Research Guides: Museum Studies: Local Museums

UCLA Museums

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Los Angeles Museums by Type

The Broad
The Broad is home to 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and contemporary art.
Craft Contemporary
⁣Founded as a museum in 1973, Craft Contemporary reveals the potential of craft to educate, captivate, provoke, and empower. With a focus on contemporary art made from craft media and processes, Craft Contemporary presents dynamic exhibitions by established and emerging artists and designers who are often underrepresented in larger art institutions.
Getty Museum
Getty is a cultural and philanthropic institution dedicated to the presentation, conservation, and interpretation of the world’s artistic legacy. Through the collective and individual work of its constituent programs—Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Foundation, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Getty Research Institute—Getty pursues its mission in Los Angeles and throughout the world, serving both the general interested public and a wide range of professional communities in order to promote a vital civil society through an understanding of the visual arts.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of more than 142,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe.
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Established in 1979, MOCA is the only artist-founded museum in Los Angeles. MOCA is dedicated to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art. They house one of the most compelling collections of contemporary art in the world, comprising roughly 7000 objects, and have a diverse history of ground-breaking, historically-significant exhibitions.

Automobile Driving Museum
The Automobile Driving Museum’s mission is to collect, preserve, exhibit and ride in historic vehicles. The collection is used to present educational opportunities and displays that illustrate the aesthetic, engineering and cultural evolution of the automobile.
Petersen Automotive Museum
Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum
The NHRA Motorsports Museum's mission is to celebrate the impact of motorsports on American culture. The Museum collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets the vehicles, stories and artifacts that represent America’s affection for, and the influence of, automotive speed and style in all its forms.

California African American Museum
The first African American museum of art, history, and culture fully supported by a state, CAAM was the direct result of a sustained, multiyear campaign of activism undertaken by visionary founders and community members.
Chinese American Museum
Symbolically housed in the oldest and last surviving structure of Los Angeles’ original Chinatown, the 7,200 square foot Chinese American Museum (CAM) embodies a cultural and physical link to the past, as well as a promising point of entry for the city’s multicultural future.
The Japanese American National Museum
The mission of the Japanese American National Museum is to promote understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience.
The Korean American National Museum
The Korean American National Museum's mission is to preserve and interpret the history, experiences, culture and achievements of Americans of Korean ancestry. In accomplishing its mission, the Museum works to become a center for cultural exchange and education, a catalyst for sharing ideas and resources, and a center for promoting and celebrating the diversity of culture in this country.
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes—LA Plaza—is an institution of stories that makes known the role of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and all Latinos in shaping the past, present, and future of Los Angeles.
Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality.
USC Pacific Asia Museum
Established in 1971, the museum is one of few U.S. institutions dedicated to the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands, serving the city of Los Angeles and the Greater Southern California region. The museum’s mission is to further intercultural understanding through the arts of Asia and the Pacific Islands.

The Autry Museum of the American West
The Autry features world-class galleries filled with Native American art and cultural materials, film memorabilia, historic firearms, paintings, interactive areas, and more.
Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County
The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) include the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park, La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park/Mid-Wilshire, and the William S. Hart Museum in Newhall.

California Science Center
The California Science Center provides an innovative model for science learning by combining exhibits with an on-site Science Center School and Amgen Center for Science Learning as well as a teacher professional development program. The Science Center is open to the public seven days a week, 362 days per year, with free general admission to its permanent exhibit galleries. The facility, which opened in February 1998, spans more than 400,000 sq. feet and includes four major exhibit areas.
Griffith Observatory
Griffith Observatory is an icon of Los Angeles, a national leader in public astronomy, a beloved civic gathering place, and one of southern California's most popular attractions.

GRAMMY Museum
The GRAMMY Museum explores and celebrates the enduring legacies of all forms of music; the creative process; the art and technology of the recording process; and the history of the GRAMMY Awards, the premier recognition of recorded music accomplishment.