Here’s what you need to know about The Broad, L.A.’s newly opened contemporary art museum:

 

1. It’s fantastic.

 

2. It’s free.

 

 

3. It’s popular. Long lines form to get in, but one can bypass the wait by securing advance reservations for timed entry tickets online. (The online reservation spaces disappear quickly so plan ahead.)

 

4. Philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad built the museum to showcase their more than 2000-piece collection of postwar and contemporary works.

 

5. The architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) designed the dramatic building, which is already a landmark in the downtown L.A. The sculptural honeycomb exterior of the building, dubbed the “veil,” is designed with skylights on the top floor that bring indirect diffuse natural light to the galleries.

 

6. The first and third floor of the museum showcases art. The second floor holds administration offices.

 

7. The Broad’s inaugural installation (on view until late April or early May) features more than 250 works by over 60 artists, including: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Barbara Kruger, Jeff Koons, Kara Walker, Takashi Murakami and John Currin.

 

8. Works in the Inaugural Installation are displayed chronologically starting on the third floor where galleries showcase works by artists that gained fame in the1950s through the1980s and continuing on the the first floor where the most contemporary works are displayed.

9. The Broad is located at 221 S. Grand Avenue adjacent to Walt Disney Concert Hall. (The street just could be one of the most architecturally interesting in the city.)

 

10. Visitors can peek into the storage center of the museum, called “the vault,” from a glass elevator and from the central staircase that takes visitors from the first to third floor.

 

11. One can eat at Otium, a restaurant on the plaza next to the Broad, but not eat or drink in the museum itself.

 

12. Photography is fine. Selfies rock—but selfie sticks do not—leave them (and tripods and camera flashes) at home.

 

13. A separate, free, timed ticket is required to line up to enter Yayoi Kusama’s dazzling, shimmering, shinning Infinity Mirrored Room. The piece accommodates one visitor at a time for only 45 seconds each. Visitors get tickets after arriving at the museum. These tickets go very quickly, with most spaces gone within the first two hours of the museum opening. (Which means you should plan your visit to the Broad as close to the opening hours as possible and get the room ticket immediately upon entry.)

 

14. The Broad is closed on Mondays.

 

15. The museum’s underground garage charges $12 for three hours with a validated ticket, which is available at the entrance.

 

16. The Broad has a shop and a Website: www.thebroad.org

 

17. The Broad is an absolute must-visit for anyone interested in art and architecture!