The Broad
The Broad[1] (/broʊd/) is a contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The museum is named for philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who financed the $140 million building that houses the Broad art collections.[2] It offers free general admission to its permanent collection galleries.[2] However, not all of its events are free and admission prices may vary by exhibit and/or by event. It opened on September 20, 2015.[3]
This article is about the museum in Los Angeles. For the Cotswolds folk custom, see The Broad (folk custom).Established
History[edit]
Since 2008, Eli and Edythe Broad and the Broad Art Foundation had been considering different sites for a museum for the art collection. In November 2008, the news surfaced that Eli Broad had approached Beverly Hills about building his museum at the southeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard.[4] In January 2010, he revealed that he was considering a 10-acre parcel on the campus of West Los Angeles College just outside Culver City.[5] Meanwhile, in March 2010, the Santa Monica City Council approved an agreement in principle to lease the city-owned 2.5-acre parcel next to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to Eli Broad for $1 a year for 99 years while also contributing $1 million toward design costs. Broad would have paid the rest, an estimated $50 million to $70 million.[6]
In August 2010, Eli Broad announced formally that he would build a museum in Downtown Los Angeles.[7] He agreed to pay $7.7 million for a 99-year lease. Officially characterized as a grant, the money subsidized affordable-housing units at The Emerson, a high-rise residential tower next to the museum.[8] The agreement also includes an $8.5-million government share of the cost of the museum's outdoor plaza and government payments of up to $30 million to reimburse Broad for building the museum's underground parking garage. Under that buy-back provision, the garage eventually will be government-owned.[8]
In an invited architectural competition for the project in 2010, six architects were asked to present preliminary designs. They included Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture; Swiss pair Herzog & de Meuron; Christian de Portzamparc from Paris; Japanese duo Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA; and Diller Scofidio + Renfro from New York.[9] Diller Scofidio + Renfro were eventually chosen to design the approximately 120,000-square-foot museum, which includes exhibition space, offices and a parking garage.[10][11]
In February 2015, Eli and Edythe Broad hosted a public preview of the new building, attracting some 3,500 visitors.[12]
The museum was opened by the Broads on September 20, 2015.[13] Celebrities in attendance included Bill Clinton, Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Perry, Heidi Klum, and Larry King, among others.[14]
Exhibitions[edit]
The Broad's inaugural exhibition featured a selection of more than 250 paintings, sculptures and photographs[17] by more than 60 artists drawn exclusively from the permanent collection,[24] including John Ahearn, El Anatsui,[13] Richard Artschwager,[33] John Baldessari, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Mark Bradford, Chris Burden, Chuck Close, John Currin, Eric Fischl, Jack Goldstein, Mark Grotjahn, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst,[34] Jasper Johns, Mike Kelley, Ellsworth Kelly (four paintings),[24] William Kentridge,[13] Anselm Kiefer, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama, Sherrie Levine, Roy Lichtenstein (10 paintings),[24] Glenn Ligon, Sharon Lockhart, Robert Longo, Goshka Macuga, Julie Mehretu, Takashi Murakami, Lari Pittman, Richard Prince, Neo Rauch, Robert Rauschenberg, Charles Ray, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Mark Tansey, Robert Therrien, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol (11 paintings),[24] David Wojnarowicz and Christopher Wool.[17][21]
Restaurant[edit]
The museum includes a free-standing restaurant on its plaza, Otium – Latin for "leisure time" – which Eli Broad developed with Bill Chait of République and Bestia restaurants. It features Timothy Hollingsworth, a former head chef of The French Laundry in Napa Valley, as executive chef.[31] In September 2015, Isolated Elements, 2015, a photographic mural by the artist Damien Hirst was installed on the south facade of the restaurant; it measures nearly 84 feet by 32 feet and is based on Hirst's 1991 sculpture Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purpose of Understanding, a wall-mounted cabinet filled with fish preserved in formaldehyde.[34]
Management[edit]
Funding[edit]
As of 2014, The Broad's endowment is at $200 million, thereby larger than any museum in Los Angeles except for the Getty Museum.[16] The overall annual budget is $16 million, which is provided for through established funds.[35] The museum offers mostly free admission to the public, but will charge for temporary special exhibitions.[30]
Governance[edit]
Besides Eli and Edythe Broad, the Broad's Board of Governors also includes art dealer Irving Blum, Los Angeles Philharmonic CEO Deborah Borda, restaurateur Michael Chow, businessman Bruce Karatz, and former ambassador Robert H. Tuttle, among others.[36]
The museum's director is art historian Joanne Heyler.[31]
Attendance[edit]
In its first year, The Broad attracted 753,000 visitors, roughly equivalent to the 2011 attendance at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).[37] In 2019, more than 900,000 people visited.[38]