design the project, which is known as The LACMA Campaign: Transformation.

2006
In February, the Board of Directors names Michael Govan, formerly of the Dia Art Foundation and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as the new CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of LACMA.

2008
Phase I of the Transformation opens in February, introducing a newly unified campus and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA. The Renzo Piano-designed BCAM features 60,000 square feet of gallery space, a distinctive red escalator that transports visitors to the third-floor main entrance, and an extraordinary roof composed of glass panels and sunshades that channel north light into the galleries. More than sixty thousand people visit during the opening celebrations, and a gala raises five million dollars for the museum.

LACMA's Collections Online
Collections Online features records and images from collections of African art; Art of the United States; Art of the Ancient Americas; selections from Latin American Art; Chinese Art; European painting; Egyptian Art; Korean Art; South and Southeast Asian Art; Japanese Art; Islamic Art; Photography; Costume and Textiles; prints and drawings; Sanford Roth Artist Portraits and the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies. Future Collections Online offerings will span all of LACMA's collections areas, including ancient West Asian art; ancient Greek and Roman art; more from the Edith and Bernard Lewin Center for Latin American Art and modern and contemporary art.