The Skirball at 30: What Opens This Fall, and Why It Matters More Once the Getty Closes

Starting March 15, 2027, Brentwood's Getty Center will be closed to visitors. Getty says the modernization runs until a planned reopening in spring 2028. The work includes tram upgrades, gallery and HVAC work, Welcome Hall renovations and new campus utilities. Getty says the goals are better visitor experience, accessibility, energy resilience and long-term care of the collection. That leaves the Skirball Cultural Center at 2701 N. Sepulveda Boulevard as the open museum on Brentwood's side of the hills for most of a year. This fall it is in its 30th year and opening a full new season.

Some dates matter here. The Los Angeles Times ran a correction after an earlier version of its story gave the closure year as 2026. The start date is 2027. The Getty Villa stays open the whole time. It will add a gallery of selected paintings from the Center's collection. On the Skirball's calendar, the fall exhibitions close on Feb. 28, 2027, about two weeks before the Getty Center shuts. One installation runs well past that. More on it below.

A season that opens on a free Thursday

Three new exhibitions open on Thursday, Oct. 22. The Beverly Press reports that all three run through Feb. 28, 2027. The Skirball is free for everyone on Thursdays, so opening day costs nothing. That evening, a public opening reception runs from 7 to 9 p.m. It is also free, with a DJ, refreshments and all three new galleries open. Members get a preview the day before, Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 4 to 8 p.m.

The three shows have a common thread. Each one is about what people and communities choose to keep and pass on.

The 1960s—A Generation on Fire: Judy Baca's Great Wall of Los Angeles. The Great Wall is the public mural Baca and the Social and Public Art Resource Center started in 1974 along the Los Angeles River. Hundreds of young people and community members helped paint it. The newly finished sections cover the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement. The show pairs them with drawing studies and an immersive video about how the mural gets made. Vicki Phung Smith is the curator.

Jenny Yurshansky: What We Carry. Yurshansky made 3-D-printed replicas of family keepsakes belonging to Los Angeles residents. She shows them alongside objects from the Skirball's collection. Smith curated this one as well.

Patrisse Cullors: Wishes Made Material. Cullors uses textiles, photographs, video and sound that came out of Black-Jewish community dialogues. Jideofor Chikeruba is the curator.

What stays on view after the new shows close

Two exhibitions already open give the fall season a longer reach. Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution is on view through Feb. 28, 2027, the same closing date as the new shows. Patrick A. Reed and Skirball Deputy Director Michele Urton co-curated it.

Adam Silverman's Common Ground is installed in Ruby Commons through Jan. 2, 2028. It is the one piece that covers almost the entire Getty Center closure, from the shutdown in March 2027 into the following winter. The ongoing Visions and Values galleries, Noah's Ark and the Discovery Center stay open throughout as well.

Thirty years, and what the Skirball counts

The Skirball printed its own account of the year in the Fall 2026 issue of its magazine, Oasis. President and CEO Jessie Kornberg looks back to the first visitors who came through the lobby of the newly opened center thirty years ago. She describes that lobby as a sukkah, built to be "open to all who wish to enter." Then she gives the year's numbers:

"Record-breaking attendance to six new Skirball-originated Museum exhibitions. A delicious new learning garden. More than 300 education programs and community events."

The campus behind those numbers covers 15 acres of pavilions, courtyards and gardens designed by architect Moshe Safdie. A big piece of the 30th year has been for families, and it is already finished.

Noah's Ark is renovated, and it books separately

Noah's Ark has reopened after a renovation. In January, the Los Angeles Times reported that it had reopened in mid-December after being closed for more than three months, with new interactive features and lighting. A new outdoor space, the Bloom Garden, extends the visit outside.

Logistics change how a family visit goes. The Ark needs its own timed-entry ticket. It costs the same as general admission, $20 or $15, and includes general admission. It is free on Thursdays, and the gallery closes at 4:30 p.m., half an hour before the rest of the museum. Families who want to plan around the youngest visitors can also find Family Art Studio on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, plus story time, weekend music jams, puppet shows and Garden Time.

Fall dates worth saving

The Skirball calendar now lists programs through mid-December. These are the dates most useful to a household planning ahead:

The Hanukkah Festival needs the most planning. Tickets go on sale Thursday, Nov. 5, at 10 a.m. Members and children under 2 get in free. The day includes music, storytelling, food, art-making and a community candle lighting. Walk-up tickets for Noah's Ark are limited that day.

What a visit costs, and when it's free

General admission is $20. Seniors, full-time students with ID and children ages 2 to 17 pay $15. Members and children under 2 get in free. For two adults and two school-age children, a weekend visit comes to $70 at the door. On a Thursday, the same visit costs nothing.

Thursday is a weekday afternoon slot, though. The museum is open noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. It is closed Mondays. This fall it also closes on Nov. 11, Nov. 26 and 27, and Dec. 25. Weekend mornings give two extra hours, which counts for a family visit timed around the Ark's 4:30 p.m. closing. Thursdays suit a solo visit to the Baca galleries on a late lunch hour.

Once the new shows close on Feb. 28, 2027, the Getty Center is about two weeks from closing. Common Ground will still be up in Ruby Commons, and Noah's Ark will still be taking timed tickets.

Team Pinckert has watched Brentwood's cultural calendar change over generations. As the Getty Center gets ready for its year off, we're keeping close track of how the neighborhood's weekends shift with it. If you'd like to talk through what this coming year means for your own plans, Team Pinckert is glad to have that conversation, on whatever schedule suits you.