Museums of Los Angeles: A Guide for Residents And Visitors

Since its founding in 1781, Los Angeles has emerged as one of the major capitals of the world. Home to nearly four million residents, this sprawling, impressive metropolis, famous for its beaches, cutting-edge architecture, high-end fashions, international cuisine, and celebrity sightings, is an ever-popular warm-weather getaway for millions more tourists each year. Greater Los Angeles is also the site of more than 100 museums, each celebrating in its own way the diverse art, culture, history, and ideas of the City of Angels. Astonishing collections of fine art, ranging from antiquities to Renaissance masterpieces to the best in Asian and Latin American art, are on view, including those conceived by captains of industry and avid art collectors Norton Simon and J. Paul Getty.

As the entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles offers the best museums to delve into Hollywood history, but it is also where you can watch all facets of the city’s past come alive—whether marveling at the Ice Age fossils found at the La Brea Tar Pits, studying artifacts of the Chumash people, or tracing the rise of the automobile in Southern California. Museums of Los Angeles: A Guide for Residents and Visitors provides for the first time a comprehensive guide to the fascinating and varied collections on public view throughout greater metropolitan Los Angeles. Whether you're a lifetime resident or a visitor with just a few hours in town, this handy resource shows that the museums of Los Angeles have something for everyone.

Mia Cariño and Ann Cross are arts marketing and communications professionals living and working in Los Angeles.