The Getty Center closes to the public on March 15, 2027, and is scheduled to reopen in spring 2028. Its galleries won't stay full until that date. Nine temporary exhibitions and installations are on the hilltop above Sepulveda this week. By the final weekend, four will be left. Shows close in stages over the next five months, so the best time to go depends on what you want to see. The two fullest stretches are the next ten days and the three weeks that begin December 15.
What March 15 Closes, and for How Long
The Getty calls this its most significant modernization since the Center opened in 1997. It lists the goals as visitor experience, accessibility, energy resilience and long-term care of the campus. Some of the work has already started. The North Pavilion, the South Pavilion and the East Pavilion's plaza-level galleries are closed now. Inside them, crews are replacing 80 air-handling units with more efficient electrical systems, building new restrooms and refinishing gallery spaces.
The part neighbors will notice most is the arrival area. In May, the Getty said Gehry Partners will redesign the lower tram and arrival area. OLIN will expand the landscaping, WHY Architecture will redo the Welcome Hall, and Doppelmayr will build new tram cars and a new propulsion system. All of it has to fit Richard Meier's original design. The Art Newspaper reported that the new tram is expected to carry 400 more people per hour. It also reported that 27,000 square feet of gallery space will be reworked. The Los Angeles Times reported an estimated cost of $600 million to $800 million, with the reopening timed ahead of the 2028 Olympics. In that same story, Tim Whalen, the Getty Trust's vice president of institutional planning, described the shutdown as "these nine months or so." The Getty's own published window runs to spring 2028, so planning around a full year is safer.
The Getty hasn't said whether the Central Garden, the tram or the on-site restaurants will stay open to the public during the closure. The announcement covers the entire Center.
How the Exhibition Calendar Thins Out
The Getty's exhibition index has the exact dates for each show. Arranged by date, it shows the galleries filling and emptying in waves. The table below counts temporary exhibitions and installations. It leaves out the long-running J. Paul Getty Life and Legacy display, which is listed as ongoing.
| Window | On view | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 8 to Oct 18 | Odilon Redon, Lost. Found. Returned., Stendahl's World, Charles Ross: Spectrum 14, The Holy Family at Home, Portrait of Mai, Every Minute Is History, Instante/revelación, The Making of a Medieval Manuscript | 9 |
| Oct 20 to Nov 23 | Reggie Burrows Hodges joins; the three October shows are gone | 7 |
| Nov 24 to Nov 29 | Joseph Wright of Derby joins | 8 |
| Dec 1 to Dec 14 | Spectrum 14 has closed | 7 |
| Dec 15 to Jan 3 | Paul R. Williams joins | 8 |
| Jan 5 to Jan 10 | Every Minute Is History and Instante/revelación have closed | 6 |
| Jan 12 to Feb 28 | The Holy Family at Home has closed | 5 |
| Mar 2 to Mar 14 | Hodges has closed; Wright, Williams, Portrait of Mai and the Medieval Manuscript remain | 4 |
The two peaks hold different shows. The October peak is the last chance for three exhibitions that close in ten days. The December peak is the only time all three of the season's new shows overlap with the Los Angeles photography shows downstairs.
The Ten Days Before October 18
Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions, Lost. Found. Returned. and Stendahl's World: Marketing Ancient Mexico and Modern Art in Los Angeles all close Sunday, October 18. The day before, Saturday, October 17, the Getty is holding a free Family Festival: LA and Mexico in Focus. That makes the weekend busy, and Saturday is also the one night the Center stays open until 9 p.m. Visiting on a weekday this week means one trip covers the full nine-show lineup with smaller crowds.
Late October and November: Hodges, Then Wright
On Tuesday, October 20, the day after the Monday closure, Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions opens. It's a compact installation of five new paintings. Each responds to a work in the Getty's collection: Orazio Gentileschi's Lot and His Daughters and Danaë and the Shower of Gold, and Artemisia Gentileschi's Lucretia. The Getty show is one of three running at once. The other two are at the California African American Museum and Art + Practice, and together they are Hodges's first solo museum presentations in his hometown. Hodges closes February 28, two weeks before the rest of the building.
On Tuesday, November 24, A Light in the Dark: Joseph Wright of Derby opens. It focuses on Wright's candlelit paintings and includes the Getty's recently rediscovered Two Boys with a Bladder. The featured works also include A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on the Orrery from 1766 and A Philosopher Shewing an Experiment on the Air Pump from 1769. It opens during Thanksgiving week, and the Center closes on Thanksgiving Day. The following Sunday, November 29, is the last day for Charles Ross: Spectrum 14.
December 15 Through January 3: The Fullest Stretch
The last major opening of this season is Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line, on Tuesday, December 15. It's the first public showing of Williams's archive at the Getty Research Institute. Through drawings, photographs and archival material, it examines his architecture for and with Black communities during an era of racialized exclusion. Named projects include the 28th Street YMCA, Second Baptist Church, the original Angelus Funeral Home, and drawings of Williams's own home and office. The Getty is presenting it alongside coordinated shows at LACMA and the USC Fisher Museum of Art, and calls the three together the first major museum retrospectives of Williams's work.
For three weeks after December 15, eight shows run at once. That includes all three of the season's new shows, plus Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles and Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography, which both close Sunday, January 3. The Holy Family at Home stays one more week, through January 10.
Holidays shorten this window. The Center is closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, both Fridays this season, and it closes early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. That leaves three Saturdays in the window, December 19, December 26 and January 2, and each runs until 9 p.m.
January to March 14: A Shorter List
After January 10, five shows remain, and on February 28 Hodges closes too. The last two weeks have four: Wright of Derby, Paul R. Williams, Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of Mai and 18th-Century Portraiture, and The Making of a Medieval Manuscript. All four close Sunday, March 14, 2027. The Getty's April announcement promises a full program of exhibitions and events at the Center through spring 2027. Some of the work already underway closes galleries before the shutdown, as the pavilion closures show, so it's worth checking the exhibition page before a late visit.
Booking and Parking Details
Admission is still free, but it requires a timed-entry reservation. Reservations open daily up to six weeks ahead, so dates around December 15 should become available in early November.
- Hours: 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, closed Monday.
- Parking: $25 per car or motorcycle, $15 after 3 p.m., $10 after 6 p.m.
- Saturday evenings: parking after 6 p.m. is free, and the galleries stay open three more hours.
For someone who lives nearby, a Saturday after 6 p.m. is the cheapest visit on the schedule. It's also the easiest way to see one show without committing to a whole day.
What Stays Open During the Closure
The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades stays open throughout, with a full schedule of exhibitions and programs. It will also have a new gallery of paintings brought over from the Center. Artforum reported that works by Degas, Monet, Rembrandt, Rubens and van Gogh will be among them. The Getty also bought a building just across the freeway on Sepulveda Boulevard for family festivals, lectures and other public programs during the closure. It plans to keep that space as a program venue after the Center reopens. Brentwood News reported the same plans for the Villa and the Sepulveda venue.
When the Center reopens in spring 2028, visitors will arrive through a new Gehry-designed tram station with a renovated Welcome Hall at the top, and a new café and bookstore inside.
For more than a year, the hilltop above Sepulveda will be closed to Brentwood neighbors. At Pence Hathorn Silver, we track the openings, closings and long projects that shape daily life on the Westside. If you'd like to talk through how the Getty's closure or any other local change affects your plans, we'd be glad to schedule a free consultation.
