Museum Row

While things in our country seem to be heading in a self-inflicted and avoidable turn for the worse, it can be useful to reflect on what a wonderful community that we live in. Specifically, I want to focus on a part of town that is no more than a mile or so east of Beverly Hills — Museum Row — where some remarkable things are happening.

Notably, Museum Row was formerly known as the Miracle Mile because of its shopping opportunities. Now, the transition from retail to art and cultural installations of all kinds has occurred. It would be difficult to find a small area anywhere in the world with as many world-class cultural establishments in the same place. And they are being made even better.

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LACMA: A New Landmark

Let’s start with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). A construction project costing more than $800 million is well underway. This includes the new David Geffen Gallery, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, which will house LACMA’s permanent collection. The building will curve across Wilshire Blvd on piers, expanding exhibition space from 130,000 to over 220,000 square feet — home to a collection of 150,000 objects spanning 6,000 years.

Construction of the buildings and plazas is complete or nearly complete, and tours will start this summer. The official opening is anticipated for April 2026.

Admission tip: Free for all on the second Tuesday each month and free for LA County residents every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday after 3pm.

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La Brea Tar Pits & Page Museum

The La Brea Tar Pits and George C. Page Museum is an underappreciated treasure — the famous tar pits where countless animals met their end over centuries while hunting for dinner. Renovation of the 63,000-square-foot Page Museum is underway, with a new pavilion and museum building adding 40,000 square feet of exhibition space.

Admission tip: Free admission on the first Tuesday of every month.

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Craft Contemporary

Directly across the street from the tar pits is Craft Contemporary (formerly the Craft and Folk Art Museum). This is the only institution on the West Coast dedicated exclusively to contemporary craft.

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Holocaust Museum LA

The Holocaust Museum LA is in the midst of a $65 million expansion, adding the Jona Goldrich Campus which will include:

• A dedicated theatre for the USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony

• Additional exhibition space

• A Boxcar Pavilion with an authentic boxcar used to transport Jews to a death camp in Poland

• New classrooms

This expansion will enable the museum to host over 500,000 visitors per year by 2030, including 150,000 students.

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Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, opened in 2021, is the newest gem. It’s the only major museum dedicated to the film industry — with over 13 million objects including costumes, sketches, posters, props (like a shark mold from Jaws), all housed partly in the historic May Company building (now the Saban Museum) with a 1,000-seat theatre in an attached Sphere. It has quickly become an important location for film premieres.

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Petersen Automotive Museum

Last but not least, the veteran: the Petersen Automotive Museum, opened in 1994 and remodeled in 2015 with its striking stainless steel ribbon façade. Housed in a former department store building (previously Ohrbach’s), it’s dedicated to the automotive industry, displaying more than 100 cars in 25 galleries.

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And More, Even Closer to Home

All of these are close to the magnificent Pan Pacific Park and near the iconic Original Farmer’s Market. (Did I mention that I love this Farmer’s Market?)

An added bonus: soon the new Metro station at Wilshire/Fairfax will open — just one stop east of the first Beverly Hills Metro station at Wilshire/La Cienega — improving access to Museum Row for the entire region.

Closer still, in Beverly Hills proper:

• Kylin Gallery, at 8634 Wilshire Blvd. (operated by Yvonne Zhu of the Rotary Club of Beverly Hills), showcases artwork related to the East Asian environment.

• The Paley Center for Media’s permanent collection — the Paley Archive — is now housed in the beautiful Beverly Hills Library.

• And the quirky Brainwash Art Museum at 465 N. Beverly Drive.

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What a cultural treasure trove, right in our backyard!