A $1 Billion Spaceship, Kusama Mirror Rooms and 14 More Reasons to Roam
LA doesn’t do quaint. It does spaceships. On Sept. 22, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art finally opened in Exposition Park, and that alone is reason enough to rearrange your month. But this city has built one of the best museum scenes in the country, and most of it doesn’t require a plane ticket or a parking fight on Wilshire.
We rounded up 16 collections worth crossing town for, grouped by neighborhood so you can plan a day instead of hoarding browser tabs. Some are free, while some need a reservation you should make today, and one closes for a year come spring. Consider this your new LA museums bucket list.
Exposition Park & Miracle Mile
1. The Spaceship Just Landed in Exposition Park
Eight years and $1 billion in the making, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened its doors this fall. George Lucas and Mellody Hobson built it as a temple to illustrated storytelling, not a “Star Wars” museum, though a few film artifacts sneak in. Thirty-five galleries draw from a collection of more than 40,000 works, from Norman Rockwell to comic art legends like Jack Kirby. The Lucas Archives add props, production art and artifacts from the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” films. Ma Yansong’s curving, spaceship-like building anchors 11 acres of new parkland designed by Mia Lehrer. Tickets go for $25, kids 17 and under get in free, and everyone needs a timed-entry reservation. Neighbors in the 90037 ZIP code can register for a free LM37 pass that covers them plus a guest. Book ahead. This one’s going to be the hardest reservation in the city for a while.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
3800 S Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90037
Instagram: @lucasmuseum
M & W–Th, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; F, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Sa, 9 a.m.–9 p.m.; Su, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. (Closed T)
2. Six Thousand Years, One Level & Zero Hierarchy
LACMA opened the new David Geffen Galleries to the public this spring, and it’s worth the trip just for the building. Architect Peter Zumthor designed a 900-foot-long concrete-and-glass structure that bridges Wilshire Boulevard, with 110,000 square feet of galleries on a single level. Seven glass-walled pavilions at street level hold it 30 feet in the air. Inside, thousands of works spanning six millennia are arranged non-chronologically. They’re grouped loosely around the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific oceans rather than by dates or countries, and it’s disorienting in the best way. Outside, don’t skip Jeff Koons’ 37-foot flowering “Split-Rocker” or Alexander Calder’s newly restored fountain, “Three Quintains (Hello Girls).” This is the museum LA has been waiting two decades for.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.857.6000
M–T & Th, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; F, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sa–Su, 10 a.m.–7 p.m. (Closed W)
3. Where Dorothy’s Shoes Live Rent-Free
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the only serious film museum in the city that built the industry. Renzo Piano’s glass-domed Sphere, home to the David Geffen Theater, connects by bridge to the restored Saban Building, formerly the May Company department store. Inside, Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” are back on view this year, and the rotating collection has also included R2-D2 and C-3PO from “Star Wars.” Through Feb. 28, 2027, “Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon” fills a special exhibition gallery. Add on the Oscars Experience, a separate ticket, if you’ve ever wanted to hold a real statuette and deliver your acceptance speech. The Dolby Family Terrace up top has one of the best sunset views of the Hollywood sign in the city, and it’s included with admission. Come for the props, and stay for the view.
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
6067 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.930.3000
M & W–Su, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. (Closed T)
Downtown LA
4. Free Art, Infinite Mirrors
The Broad has offered free general admission since it opened on Grand Avenue, which is either the most generous or the most obvious move a contemporary art museum could make. The collection spans Basquiat, Koons, Warhol and Kara Walker. But the real draw is Yayoi Kusama’s two Infinity Mirror Rooms. “Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away” is a walk-in LED space that has become inescapable on Instagram, and “Longing for Eternity” is a mirrored chamber you peer into through porthole windows. The walk-in room fits four people at a time for one minute and requires a separate free timed ticket. Those tickets drop the last Wednesday of each month at 10 a.m. PT, and they go fast.
Walk-ups are welcome for general admission through the standby line, but a free timed reservation lets you skip it, so this is still a solid rainy-day or last-minute-plans museum. Bring a friend, bring a date, bring your out-of-town cousin who keeps asking what there is to do downtown.
The Broad
221 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213.232.6250
T–W & F, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; Th, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sa–Su, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. (Closed M)
The Westside
5. The Hilltop Has an Expiration Date
Go this year. The Getty Center closes to the public on March 15, 2027, for a roughly year-long, $600 million to $800 million modernization, with a reopening planned for spring 2028. It’s the first major renovation since the Richard Meier campus opened in 1997, and it’ll touch the tram, the galleries and the Welcome Hall. Some galleries are already closed as work ramps up. Until then, the hilltop still delivers what it always has: Van Gogh’s “Irises,” city views and gardens that make the free admission feel almost suspicious. Reserve your timed entry online up to six weeks out. Parking runs $25, dropping to $15 after 3 p.m. and $10 after 6 p.m., and it’s free after 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
The Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310.440.7300
T–F & Su, 10 a.m.–6:30 p.m.; Sa, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. (Closed M)
6. Ancient Rome, Ocean View Included
While the Getty Center is on borrowed time, the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades stays open and will host a selection of Getty Center paintings during the closure. Modeled on a first-century Roman country house, the Villa draws from a collection of about 44,000 Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities, with roughly 1,200 on view across 23 galleries, including the Lansdowne Herakles. The Villa reopened in mid-2025 after the January wildfires and has restored its full schedule. Guests enter free with a reserved ticket, parking runs $25 or $15 after 3 p.m., and the Outer Peristyle’s reflecting pool is worth the drive out to the coast.
Getty Villa
17985 Pacific Coast Hwy
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
310.440.7300
M & W–Su, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. (Closed T)
Culver City
7. The Museum That Gaslights You Lovingly
Still the strangest institution in Southern California, the Museum of Jurassic Technology blurs the line between real science and elaborate fiction so thoroughly that the African stink ant exhibit makes you second-guess reality. There’s no photography allowed, no cell phones and no tours. You wander self-guided through dim, curious rooms that feel plucked from an old-world cabinet of curiosities. Don’t skip the Tula Tea Room upstairs, a miniature re-creation of Tsar Nicholas II’s study in the Winter Palace, where Georgian tea is poured from a coal-fired samovar. Capacity is limited, so reserve online before you go; general admission is $15. This isn’t a museum you explain to friends beforehand. You just bring them.
Museum of Jurassic Technology
9341 Venice Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
310.836.6131
Th–F, 2–8 p.m.; Sa–Su, noon–6 p.m. (Closed M–W)
8. Cold War Relics, Warm Reception
Housed in a former National Guard armory, the Wende Museum holds art and artifacts from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, all free to see. Expect Stasi surveillance equipment, propaganda posters, a section of the Berlin Wall and, in the open storage displays, a moon rock from the Apollo 15 mission. Plus, the sculpture garden makes the whole visit feel less like a history lecture and more like a walk through someone else’s memory.
On Nov. 7, “Competing Cosmologies: Interpreting the Sky” opens with more than 170 works on how space science inspired artists in the East, the West and the Global South, including a Soviet Sputnik model, a Martian meteorite and a porcelain plate honoring Laika the space dog. It runs through Oct. 17, 2027. The programming calendar here is unusually good, with free talks, film screenings, concerts and workshops year-round, and free public tours typically run at 11:30 a.m. Fridays and 2:30 p.m. on weekends. Free parking sits right next to the museum, which alone sets it apart from most of this list.
The Wende Museum
10808 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230
310.216.1600
F–Su, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. (Closed M–Th)
San Fernando Valley
9. Two Hundred Cars and a Pipe Organ Finale
The Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar has more than 200 restored American and European automobiles, plus what the museum calls a world-class collection of mechanical musical instruments. The self-guided Nethercutt Museum shows about 130 of the cars, plus a 1937 locomotive and private railcar. It’s walk-in, costs $5 and is free for kids under 12. The Collection building across the street is a different animal: a guided tour of up to two hours through the cars, antique furniture and decorative arts that ends with a mini-concert on the Mighty Wurlitzer, the largest theatre organ on the West Coast.
It’s the kind of finale that makes people who don’t care about cars suddenly care about cars. The $20 Collection Tour requires a reservation, is open to ages 10 and up and books up fast, especially on Saturdays, so plan ahead. Parking is free.
The Nethercutt Collection
15151 Bledsoe St
Sylmar, CA 91342
818.364.6464
Th–Sa, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.; Collection Tours (reservation required): Th–F, 10 a.m.; Sa, 10 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. (Closed Su–W)
Glendale, Los Feliz & Griffith Park
10. Glendale’s Glow-Up
One of the few collections in LA that is unlike anything else in the city, the Museum of Neon Art preserves and displays historic and contemporary neon, electric and kinetic art in downtown Glendale. The rooftop diver, a re-creation of a 1950 Mississippi motel sign, is worth the walk over. But the real move is the Neon Cruise, a nighttime double-decker bus tour that runs from the Broadway theater district through Hollywood and Chinatown, putting you face to face with LA’s most iconic vintage signage.
Seating is limited, so watch MONA’s events page for dates or call to book a private cruise. Inside the museum, admission runs $10, with a discount for Glendale residents and free entry for kids 12 and under.
Museum of Neon Art
216 S Brand Blvd
Glendale, CA 91204
818.696.2149
Th–Sa, noon–7 p.m.; Su, noon–5 p.m. (Closed M–W & major holidays)
11. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mayan Temple With a View
Hollyhock House sits atop Olive Hill in Barnsdall Park, and it’s the only Frank Lloyd Wright residence in Los Angeles open to the public. Built between 1919 and 1921 for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, the house earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 2019 alongside seven other Wright buildings nationwide. Wright’s hollyhock motifs show up everywhere, from the art stone exterior to the furniture and stained glass inside. Self-guided admission is $12, and capacity is limited, so book ahead rather than gamble on standby tickets. Sundays are reserved for new one-hour guided tours. The surrounding park (open daily, 6 a.m.–10 p.m.) delivers a city view worth the price of a matinee.
Hollyhock House
4800 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323.913.4030
Self-guided tours: Th–Sa, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Guided tours: F–Su; check website for times
(Closed M–W, Nov. 26–29 & Dec. 24–Jan. 3)
12. The West, Reconsidered
The Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park brings together the stories of all peoples of the American West, connecting the past with the present. Its more than 600,000 objects and cultural materials include the collection of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, one of the largest and most significant collections of Native American materials in the United States. Galleries cover paintings, sculpture, photographs, film memorabilia and historic firearms.
Stories are told through a lens that’s more honest about the region’s history than the museum’s founding cowboy-movie namesake might suggest, a point driven home by the new exhibition “Promised Lands: California’s Unratified Treaties and Native Resilience.” The calendar stays packed with lectures, films and theater, plus community favorites like the American Indian Arts Marketplace, the Autry Block Party and the annual Pow Wow. Admission is $20, or free the first Wednesday of each month with advance registration. Free parking sits right in front, a rarity worth mentioning twice in this city. Pair a visit with the LA Zoo across the lot for a full day in the park.
Autry Museum of the American West
4700 Western Heritage Way
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323.667.2000
T–F, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; Sa–Su, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. (Closed M, July 4, Thanksgiving, Dec. 24–25 & Dec. 31–Jan. 1)
East LA
13. Free, Fabulous and Almost Never Crowded
The Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College is free, serious about its Latin American and Chicano holdings and suspiciously uncrowded. Vincent Price and his wife, Mary Grant, donated 90 works to the college in 1951 to start its teaching collection. Today that collection has grown to more than 7,000 objects, displayed across seven galleries in VPAM’s three-story building. It’s one of the few museums in the country that belong to a community college and hold a permanent fine art collection. Through May 22, 2027, “Anida Yoeu Ali: The Buddhist Bug” joins the permanent exhibition “Form and Function in the Ancient Americas.” Saturday hours run a little longer, so it’s an easy weekend add-on if you’re already out that way.
Vincent Price Art Museum
1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez
Monterey Park, CA 91754
323.265.8841
T–F, noon–4 p.m.; Sa, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. (Closed Su–M & exhibition opening days)
Pasadena & San Marino
14. Degas Without the Crowds
Industrialist Norton Simon spent more than 30 years assembling the collection now housed at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. And it shows in the sheer density of masterworks per square foot. Expect Rembrandt, Goya, Manet, more than 100 works by Degas and six Van Gogh paintings, plus the only Raphael painting on the West Coast and an exceptional collection of South and Southeast Asian sculpture. Step outside to the sculpture garden, renovated in late 2025, where a lily pond inspired by Monet’s Giverny garden makes for the calmest 10 minutes you’ll spend in Pasadena. Admission is $20 and free for anyone 18 and under. Parking is free, and Free First Fridays run 4 to 7 p.m. monthly with no reservation needed.
Norton Simon Museum
411 W Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91105
626.449.6840
M, Th & Su, noon–5 p.m.; F–Sa, noon–7 p.m. (Closed T–W)
15. Rose Gardens and a Blue Boy
The Huntington dropped the rest of its name in a 2025 rebrand, but San Marino locals have called it that for years anyway. Sixteen themed gardens, including a sprawling Chinese Garden and the famous rose collection, surround galleries holding Gainsborough’s “The Blue Boy.” It also houses one of the greatest rare book libraries in the country. It’s worth a combined day trip with the Norton Simon if you want a full Pasadena sidebar, since the two sit about 15 minutes apart. Admission runs $29 on weekdays and $34 Friday through Sunday; parking is free, and reservations are required on weekends and holidays. Bring sun protection because the gardens are meant for lingering.
The Huntington
1151 Oxford Rd
San Marino, CA 91108
626.405.2100
M & W–Su, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. (Closed T)
South LA
16. One Man’s Junk, LA’s Treasure
Simon Rodia spent over three decades building the Watts Towers from found objects: broken glass, seashells, pottery shards and scrap steel, stacked into spires that still stop traffic. This summer, the World Monuments Fund named them one of its Irreplaceable America sites. The only way inside the towers themselves is a guided tour, roughly 30 minutes long, run out of the adjacent Watts Towers Arts Center. Tickets are first-come, first-served, cash or check only, and tours cap at 20 people. Pair it with the center’s rotating exhibitions, which lean into work exploring race, resilience and community, right in step with the towers’ own origin story. It’s an easy pairing and one of the most purely LA experiences on this whole list.
Watts Towers Arts Center Campus
1727 E 107th St
Los Angeles, CA 90002
213.847.4646
Galleries: W–Sa, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Guided tower tours: Th–Sa, 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m. & 3 p.m. (Closed Su–T & federal holidays)
What to Look Out For
The Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo is closed for renovation and plans to reopen in late 2026, though programs continue on its campus in the meantime. Keep an eye out for the reopening. Next door to LACMA in Hancock Park, the La Brea Tar Pits museum building is closed for a roughly two-year renovation, but the surrounding park and its bubbling tar pits remain open, with some areas closing in phases during construction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the newest museum in Los Angeles?
A: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opened in Exposition Park on Sept. 22, 2026, after eight years of construction.
Q: Which LA museums have free general admission?
A: The Broad, the Wende Museum and the Vincent Price Art Museum are always free. The Getty Center and Getty Villa are free with a timed reservation, though parking costs extra. The Norton Simon, the Autry and The Huntington also offer monthly free days.
Q: Is the Getty Center closing?
A: Yes. The Getty Center temporarily closes to the public on March 15, 2027, for a roughly year-long modernization, with reopening planned for spring 2028. The Getty Villa stays open throughout the closure.
Q: Do you need a reservation for the Nethercutt Collection?
A: The Nethercutt Museum is self-guided and walk-in, but the guided Collection Tour requires an advance reservation and fills up quickly, especially on Saturdays.
Q: What’s a good day-trip pairing for a Pasadena museum visit?
A: Combine the Norton Simon Museum with The Huntington in San Marino. The two are about 15 minutes apart and make for a full day of art and gardens.
