The Broad’s expansion builds on the museum’s ten-year success

“ This museum already belongs to Los Angeles. As we move forward, it will reflect our city more and more and offer a space of joy, hope, respite, reflection [and] community to Angelenos and to the world,” Joanne Heyler, founding director and president of The Broad, said about the museum's future expansion coming in three years. 

The Broad, a contemporary art  museum in Los Angeles which offers free admission to its permanent collection, is aiming to open its major expansion in  2028, which will include additional gallery space, an outdoor patio, more space for local artist presentations, art storage and a connection to the L.A. Metro station, among other features. 

On Wednesday morning, several city leaders, local artists, poets and The Broad leadership gathered in the museum's courtyard to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new expansion, which comes ten years after it first opened its doors to the public in September 2015. 

Today, the Broad is one of the most frequented museums in L.A. Their free-entry policy has given access to art, exhibitions, and the creations of renowned artists to many working-class families, students and community members. 

As the newly-elected L.A. City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado (C-D 14),said the expansion of the museum is not just special for art but for community and equitable resources for all. “ This expansion at The Broad, what this means for L.A., not just the Grand Avenue Corridor, but to working-class Angelenos that oftentimes don't have income [or] that didn't [get to] know who Octavia Butler, Joan Didion, Lynn Thompson, Carol Walker or any of these artists were, but because we have this resource here, it's so amazing,” Jurado said on Wednesday. 

Jurado said visiting the museum the year it first opened with her mother was one of the last core memories they shared before she died. “I was a working-class single mom to a three-year-old. My mom had just been diagnosed with stage four cancer. I [came] with her. She was in the middle of chemo and radiation; she was in her wheelchair,” she said. 

Today the museum is home to over 2,000 works of contemporary art from the 1950s to the present day, but with the expansion, the current 120,000-square-foot building will increase not just in size but in programming and art spaces. 

The museum’s origins are attributed to Eli and Edythe Broad, philanthropists and founders of the museum, who had the desire to make contemporary art accessible to the widest possible audience. Eli died in 2021, but Edythe continues her husband's vision. “It has been wonderful to see so many people enjoying art at The Broad,” she said. “It has succeeded beyond my and Eli’s wildest dreams. Expanding the museum reflects our belief in the importance of art as a resource for everyone and in the vision Eli and I shared for Los Angeles as a world art capital.”

The expanded Broad is expected to open before L.A. hosts the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Mayor Karen Bass said on Wednesday that the expansion “goes beyond  just preparing for the Olympic Games.”  

When they first designed the existing building in 2010, Elizabeth Diller, the architect for both the expansion and the existing building, said they never thought of a future expansion and that it was conceived and constructed as a sort of comprehensive "cinematic idea." 

But now, ten years after the first building opened to the public, Diller and her team had to sit down and think of a design and architecture strategy that would combine and assemble the older and new buildings together. 

Diller said the new expansion will build off of the original building, explaining that by turning the vault of the original building inside out, the expansion will present new ways for visitors to directly engage with the art in smaller, more focused galleries. 

“I consider these buildings to be siblings, not clones, with a shared DNA but expressing unique characteristics that enhance the visitor's experience of the pair,” Diller said. 

Inside the new building, there will be large galleries on the first, second and third floors, as well as second-floor spaces in which visitors will be able to move among racks filled with artworks from the collection, creating a zone that serves simultaneously as a gallery and art storage. The new building will also have two top-floor, open-air courtyards where visitors can gather, relax and enjoy art outdoors.

In addition, there will also be an outdoor plaza named in honor of Supervisor Hilda L. Solis. “I have always believed that the arts have that power of healing,” said Solis. “Arts have the ability to uplift our spirits. It broadens our perspective and it even helps to heal us physically and emotionally. 

Solis also talked about the recent L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimous vote to officially create the Grand Avenue Cultural District (GACD), which is supported by more than 18 downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) arts, cultural and civic organizations, including The Broad. The GACD, which was voted on last week, hopes to position DTLA as a premier global arts and culture hub. 

“I’m excited to see how this space will become a cornerstone of connection and community. I’m proud to have introduced the motion to recognize the GACD, which will enhance the visibility and vitality of the arts in shaping the community's cultural identity and economic vibrancy,” said Solis. “ For me, community benefits mean a lot. It means making sure that we carve out access, improving access in developments that are coming here… to improve those developments, to be more inclusive, to have more participation so that nobody is left behind, whether it's in the arts culture or the entertainment hubs.” 

Patrick Martinez and other Latino artists hope that this expansion will give local artists of color more room and opportunities. Martinez has created mixed media landscapes, neon sign pieces, cake paintings, and the Pee Chee series, all of which delve into urban life, socioeconomic disparity and cultural identity. 

Martinez, who lives in L.A. but is originally from Pasadena, earned his bachelor's with honors from Art Center College of Design in 2005. Throughout the years, his work has been exhibited domestically and internationally in L.A., Mexico City, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Miami, among other places. 

“When I was a child going into a museum, I would teleport through paintings and try to understand what that experience was that the painter was trying to express,” said Martinez, whose work resides in the permanent collections of The Broad. 

He told CALÒ News that he hopes more young artists are inspired to create art that resonates with them. “Think about what you want to add to the conversation,” he said. “ It’s very easy to get caught up with a lot of other work that you see being represented, but think about your experience and then go from there.”

The Broad, which has featured the work of many other Latino and local artists, is said to increase its galleries by 70% with the recently announced expansion. “It's a special experience for Brown and Black people and underrepresented people in museums to take up space in these museums,” he said. 

East West Bank, the largest independent bank headquartered in Southern California and operating in over 120 locations in the United States and Asia, will be the main sponsor for the expansion. On Wednesday, Dominic Ng chairman and CEO of the bank announced they would be The Broad’s exclusive grand opening sponsor and leading partner for an additional 10 years, through 2037. 

 Ng said he met the Broads over 25 years ago and after becoming great friends with the couple, Eli invited him to become the leading partner of what would become The Broad. 

“ This was more than 10 years ago when we had the conversation. I said [to him], ‘leading partner usually belongs to JP Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo or Citibank. Why would you want me?’” he recalled.  Ng said he stepped in after following his advice. “Now we are the largest bank with its headquarters in Southern California, and throughout time, Eli continued to advise me and counsel me on how to appreciate art.” 

After the expansion, The Broad will continue to offer free general admission entry to all its visitors.