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<\/p>\nThis year marks a veritable museum-palooza as Los Angeles debuts four new major arts complexes, with three in the wings likely to open in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics. <\/p>\n
Immerse yourself in a psychedelic explosion at Meow Wolf, plan an afternoon liaison with Van Gogh at LACMA\u2019s new David Geffen Galleries, inhale the scent of nature inside Refik Anadol\u2019s AI arts museum, Dataland, or simply geek out over George Lucas\u2019 jaw-dropping collection of \u201cStar Wars\u201d memorabilia. <\/p>\n
Whatever your arts craving may be, this astoundingly rich new lineup of new local museums has you covered.<\/p>\n
LACMA\u2019s David Geffen Galleries <\/p>\n
The new David Geffen Galleries, opening in 2026, are composed entirely of Brutalist concrete.<\/p>\n
(Christopher Knight \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art\u2019s David Geffen Galleries are set<\/a> to debut this April to members, before opening for general admission at the beginning of May. The $720-million Geffen Galleries will display 2,500-3,000 objects from LACMA\u2019s collection. <\/p>\n The building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, is described<\/a> by supporters as a \u201cconcrete sculpture\u201d and will host 90 exhibition galleries across 110,000 square feet. The Wilshire Boulevard museum\u2019s inaugural exhibition will organize<\/a> artwork by the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea instead of by medium or period. <\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is for you to make your own path \u2014 not to speak at you, but to let you wander like you would through a park or a place,\u201d LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan said in an interview<\/a> with The Times. \u201cThat change in attitude, and how the building is built, is really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the most-anticipated works on display include Georges de La Tour\u2019s \u201cThe Magdalen With the Smoking Flame\u201d (1640), Henri Matisse\u2019s \u201cLa Gerbe\u201d (1953) and Vincent Van Gogh\u2019s \u201cTarascon Stagecoach\u201d (1888).<\/p>\n Lucas Museum of Narrative Art The gardens at the Lucas Museum, designed by Studio-MLA, on Monday, May 19, 2025. <\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n After more than 10 years of anticipation, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson<\/a>\u2019s museum will open in Exposition Park this September. With over 10,000 square feet of galleries, the museum will feature a wide array of artwork and pop culture ephemera, including Lucas\u2019 personal trove of \u201cStar Wars\u201d film franchise treasures, \u201cPeanuts\u201d comic strips, \u201cAlice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland\u201d illustrations, a Richard Sargent painting and covers of the Saturday Evening Post. <\/p>\n Lucas donated his collection to curate the Lucas Archives, which, in addition to \u201cStar Wars,\u201d will encompass props and production art from Lucasfilm projects, such as the \u201cIndiana Jones\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n One of the museum\u2019s defining features is its massive green-roof garden designed by Mia Lehrer and her landscape architecture firm Studio-MLA. <\/p>\n \u201cThis brings everything together,\u201d Lehrer said in an interview<\/a> with The Times. \u201cDesign, ecology, storytelling, infrastructure, community. It\u2019s the fullest expression of what landscape can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Meow Wolf A work-in-progress piece set to be featured in Meow Wolf L.A. as seen during a walk through at the group\u2019s warehouse in Santa Fe on Oct. 15, 2025. <\/p>\n (Gabriela Campos\/For The Times)<\/p>\n Meow Wolf\u2019s L.A. location will reimagine a \u201990s movie theater with its takeover of the Cinemark at West L.A.\u2019s Howard Hughes entertainment complex outside Culver City. Meow Wolf\u2019s sixth permanent exhibition comes on the heels of the immersive art creator\u2019s 52,000-square-foot psychedelic art installation in Las Vegas, which was disguised as a dystopian grocery store called Omega Mart and promptly went viral on TikTok. <\/p>\n Complete<\/a> with sci-fi elements, a meditative space and a 30-foot-tall mushroom tower, Meow Wolf\u2019s new location will open at the end of 2026. Although organizers have kept much of the exhibition under wraps, visitors can expect to be transfixed by a thoroughly Los Angeles tale. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cool that we\u2019re creating a story about a pilgrimage, because L.A. is that for so many artists, especially people involved in storytelling,\u201d Shakti Howeth, Meow Wolf\u2018s creative director, told<\/a> The Times. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those places that\u2019s built on layers and layers of dreams, and we\u2019re really exploring that here. Not only dreams but broken dreams \u2014 the compost that can happen when you digest broken dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n Refik Anadol\u2019s Dataland Refik Anadol\u2019s Infinity Room is meant to be a multisensory experience. <\/p>\n (Dataland)<\/p>\n Opening this spring at the Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A., Dataland dubs itself the world\u2019s first museum of AI arts. Turkish American artist Refik Anadol designed his own AI model, named the Large Nature Model, which only sources material with permission from original creators, making it what Anadol calls \u201cethical\u201d AI. Partners include the Smithsonian and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m calling this new art form not AR, not VR, not XR \u2014 so we are still finding a name for it. The best name so far, and people love it, is generative reality,\u201d Anadol told<\/a> The Times. <\/p>\n Dataland will feature five galleries, including the Infinity Room<\/a>, which Anadol first created in 2014 as a student at UCLA. In another exhibit, he trained an AI model on half a million scents and built a machine to push those scents into the gallery to create a totally immersive viewing experience. <\/p>\n Opening Later<\/p>\n The Armenian American Museum and Cultural Center of California<\/b><\/p>\n Slated to complete construction in downtown Glendale in late 2026, the 51,000-square-foot Armenian American Museum has been in the works for more than a decade. With a $67-million<\/a> budget, the museum will include permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as an auditorium, learning center, archives collection and a demonstration kitchen. <\/p>\n The museum is an initiative of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee Western US, and planning began as the group prepared to mark the the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015. The museum is adorned with the 36 letters of the Armenian alphabet and a glass hazarashen skylight, inspired by<\/a> traditional roofs in homes across the Armenian Highlands. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Armenian American Museum was once an idea, then a vision, and today is rising before our eyes,\u201d museum Executive Chairman Berdj Karapetian said in a statement.<\/a> \u201cThis progress is the result of an extraordinary collective effort by Armenians and non-Armenians here in California, across the United States and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center<\/b><\/p>\n The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles is a major expansion of the California Science Center.<\/p>\n (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n A solid opening date has not yet been announced, but the $400-million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center in Exposition Park is busily preparing for liftoff. Construction on the building began in 2022. The shiny new building will be home to the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, Kent Kresa Space Gallery and the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, which will host the Space Shuttle Endeavour. <\/p>\n Endeavour will be displayed in launch position, making it the tallest authentic spacecraft displayed vertically in the world, with a height <\/a>of 20 stories. One of three surviving space shuttles, Endeavour made 25 successful missions into space. <\/p>\n The center is also expected<\/a> to have 20 planes and jets, including a Boeing 747, a mock flight deck and a pair of introductory films produced by J.J. Abrams\u2019 company Bad Robot, one of which will end with a simulated launch. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is an amazing experience, and we want to really build it up,\u201d Jeffrey N. Rudolph, president and chief executive of the California Science Center, told<\/a> The Times. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about the hardware but about the people and the educational aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n The Broad Expansion<\/b><\/p>\n Exterior rendering of the future Broad expansion from Hope Street.<\/p>\n (The Broad. \u00a9 Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R))<\/p>\n Opening in 2028, the Broad expansion<\/a> will contain 70% more gallery space, two outdoor courtyards, a live programming space and views of the museum\u2019s art storage vault. First announced in 2024, the $100-million<\/a> addition is slated for completion before the 2028 Summer Olympics. <\/p>\n Located in downtown L.A., the expansion was deemed necessary after the museum significantly exceeded<\/a> visitor projections. The new building will invert the existing Broad museum\u2019s architectural design, with a smooth, gray structure attached to the original construction.<\/p>\n![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773918796_244_.jpeg\")
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