As every part of Los Angeles, from sports venues to public transportation, readies for the crush of 15 million anticipated visitors for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, two area museums have announced long-term closures to get ready for the tourism crush.
The La Brea Tar Pits’ Page Museum along Wilshire Boulevard is set to close for two years starting in July, and the Getty Center, just west of the 405, is slated to close for about a year starting on March 15, 2027. The reopening dates for both are still in flux but are expected sometime in 2028.
The Getty Center “is undertaking the most significant series of modernization initiatives since its 1997 opening” in preparation for the massive crowds expected during the Olympics, according to a news release issued Thursday. The massive art museum on the city’s Westside offers free admission to roughly 2 million annual visitors, with collections spanning from “the Middle Ages to today,” according to the museum. The Getty Center was named one of the top 12 museums in the country by at least one ranking last year.
Plans for the Getty Center include a renovated Welcome Hall, a new cafe bookstore, better cell service and Wi-Fi connectivity, and other campuswide improvements. The center will also add “new ways to connect with art, from revitalized galleries to experiences that bring art in dialogue with nature,” according to the news release. Some galleries are already closed to allow the museum to upgrade its heating and air conditioning systems.
Upgrades to the Getty’s tram system are also planned. The museum’s parking areas and public transportation or ride-hailing access points are connected to the main entrance via a short and speedy 0.75-mile tram.
“Our mission has always been to make art accessible to our Los Angeles community and visitors from around the world. In the coming years, guided by our commitment to All for Art, we will enhance the visitor experience across the Getty Center campus through reimagined spaces and new offerings, while prioritizing sustainability,” said Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, in the news release.
“We look forward to welcoming visitors back in spring 2028, in time to celebrate the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles and experience our more accessible, resilient, and dynamic campus,” Fleming continued.
The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, a frequent site of field trips for local students and a quirky destination for visiting tourists, announced Thursday that starting July 7, its Page Museum will close for two years, as part of a larger renovation that’s slated to be completed before the Olympics.
The exterior of the museum, home to its namesake tar pits, will remain partially open during the ongoing museum renovation. The site is touted as “the only Ice Age fossil site in the world that’s being actively excavated in the middle of a city!” Inside the museum, visitors can view collections of the fossils discovered in the sticky tar since the early 1900s, including extinct mammoths and sloths. The most common large mammals found are dire wolves, saber-toothed cats and coyotes.
The renovation project will allow the museum to expand space for its over 2 million specimens, according to a news release issued Thursday. “In addition to developing a more sustainable infrastructure and improving community access to these incomparable collections, the reimagined spaces will bring even greater awareness to how the Ice Age past informs how we care for our planet today,” states the release.
Both museums are timed to reopen just before the Olympics, meaning for local Angelenos hoping to visit popular attractions before the tourists, the time to act is now, not early 2028.