Museums Free-For-All in Los Angeles: Feb. 2-3, 2019
Enjoy free admission to dozens of museums
Updated on January 28, 2019
In a joint effort to showcase the arts and culture to the diverse and myriad communities in Southern California, SoCal Museums presents the annual Museums Free-For-All on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 2-3. Dozens of museums—presenting art, cultural heritage, natural history, and science—will open their doors and invite visitors to attend their museums free of charge.
This offer is for general museum admission at participating museums only and does not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Regular parking fees apply. Consult individual museum websites for hours, directions, and other visitor information.
Read on for highlights of Museums Free-For-All 2019.
Autry Museum (Saturday Only)
The Autry Museum of the American West is dedicated to exploring and sharing the stories, experiences, and perceptions of the diverse peoples of the American West. Located in Griffith Park, the Autry’s collection of more than 500,000 pieces of art and artifacts, which includes the collection of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, is one of the largest and most significant in the United States.
Now on view at the Autry through February 10, LA RAZA is the most sustained examination to date of both the photography and the alternative press of the Chicano Movement, positioning photography not only as an artistic medium but also as a powerful tool of social activism.
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Automobile Driving Museum (SATURDAY & SUNDAY)
Located in El Segundo a half-mile south of LAX, the Automobile Driving Museum (ADM) displays a rotating selection of 130 vintage automobiles. The ADM is the only automobile museum in the world that takes guests for rides in the fleet. Every Sunday (weather permitting) the ADM features three different cars - guests can expect to ride in anything from Joseph Stalin’s 1936 Packard to a 1982 DeLorean.
610 Lairport St. El Segundo, CA 90245//} ?>
The Broad (SATURDAY & SUNDAY)
Founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, The Broad is a new contemporary art museum that opened in September 2015. Located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, the museum was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler. The Broad is home to the nearly 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is among the most prominent holdings of postwar and contemporary art worldwide. With its innovative “veil-and-vault” concept, the 120,000-square-foot, $140-million building features two floors of gallery space to showcase The Broad’s comprehensive collection and is the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library.
221 S Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012//} ?>
California African American Museum (SATURDAY & SUNDAY)
Located at Exposition Park in Downtown L.A., the California African American Museum (CAAM) exists to research, collect, preserve and interpret the history, art and culture of African Americans. The museum's permanent collection houses 4,000 objects that span landscape painting and portraiture, modern and contemporary art, historical objects and print materials, and mixed-media artworks.
600 State Dr. Los Angeles, CA 90037//} ?>
California Science Center (Saturday & Sunday)
Located in historic Exposition Park, the California Science Center is the West Coast’s largest hands-on science center. The facility spans more than 400,000 square feet and includes four major exhibit areas - World of Life, Creative World, Ecosystems, and the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Housed in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion, the Endeavour is one of four orbiters to go on permanent display after the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program. (General Admission only. A timed reservation with a convenience fee is required for Space Shuttle Endeavour.)
700 Exposition Park Drive Los Angeles, CA 90037//} ?>
DESCANSO GARDENS (Saturday Only)
Located in La Cañada Flintridge, the 160-acre Descanso Gardens was originally developed in 1936 by newspaper magnate Elias Manchester Boddy, whose numerous interests included horticulture and politics. Descanso Gardens offers numerous areas for exploring, including a bird sanctuary, five-acre rosarium, Japanese tea garden, water-wise garden, Oak Woodland, California garden, and the world’s largest collection of camellia flowers. Plants are blooming year-round at Descanso - check the What's In Bloom page for monthly blooms. (Free tickets at the Descanso website)
1418 Descanso Dr. La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011//} ?>
Getty Center (SATURDAY & SUNDAY)
Perched on a 110-acre hilltop above Brentwood, the Getty Center is world-renowned for its collection of European and American art from medieval times to the present. The museum was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier, who created a campus with Modern design, open spaces and spectacular views. The 134,000 square-foot Central Garden, created by artist Robert Irwin, is located at the heart of the Getty Center.
1200 Getty Center Dr. Los Angeles, CA 90049//} ?>
Getty Villa (SATURDAY & SUNDAY)
Located in the Pacific Palisades, the Getty Villa houses a collection of 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities that span 7,000 years of history, from the end of the Stone Age to the fall of the Roman Empire. The Villa is modeled after a first-century Roman country house, the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, Italy. (Free, timed tickets are required for Museums Free-For-All. Visit www.getty.edu)
17985 Pacific Coast Highway Pacific Palisades, CA 90272//} ?>
Hammer Museum (SATURDAY & SUNDAY)
Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading cultural venues for emerging artists, the Hammer Museum in Westwood was founded in 1990 by Armand Hammer as a venue to exhibit his extensive art collection. The Hammer houses a permanent collection with masterpieces by Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Sargent, as well as one of the world’s finest collections of works on paper.
10899 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024//} ?>
Japanese American National Museum (Saturday Only)
From photographs of Japanese American World War II soldiers to a widely popular Hello Kitty retrospective, the exhibitions at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) reflect the impact that Japanese Americans have had on art and culture in the United States. The museum's mission is to preserve and present the Japanese experience in America, yet instead of sticking to one genre or time period, it addresses a wide range of topics, eras, and events through art. JANM is the largest museum in the country devoted to the Japanese Americans, and the thought and effort that go into its unique exhibitions are as interesting and important as the museum itself. (RSVP at the JANM website)
100 N. Central Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012//} ?>
LACMA & Academy Museum (Saturday Only)
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection that includes over 135,000 objects dating from antiquity to the present, encompassing the geographic world and nearly the entire history of art.
Opening late 2019, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the first institution of its scope and scale devoted to the past, present, and future of cinema. On Saturday, February 2 the Academy Museum is hosting a Free-for-All pop-up accessible via LACMA.
5905 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036//} ?>
MOCA (Saturday & Sunday)
Founded in 1979, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is the only museum in Los Angeles devoted exclusively to contemporary art. In a remarkably short time, MOCA has developed one of the nation's most renowned permanent collections of art produced after 1940, currently numbering over 6,800 works and steadily growing.
250 S. Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90012//} ?>
Museum of Tolerance (Sunday Only)
Anne is a moving and inspiring exhibit on view at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance (MOT) in West L.A. The exhibit is a multimedia experience that chronicles the life and legacy of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who gained international fame after the posthumous publication of her diary, which documents her experiences while in hiding with her family during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.
9786 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90035//} ?>
Natural History Museum (Sunday Only)
Also located in Exposition Park, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) houses one of the world’s most extensive and valuable collections of natural and cultural history — more than 35 million specimens and objects, some as old as 4.5 billion years. The permanent exhibit, Becoming Los Angeles is a 14,000 square-foot exhibition that explores the growth of Los Angeles over the course of five centuries. Other highlights include a 63-foot whale skeleton at the entrance; the Walter Horace Judson stained-glass skylight; the world's only Tyrannosaurus rex growth series, located in Dinosaur Hall; and Nature Gardens, a 3.5-acre urban wilderness. (General Admission only. Free tickets available at nhm.org/freeforall.)
900 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90007//} ?>
Skirball Cultural Center (Sunday Only)
The Skirball Cultural Center is guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality. Open to the public since 1996, the Skirball has established itself as one of the world's most dynamic Jewish cultural institutions and among the leading cultural venues in L.A. (Timed-entry, one-hour tickets to Noah’s Ark are limited and distributed first come, first served.)
Now on view at the Skirball through March 10, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the first-ever retrospective about the trailblazing associate justice and cultural icon. Based on the popular Tumblr and bestselling book of the same name, Notorious RBG coincides with the 25th anniversary of her appointment to the Supreme Court bench and takes an entertaining yet rigorous look at her life and work—in particular, her efforts to protect civil rights and expand equal opportunity for all Americans.
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90049//} ?>
USC Pacific Asia Museum (Saturday & Sunday)
Located in Pasadena, the USC Pacific Asia Museum's mission is to further intercultural understanding through the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands. Established in 1971, the museum has organized and presented a number of groundbreaking exhibitions, including the first North American exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art after the Revolution and the first exhibition of Aboriginal art in the United States.
46 N. Los Robles Ave. Pasadena, CA 91101//} ?>