

“I think many of us are at a point where we understand that museums should not be ivory towers,” Klaus Biesenbach, director of the museum, told the New York Times.


Klaus Biesenbach, a guest, and Keanu Reeves attend the MOCA Benefit 2019 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA on in Los Angeles, California.
Moca museum los angeles hours free#
The Hammer, which brought in 251,943 people last year, has seen its visitor numbers increase nearly 25 percent since it instituted its own free admission policy in 2014. MOCA welcomed 284,160 visitors in 2018-a meager figure compared to the 800,000-plus visitors that the Broad, located across the street from its Grand Avenue location and free since it opened in 2015, attracts annually. “Charging admission is counterintuitive to art’s ability and purpose to connect, inspire, and heal people.” “Art has the unique ability to bridge cultural and socioeconomic divides,” Powers said in a statement. While the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recently enacted a mandatory ticket fee for out-of-towners, MOCA is one of several Southern California museums to go free in an effort to expand audiences. Powers’ donation will cover the next five years, the museum told the Los Angeles Times. A total of $1.3 million in revenue-roughly seven percent of MOCA’s annual budget-came from ticket sales last year. General adult admission to the museum currently costs $15. The new policy, which will go into effect “as soon as possible,” according to the museum, is made possible by a $10 million donation by the president of the museum’s board, Carolyn Clark Powers. The museum announced this weekend that it would no longer require a general admissions fee, although it will still charge for entry to special exhibitions. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles has decided to go free.
