7 new major Los Angeles arts complexes set to open before 2028 Olympics

Los Angeles will debut four new major arts complexes this year, with three more likely to open in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics. Immerse yourself in a psychedelic explosion at Meow Wolf, plan an afternoon liaison with Van Gogh at the new David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), inhale the scent of nature inside Refik Anadol’s AI arts museum Dataland, or simply geek out over George Lucas’ jaw-dropping collection of Star Wars memorabilia. Whatever your arts craving may be, this astoundingly rich line-up of new local museums has you covered. Lacma’s David Geffen Galleries The David Geffen Galleries are set to debut this April to members, before opening for general admission at the beginning of May. They will display 2,500 to 3,000 objects from Lacma’s collection. The US$720 million space, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, is described by supporters as a “concrete sculpture” and will host 90 exhibition galleries across 110,000 sq ft (10,200 square metres). The inaugural exhibition will group artworks by the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea instead of by medium or period. “The idea is for you to make your own path – not to speak at you, but to let you wander like you would through a park or a place,” says Michael Govan, director and chief executive of Lacma. “That change in attitude, and how the building is built, is really exciting.” Some of the most-anticipated works to be displayed at the space on Wilshire Boulevard include Georges de La Tour’s The Magdalen With the Smoking Flame (1640), Henri Matisse’s La Gerbe (1953) and Vincent van Gogh’s Tarascon Stagecoach (1888). Lucas Museum of Narrative Art After more than 10 years of anticipation, George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson’s museum will open in Exposition Park this September. With more than 10,000 sq ft of galleries, the museum will feature a wide array of artwork and pop culture items, including Lucas’ personal trove of Star Wars treasures, Peanuts comic strips and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrations. There will also be props and production art from Lucasfilm projects, such as the Indiana Jones franchise. One of the museum’s defining features is its massive green-roof garden designed by Mia Lehrer and her landscape architecture firm Studio-MLA. Meow Wolf Meow Wolf’s LA location will reimagine a 90s cinema with its takeover of the Cinemark at West LA’s Howard Hughes entertainment complex outside Culver City. The sixth permanent exhibition from the American arts and entertainment company, known for creating immersive art, comes on the heels of its 52,000 sq ft psychedelic art installation in Las Vegas, which was disguised as a dystopian grocery store called Omega Mart and promptly went viral on TikTok. Complete with sci-fi elements, a meditative space and a 30ft mushroom tower, Meow Wolf’s new location will open at the end of 2026. Although organisers have kept much of the exhibition under wraps, visitors can expect to be transfixed by a thoroughly Los Angeles tale. “It’s cool that we’re creating a story about a pilgrimage, because LA is that for so many artists, especially people involved in storytelling,” says Shakti Howeth, Meow Wolf’s creative director. Refik Anadol’s Dataland Opening this spring at the Frank Gehry-designed Grand LA, Dataland dubs itself the world’s first museum of AI arts. For the inaugural exhibitions, Turkish-American artist Refik Anadol designed his own AI model dedicated to nature, named the Large Nature Model, which only sources material with permission from original creators, making it what Anadol calls “ethical” AI. Partners include the Smithsonian and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “I’m calling this new art form not AR, not VR, not XR – so we are still finding a name for it. The best name so far, and people love it, is generative reality,” Anadol says. Dataland will feature five galleries, including the Infinity Room, which Anadol created in 2014 while a student at UCLA. In another exhibition, he trained an AI model on half a million scents and built a machine to push those scents into the gallery to create a totally immersive experience. The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Centre A solid opening date has not yet been announced, but the US$400 million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Centre at the California Science Centre in Exposition Park is busily preparing for lift-off. The shiny new building will be home to the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, Kent Kresa Space Gallery and the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, which will host the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Endeavour will be displayed in launch position, making it the tallest authentic spacecraft displayed vertically in the world, with a height of 20 storeys. One of three surviving space shuttles, Endeavour made 25 successful missions into space. The centre is also expected to have 20 planes and jets, including a Boeing 747, a mock flight deck and a pair of introductory films produced by JJ Abrams’ production company Bad Robot, one of which will end with a simulated launch. “It is an amazing experience, and we want to really build it up,” said Jeffrey N Rudolph, president and chief executive of the California Science Centre. “It’s not just about the hardware but about the people and the educational aspects.” The Broad expansion Opening in 2028, the expansion of The Broad contemporary art museum will give it 70 per cent more gallery space, two outdoor courtyards, a live programming space and views of the museum’s art storage vault. Announced in 2024, the US$100 million addition is slated for completion before the 2028 Summer Olympics. Located in downtown LA, the expansion was deemed necessary after the museum significantly exceeded visitor projections. The new building will invert the existing Broad museum’s architectural design, with a smooth, grey structure attached to the original construction. “The idea is that it adds new facets to the visitor’s journey through the expanded Broad,” says Joanne Heyler, founding director and president of the Broad. The Armenian American Museum and Cultural Centre of California Slated to complete construction in downtown Glendale in late 2026, the 51,000 sq ft Armenian American Museum has been in the works for more than a decade. With a US$67 million budget, the museum will include permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as an auditorium, learning centre, archives collection and a demonstration kitchen. The museum is an initiative of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee Western US, and planning began as the group prepared to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The museum is adorned with the 36 letters of the Armenian alphabet and a glass hazarashen skylight, inspired by traditional roofs in homes across the Armenian Highlands. “The Armenian American Museum was once an idea, then a vision, and today is rising before our eyes,” says Berdj Karapetian, executive chairman of the museum. “This progress is the result of an extraordinary collective effort by Armenians and non-Armenians here in California, across the United States and around the world.”

7 new major Los Angeles arts complexes set to open before 2028 Olympics

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From Lacma’s David Geffen Galleries to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and Meow Wolf, it’s a huge few years for art in LA

Lacma’s David Geffen Galleries

From Lacma’s David Geffen Galleries to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and Meow Wolf, it’s a huge few years for art in LA