The Getty Center closes to the public on March 15, 2027, and is planned to reopen in spring 2028. Several of the winter's shows close on March 14, 2027, which falls on a Sunday. The Center is closed on Mondays, so the last day of those exhibitions is also the last day the hill is open before the renovation.
For Brentwood, the Center is the museum at the top of the 405, and its final season is weighted toward the end, with two major exhibitions opening in late November and December.
What the Closure Covers
The Getty calls the program the most significant set of modernization projects since the Center opened in 1997. The Los Angeles Times reported an estimated cost of $600 million to $800 million, with the work focused on the tram system, the Welcome Hall and the South Pavilion.
How long the closure lasts depends on who is describing it. The Times called it a one-year closure. In the same article, Tim Whalen, the Getty's vice president of institutional planning, called it a shutdown of "these nine months or so." The Getty's own announcements say spring 2028, and its ticket page says "early 2028." In every version, the Center is closed to the public for all of 2027 after mid-March. Getty president Katherine E. Fleming tied the reopening to the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
Part of the campus is already closed. The visitor page lists the North and South Pavilions, along with the plaza-level galleries of the East Pavilion, as closed for renovation. The first phase, an HVAC replacement and gallery upgrades, is already underway. So the remaining exhibitions are running in a campus that has already lost some of its gallery space.
The Calendar, in the Order It Ends
Sorting the Center's exhibitions by closing date shows the shape of the season. Two shows that open in the late fall close with the building.
- October 18, 2026. Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions, Lost. Found. Returned. and Stendahl's World: Marketing Ancient Mexico and Modern Art in Los Angeles all close this Sunday.
- November 29, 2026. Charles Ross: Spectrum 14 ends after a run that started on September 10, 2024.
- January 3, 2027. Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles and Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography close together. Both opened on September 1.
- January 10, 2027. The Holy Family at Home closes.
- February 28, 2027. Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions closes. It opens October 20, 2026.
- March 14, 2027. Four shows close on the final open day: The Making of a Medieval Manuscript, Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of Mai and 18th-Century Portraiture, A Light in the Dark: Joseph Wright of Derby, which opens November 24, and Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line, which opens December 15.
The Paul R. Williams exhibition opens last and has the shortest run of the four, about three months. For a Westside audience interested in architecture, it is the show with the tightest window.
Reservations add a second deadline to the closing dates. Admission is free but needs a timed-entry reservation, and new dates are released daily up to six weeks ahead. That puts reservations for the final weekend on sale around the end of January. Every show on the March 14 list draws from the same limited supply of last-weekend slots.
This Week Has Its Own Deadline
The first group of closings comes before the season's big openings. Family Festival: LA and Mexico in Focus runs Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Getty lists mariachi, ballet folklórico, bilingual storytelling, workshops and strolling musicians. Entry is free with a timed reservation. The next day, Sunday, October 18, is the last day for the Redon exhibition and for Stendahl's World, which covers how ancient Mexican art and modern art were marketed in Los Angeles.
Two days later, on October 20, the Reggie Burrows Hodges installation opens. On October 23, the Center hosts a free film and performance, Ever Present: NOVA '78, with Julia Heyward and Aaron Brookner.
Saturday Night Is the Cheapest Way In
On a weekday, the Center is the same museum it has always been. Saturday is different. The Center is open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and on Sunday, but on Saturday it stays open until 9 p.m. Parking costs go down as the day goes on:
- $25 per car or motorcycle for most of the day
- $15 after 3 p.m.
- $10 after 6 p.m.
- Free after 6 p.m. on Saturdays
Getty says all parking fees are cashless.
Several of the season's evening events fall into that free-parking window. Canto de Todes: A Performance and Conversation with Dorian Wood starts Saturday, November 14, at 6:30 p.m. It is free, but tickets are required, and the ticket also serves as the Center entry reservation. Non-Consenting Collaborators with Gala Porras Kim is on the calendar for Saturday, December 12.
Sunday is open until 6:30 p.m. The season's ticketed dinner is Getty Supper Club: La Belle Époque on Sunday, November 22, at 6 p.m. Tickets are $125, include dinner and chamber music, and are limited to guests 21 and over. Daytime programs repeat on a fixed schedule. The bilingual Images and Imagination: Collage Workshop runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on November 8, November 22 and December 13. Artist-at-Work: Serigraphy demonstrations are on the same dates at 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. The Friday Breathe Tour at 11:30 a.m. is a 20-minute guided walk through indoor and outdoor parts of the campus.
The Center is closed on Thanksgiving, November 26, and on Christmas Day. It closes early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. The Getty's calendar pages don't show publication dates, so check times on getty.edu before going.
Where the Getty Goes When the Hill Closes
While the Center is closed, Getty programming moves to a building that many Brentwood drivers pass every day. In its April announcement, the Getty said it would open a new programming space on Sepulveda Boulevard, in a building across from the Center that is now under renovation. The space will host special programs during the closure and will stay in use as a program space after the Center reopens. The Los Angeles Times reported that the plans include family festivals, lecture series and other arts programs.
The address is 640 North Sepulveda Boulevard, by the Moraga Drive exit off the 405. Commercial Observer described it in 2022 as a two-story office building of 45,630 square feet. Getty has not announced an opening date or a name for the venue. In practice, the Getty will be programming on the valley floor next to Brentwood while the hilltop is closed.
The collection is moving too. The Getty Villa will stay open with its full schedule and will add a gallery of paintings from the Center's collection, so some well-known works will be shown in a different setting during the renovation. No report so far has named which paintings will go.
What Reopens in 2028
The first part of the visit will change the most. The tram, which has run since 1997, will be replaced with a new model built by Doppelmayr, including new cars and a new propulsion system, with more capacity to cut wait times. Gehry Partners designed the new arrival area at the Lower Tram. OLIN is extending the landscaping there, and the plans include a sheltered stairway, reinstalled outdoor sculptures, new art commissions, a garden café and a retail space. At the top of the hill, WHY Architecture is redesigning the Welcome Hall with an information desk, a larger bookstore and a new full-service café. The Getty says the work will be integrated into Richard Meier and Partners' original design. The plans also list cell service and wi-fi across the campus.
The public closure that makes room for this work begins the day after the last exhibitions close on Sunday, March 14, 2027.
For clients interested in Los Angeles architecture, Paul R. Williams included, Jonas Heller is available to talk through the Westside properties that link these collections to the streets around them. Request a private consultation.
