Over the past year, LA County museums have sat mostly empty because of countywide pandemic restrictions. That has resulted in millions of dollars of lost revenue. One estimate has museums statewide cumulatively losing $22 million a day.
But there is good news on the horizon. With dwindling coronavirus numbers, LA has entered the red tier and allowed museums to open at 25% capacity.
The LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) just announced that they will open on April 1 with safety protocols in place. However, you won’t be able to get a ticket on-site. LACMA will be offering timed tickets online that they will release in batches starting on March 25. There will be a health screening to fill out online and temperature checks on-site.
Other museums are following suit. Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) is already taking appointments online. The Hammer Museum plans to open mid-April, which means that people can finally go see Made in LA, the biennial highlighting emerging artists who live and work in LA.
The Hammer recently started doing free virtual tours of Made in LA. The tours, led by a UCLA student educator, focuses on three artists catered to the specific interest of the group and can be reserved online.
Once the museum reopens in a few weeks, they will also start to offer public online group tours, so you could attend online as a single person without needing to organize a group. The museum plans to continue doing this even after opening to the public. These hybrid models of online plus in-person may be a mainstay for museums across the board in the future.
KCRW: Made in LA 2020: Larry Johnson, Khalil Joseph, and 28 other local emerging artists