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When I travel, I'm not usually a fan of spending days at museums. But as it turns out, The Broad museum in downtown Los Angeles had several outstanding exhibits that were unexpectedly amazing. The museum itself has free general admission tickets that can be reserved in advance on their website https://www.thebroad.org in 30 minute intervals.
The Broad museum does not have a cafe to purchase food, but they do allow you to leave to buy food at a nearby restaurant and re-enter afterwards. If the wait for the Infinity Mirror Room is long and you've already browsed through the general admission exhibits, take a walk outside and find some food. We ended up eating lunch at Otium, a nearby American restaurant that Yelp rates as $$$.
There is also a special exhibits that requires paid admission to enter and view. The Broad tickets are $20 per person and I wasn't particularly interested in the topic, so we passed on visiting.
If you plan on driving to The Broad, they do have a parking structure. Payment is required, but the museum validates (up to 3 hours) for a total of $15. To get your The Broad parking ticket validated, talk to museum staff inside The Broad and they'll give you a second ticket to with the parking ticket. Insert both at the pay stall before driving out. Remember, you'll still need to pay $15 for parking per car.
Though there are many paintings in the general exhibits which I flat out do not understand, it's the following pieces that really stand out.
- Infinity Mirror Room - Requires on-site free reservation to get your spot in line. They notify you by text message when your time slot is available and you get 45 seconds in the personal space to take all the photos and videos you want.
- Jeff Koon's Tulips, Rabbit, & Dog - These are three distinct sculptures made to look like gigantic blow up animals. They're shiny, reflective, and just awesome to look at.
- Gigantic Dinner Table - Not sure what the official name of this piece is, but it takes up an entire room and makes you feel small. This exhibit also makes for very cool photos.
For a free museum, The Broad is a must visit. Compared to the two Getty museums in Los Angeles area that are also free, I find the contemporary nature of the exhibits at The Broad to be much more interesting.