The Getty Center's Fullest Weeks Come Before Its Final Ones

If the Getty Center is about to close for a year, when should you go? The exhibition calendar points to the holidays.

The J. Paul Getty Trust says the Center will close to the public beginning March 15, 2027, with reopening planned for spring 2028. As of this week, the date still holds. Secret Los Angeles repeated it as recently as Oct. 20. But the exhibitions don't run all the way to the end together. They close one after another, starting this month, and the most crowded stretch on the calendar falls between mid-December and the first weekend of January. By March, half of the shows will have closed.

The count, week by week

Here is what's on view at 1200 Getty Center Drive in each window between now and the closure. The dates come from the Getty's own exhibitions listings.

Two short windows reach eight shows. The first is the six days after Thanksgiving week begins, and the second is the stretch from Dec. 15 through Jan. 3. A visit planned for the last open days, March 13 and 14, will cover only the four exhibitions that run to the end.

Those last days are also fewer than they look. March 14, 2027 falls on a Sunday, and the Center is closed on Mondays. The last full day is therefore Sunday, with regular Sunday hours of 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The last late night is Saturday, March 13, when the galleries stay open until 9 p.m.

What leaves first, and why it matters

The first exhibitions to close are the ones focused most closely on Los Angeles and on the Getty's newest additions.

Charles Ross: Spectrum 14 is up through Nov. 29. If the rest of this season runs together, this one is the easiest to miss.

Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles and Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography both close Jan. 3, 2027. Five Views is about the city these galleries overlook, so the view off the terraces counts as part of the visit.

The Holy Family at Home closes Jan. 10. It's built around Gerard David's recently acquired painting, and the exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. The best time to bring family visiting for the holidays is before that closing date.

Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions, a group of paintings inspired by Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, runs through Feb. 28.

The four shows that run until the end on March 14 are:

1. Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of Mai and 18th-Century Portraiture, the U.S. debut of the portrait of Mai
2. The Making of a Medieval Manuscript
3. A Light in the Dark: Joseph Wright of Derby, opening Nov. 24
4. Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line, opening Dec. 15. It is the public debut of Williams's archive and part of a joint exhibition series from the Getty, LACMA and USC

Plenty of galleries are also closed already. The Getty lists the North Pavilion, the South Pavilion and the East Pavilion's plaza-level galleries as closed for renovations. Those closures are part of the first phase of the modernization, which includes replacing 80 air handling units across the pavilions. The Center that's open this winter is already partly closed, so each temporary exhibition makes up a bigger share of what you can see.

The dated programs, after Nov. 12

The Getty calendar also lists one-time programs at the Center between now and mid-December. Most are free:

• Nov. 14: Canto de Todes: A Performance and Conversation with Dorian Wood. Free.
• Nov. 19: Sacred Heritage in the Andes: Conserving the Baroque Church of Rondocan. Free.
• Nov. 22: Getty Supper Club: La Belle Époque. $125.
• Dec. 5: Drawing in the Dark and Artist-at-Work: Light and Shadow. Both free, both on the same day.
• Dec. 6: Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter and Draftsman, at the Center and online. Free.
• Dec. 12: Non-Consenting Collaborators with Gala Porras Kim. Free.

The Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 programs are both about light and shadow, and they take place in the Wright of Derby show's second week. A Saturday in the galleries followed by the Sunday talk covers the Wright exhibition as fully as the calendar allows.

Booking the eight-show window

Admission to the Center is free, but you need a timed-entry reservation, and reservations open six weeks ahead. On Nov. 12, that rolling window reaches to about Dec. 24. So the first ten days of the second eight-show stretch, starting with the Paul R. Williams opening on Dec. 15, are already bookable. Visits for the final two weeks before the closure become bookable around Jan. 31.

The holiday window has fewer open days than the calendar suggests. The Center closes every year on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and closes early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. This year Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 26, which takes a day out of the first eight-show week. Christmas and New Year's Day both fall on Fridays. Once you remove the Mondays as well, the Dec. 15 to Jan. 3 stretch has fewer full days than its three weeks suggest.

Saturday evenings cost the least. Parking at the Center is $25 per car, $15 after 3 p.m. and $10 after 6 p.m., and it's free on Saturdays after 6 p.m. Since the galleries stay open until 9 p.m. on Saturdays, you can arrive at 6 and get three hours inside without paying for parking. The garage is cashless. The Getty also warns that Caltrans lane reductions or closures on the I-405 can affect trips to and from the Center, and it points visitors to Caltrans Quickmap for current conditions.

What the hill looks like after March 14

What the Getty plans for the year after March 14 explains why this season matters so much. The modernization is the most significant since the Center opened in 1997, and the Los Angeles Times reported an estimated cost of $600 million to $800 million.

The most visible change will be the tram. The Daily News reported that the current tram has been in use since 1997 and that Getty officials say it "is showing its age". Doppelmayr will build the new tram cars and propulsion system, and Secret Los Angeles reports the new system is designed to add 400 passengers per hour of capacity. In its May 28 announcement, the Getty named Gehry Partners to design the lower tram arrival and entry, OLIN for the landscaping and WHY Architecture for the Welcome Hall. The redesigned lower arrival area will have a sheltered stairway, outdoor sculptures, a café and a retail shop. Up top, the Welcome Hall will have an expanded bookstore that opens onto a new full-service café. According to the Daily News, the goal is to reopen in time for the 2028 Olympics.

During the closure, the Getty plans to keep some programming close by. It is renovating a building across Sepulveda Boulevard from the Center as a programming space, and that space will stay in use after the reopening. The Los Angeles Times reported that it will host family festivals, lecture series and other arts programs. The other alternative is the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. It stays open with its regular exhibitions and programs and will add a gallery of selected paintings from the Center. The Villa uses the same free timed-entry reservations and the same parking rates, and visitors must park on site.

Until March, the full Getty is still in Brentwood. Its busiest weeks run from the Wright of Derby opening on Nov. 24 through the first Saturday in January.

At Team Stacy White, the Getty is part of how we show people Brentwood, from the tram ride up to the view west from the terraces. If you're mapping out your own last visits before the March 15 closure, or showing the neighborhood to someone new this winter, we'd love to compare notes.