The Broad museum set to hit new milestone

When The Broad museum opened in downtown L.A. in September, the media coverage was copious and thick with numbers.

Twenty-one thousand square feet of collection storage space! A nearly 2,000-object contemporary art collection! Three hundred eighteen skylights! (Some people get all excited about that.) Roughly 3,000 visitors streamed through the $140-million Grand Avenue museum on opening day in 90-degree heat to view an inaugural exhibition featuring works by more than 60 artists, including Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Mark Bradford and Jeff Koons. Advance reservations that day surpassed 135,000. This was all after a lavish, 800-person, black-tie gala at the museum held three nights earlier.

Now The Broad may hit a new milestone number.

The museum is on track to receive 200,000 visitors by the end of 2015. In its first 12 weeks, The Broad reported it drew 177,264 visitors. Unfortunately, if you’re not much of a planner, advance reservations are booked into March. Reservations are encouraged, but not required. Same-day tickets are available on-site.

“The public reception to The Broad has been overwhelming and has exceeded our expectations,” museum founder Eli Broad said in a statement. “Before we opened, we projected annual attendance of around 300,000 visitors, based on museums of similar size. We’re well on our way to exceeding that, and Edye and I could not be more delighted that the public has responded so positively to L.A.’s newest contemporary art museum.”

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“It’s exciting to see a growing diverse and engaged audience in our galleries,” added founding director Joanne Heyler. “Our first 12 weeks affirms the strong public appetite in Los Angeles for meaningful and accessible contemporary cultural experiences.”

Fortunately, there’s one more relevant number: the price of admission to The Broad? Still $0.

deborah.vankin@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @debvankin

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