L.A.’s Hammer Museum expansion, two decades in the making, sets date for the final reveal. The Los Angeles Times reports the museum’s first-ever expansion is nearly complete and that its first visitors, as part of an exhibition opening in fall 2017, will be the first to see the new galleries.
The museum, located in the former Artcraft building at 3333 Melrose, was founded in 1966 and now houses more than 100,000 works of art. In addition to its permanent collection, L.A.’s Hammer has presented about 65 temporary exhibitions and hosted more than 1,500 people as part of its events program.
The museum’s expansion at 3333 Melrose will now add four galleries, an outdoor pavilion named Hammer Plaza, and a new building with more than 17,000 square feet of exhibition space.
The new expansion “will expand the museum’s permanent collection to include more than 200 works from over 100 years of L.A. art,” according to the museum’s website. Many of the works on display “will be loan or gift exhibitions that have attracted over a half billion dollars in public and private funding, and will present works from across a broad spectrum of artists from the Museum’s collection.”
