For a few more weeks, on sunny afternoons, prisms in the Museum rotunda throw bands of color across the walls. The bands shift as the sun moves through its daily arc. That work is Charles Ross's Spectrum 14, and it goes dark on November 29. That's three and a half months before the Getty Center itself closes.
Most of the Center's final season runs on that kind of schedule. The Getty will close to the public on March 15, 2027, and plans to reopen in spring 2028. But several of the shows on the hill today end well before then. Others haven't opened yet. For several shows, the last chance to see them comes in November or early January.
The hill is already smaller than it looks from Sepulveda
The shutdown began well before March. Getty's own project page lists the North Pavilion, the South Pavilion and the plaza-level galleries of the East Pavilion as closed for renovation. That work includes replacing 80 air handling units across the pavilions and building new restrooms. In April, Artnet reported that the West Pavilion would stay open until the full closure.
Getty announced the closure on April 9 and released design details on May 28. According to the Los Angeles Times, the decision came after leadership saw how many separate projects had piled up, starting with the HVAC system and gallery updates. Tim Whalen, the Getty Trust's vice president of institutional planning, told the paper that the best approach was to finish "as quickly and as efficiently as possible and with as little mess for the public as possible." The Getty has been doing that work gallery by gallery for months, which is why the final season is thinner than a normal fall.
The order things leave
Here is the closing order for what is on view now and what opens before the shutdown. The list runs earliest first, and that order is the useful part.
- November 29: Charles Ross: Spectrum 14, the sunlit prism installation in the rotunda.
- January 3: Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles, with work by Laura Aguilar, Reynaldo Rivera, George Rodriguez, Patssi Valdez and Ricardo Valverde. Its companion show, Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography, closes the same day. It brings together 13 photographers, including Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide, with labels in English and Spanish.
- January 10: The Holy Family at Home, built around the Getty's recently acquired Gerard David painting.
- February 28: Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions, which opened October 20. Its new paintings reinterpret works by Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi. The Daily News reported that this is one of three Hodges presentations running at Los Angeles museums at the same time.
- March 14, the day before the closure: The Making of a Medieval Manuscript; Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of Mai and 18th-Century Portraiture, the U.S. debut of Reynolds's full-length portrait of the first Polynesian visitor to Great Britain; and the two exhibitions that haven't opened yet.
Read that way, the season splits into two parts. Through New Year's, the hill is crowded with shows near the end of their runs. The two Los Angeles–rooted photography exhibitions, which the Los Angeles Times fall preview singled out, close the first weekend of January. After the second week of January, the program gets much shorter.
The two shows built for the final weeks
The Getty saved two openings for late in the year. Both run until the last day before the closure.
A Light in the Dark: Joseph Wright of Derby opens November 24. It reunites Wright's candlelit paintings, including the Getty's rediscovered Two Boys with a Bladder. On Sunday, December 6, at 4 p.m., curator Julia Siemon gives a free talk on Wright's candlelight paintings, which will also stream online.
Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line opens December 15. It marks the public debut of Williams's archive and looks at his work with and for Black communities in Los Angeles. The Beverly Press reported the opening in September and noted the show's focus on Williams's work with Black families and developers.
For anyone who has driven Westside streets for decades, the Williams show is the one with a local claim. It's an architecture exhibition about Los Angeles, and it is the last major show the Center will open before it goes quiet for more than a year. Both shows close March 14, so these two will draw the crowds in the final weeks. The calmer stretch to see them is mid-December through February.
Evenings are the cheapest way to see what's left
The Center is open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, and until 9 p.m. on Saturday. It's closed Mondays. Admission is free with a timed-entry reservation. Reservations open six weeks ahead, so a booking made at the end of October reaches about December 10.
Parking is the real cost of a visit, and it drops later in the day:
| Arrival | Parking per car |
|---|---|
| Before 3 p.m. | $25 |
| After 3 p.m. | $15 |
| After 6 p.m. | $10 |
| Saturday after 6 p.m. | Free |
Payment is cashless. Active and veteran U.S. service members park free through Veterans Day, November 11, with valid ID or proof of service. Saturday night gives you three hours in the galleries at no cost. And on Saturdays the Garden Terrace Cafe stays open until 7 p.m., two hours later than on its other days.
The drive up is its own variable. Getty warns that Caltrans's I-405 lane rehabilitation project may bring lane reductions or closures on the 405 and through the Sepulveda Pass, and it points visitors to Caltrans QuickMap before they leave. The Center is also closed on Thanksgiving, November 26, and on Christmas Day, and it closes early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
The evening and weekend calendar through mid-December:
- Saturday, November 14, 6:30 p.m.: Canto de Todes, a free performance and conversation with Dorian Wood that mixes chamber classical, folk, torch song and experimental music.
- Sunday, November 15: Oaxacan Recipes and Remembrance with Bricia Lopez, a 5:30 p.m. talk followed by a tasting from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $135, ages 21 and up.
- Sunday, November 22, 6 p.m.: Getty Supper Club: La Belle Époque, a five-course dinner inspired by Escoffier, with chamber music. Tickets are $125, and the event page lists it as sold out.
- November 8, November 22 and December 13: free family drop-ins, Artist-at-Work: Serigraphy and the bilingual Images and Imagination: Collage Workshop. A timed-entry reservation is still required.
- Saturday, December 12, 3 p.m.: Non-Consenting Collaborators with Gala Porras-Kim, a free ticketed talk about how artists, collectors and curators shape the objects in a collection.
- December 13: a public panel with MacArthur Fellows at the Center.
Robert Irwin's Central Garden, which Getty describes as a seasonal artwork that keeps changing, still has free tours every day. Getty's closure announcement says the Center will be closed "to the public." It makes no separate provision for the garden or the grounds.
What replaces the hill after March 15
During the closure, Getty's public programs move to two other sites. The Getty Villa will stay open with a full schedule and will host a gallery of selected paintings from the Center's collection. The Getty has also bought a building just across Sepulveda Boulevard. The Los Angeles Times reported that it will host family festivals, lecture series and other arts programs, and Getty says it will remain a program space after the Center reopens. According to the Beverly Press, 2027 programs such as "Off the 405" and the "Garden Concert for Kids" will take place at various locations. The "Pay Once, Park Twice" offer, which covers same-day parking at both the Center and the Villa for one fee except on Mondays and Tuesdays, is one of the last chances to do both sites in a single day.
The project is large. The Los Angeles Times and The Art Newspaper both put the estimate at $600 million to $800 million. Gehry Partners is redesigning the arrival area and lower tram station, including a new canopy. WHY Architecture is designing the hilltop Welcome Hall, OLIN is landscaping the lower arrival areas, and Doppelmayr is building the new tram cars and propulsion system, which Getty says will carry more people with shorter waits. The plans also bring back outdoor sculptures and add a garden café and shop at the base, plus a new café bookstore at the top. Getty is also adding cell service and Wi-Fi across the campus.
So the tram you ride this winter will be replaced, and the photography shows you can see this fall close January 3. Spectrum 14 closes November 29.
A closure this long, followed by a rebuilt arrival and a new program building on Sepulveda, belongs in any conversation about a Brentwood property. If you'd like a discreet read on how that story fits your own home, Kathy Marshall is glad to talk it through. Request a Private Valuation & Consultation.
