It’s a Small, Small World : Museum: Carole and Barry Kaye’s private collection of Lilliputian works finds a new home at a 14,000-square-foot site on Miracle Mile.

Perhaps the Miracle Mile should be named Museum Central.

Last month, it was reported that the Petersen Automotive Museum, a four-story facility devoted to automotive history, will open June 10 at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, near the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the George C. Page Museum.

Now another museum plans to open in the neighborhood: The Carole & Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, a private collection of Lilliputian works ranging from monogrammed flatware less than half an inch long to an ornate tea set that sits on a dime.

The museum, to open June 1, will be an expanded, 14,000-square-foot reincarnation of the 3,800-square-foot Petite Elite Miniature Museum in Century City, which was scheduled to close Saturday.

Local officials hope the miniature collection, together with the new automotive museum, will help revitalize the Miracle Mile portion of Wilshire Boulevard by drawing more visitors to the area. That effort may also get a boost, they say, with the renovation--scheduled to be completed this summer--of the Craft and Folk Art Museum, which is also on the Miracle Mile.

“It’s very much a part of the county’s strategy to make that a museum corridor,” said Joel Bellman, spokesman for County Supervisor Ed Edelman, who represents the area.

The new museum and its predecessor, the Petite Elite, grew out of the enthusiasm of Carole Kaye, the museums’ co-founder and curator for miniature art. She built a dollhouse with her grandson four years ago, she said, and found she enjoyed it so much that she eventually made six more by herself.

The hobby soon grew into a business. Carole Kaye learned all she could about the world of miniature art and--along with her husband, Barry, an estate planner who heads Barry Kaye Associates/Wealth Creation Centers--attended shows of miniature works and met with artists. Later, she commissioned dollhouses by several artists.

“I got carried away,” she said. “It became an obsession. We just kept collecting (miniatures).”

Her home, however, began overflowing with dollhouses, and her husband decided to display them in space next to his Century City office.

The couple have used their own funds to add to the museum, which opened in August, 1992. They own most of the pieces, and have received others on loan.

In the Kayes’ collection, the pieces, all made by contemporary artists, are tiny, but not the attention to detail. They offer intimate views of places, people and things--all in small, but proportional scale.

There is a tiny chest with 600 pieces of wood inlay, highly detailed, miniature rooms made by the late Eugene Kupjack and his son, Henry.

Not all the pieces are minuscule. The collection, for instance, features historical figures by George Stuart, including an 18-inch piece depicting Louis XIV, and foot-long dioramas by Ray Anderson--among them, a Southern plantation.

Because the collection was cramped in its Century City location and tucked away in an area of corporate offices, the Kayes decided to set up shop elsewhere.

The collection’s new two-story home is at 5900 Wilshire Blvd., across the street from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The museum’s shop will retain the Petite Elite name and sell miniature furniture, chandeliers, porcelain, silver and other items, with prices ranging from $1.50 for a hand-sculpted, ceramic vegetable up to $4,000 for a hand-painted, five-piece bedroom set. Also available for sale will be an hourlong video tour of the museum.

The new facility will feature Kupjack and Stuart galleries, exhibits with varied artistic themes and educational programs.

The museum also plans to display works by artists from all over the world. Among other works already in the collection are British and American dollhouses, a Japanese palace, a Western town, a winter wonderland, a snow-dusted Victorian mansion, and gargoyle-trimmed medieval abbeys. Also, displayed will be miniature versions of First Ladies’ inauguration gowns and a miniature Fontainebleau Palace from France.

Closer to home, there is a scene at the Hollywood Bowl featuring the Louis Armstrong Orchestra and celebrity guests including Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Michael Jackson.

Starting June 1, visitors can examine the new museum’s collection from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission will be $7.50, $6.50 for those 60 and older, $5 for students 12 to 21, and $3 for children 3 to 12.

On June 10, the museum will be the site of a fund-raiser organized by the Malcolm Forbes Family, Carole Kaye said. All proceeds from the invitation-only party will go to the Elizabeth Taylor Foundation for AIDS.