AREA ATTRACTIONS
LACMA / 3.7 MILES AWAY LACMA was founded in 1961, splitting from the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art. Four years later, it moved to the Wilshire Boulevard complex designed by William Pereira. The museum’s wealth and collections grew in the 1980s, and it added several buildings beginning in that decade and continuing in subsequent decades. In 2020, four buildings on the campus were demolished to make way for a reconstructed facility designed by Peter Zumthor. His design drew strong community opposition and was lambasted by architectural critics and museum curators, who objected to its reduced gallery space, poor design, and exorbitant costs. LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States. It attracts nearly a million visitors annually. It holds more than 150,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present. In addition to art exhibits, the museum features film and concert series.
WEST ADAMS ARTS DISTRICT / 1.2 MILES AWAY West Adams is ground zero for cutting-edge, trailblazing, artistic entrepreneurs on South LA’s Westside. Zoe’s Vintique, an eclectic vintage clothing shop, Delicious Vinyl Pizza, a hip-hop pizza joint, and the art space O’Gallery are just a few of the trendy businesses on Adams Boulevard. In the beginning, there was La Cienega. For a while in the 1960s, the West Hollywood gallery district was the destination center for the Los Angeles art world and beyond. Later, in the 1990s, came Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, then Culver City, and more recently the downtown Arts District. It’s a truism in the contemporary art business that you will move to a dope space in a suddenly on-trend part of town more than once during the life of your gallery. At the moment, West Adams has caught the eye of a diverse group of gallerists whose backgrounds and programs are as ambitious as they are eclectic. They’ve moved in slowly over the past three to four years and quickly in the last 12 months. Pro tip: It’s called “West Adams” but most of the galleries are actually on West Washington Boulevard, between about La Brea and about Arlington. However, that same stretch of Adams Boulevard a couple of blocks to the south is making a play. There’s even a micro-scene further southwest, along Jefferson Boulevard.
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