When did you last go up the hill after dark? For most of the year, the Getty Center is somewhere you visit in the morning. You arrive with the light still soft on the travertine and leave by early afternoon. That changes this winter. The Center closes to the public on March 15, 2027, and won't reopen until spring 2028. Over its last four months, the hours, the parking fees and the program all point to the same time slot: Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m.
A Smaller Museum Than the One You Remember
The closure has already started. The Getty describes the work as a first phase, and it includes replacing 80 air handling units across the pavilions, repainting and refinishing galleries, and building new restrooms. Part of the campus has already closed to make room for it. According to the Getty's renovation page, these areas are currently closed:
- North Pavilion
- South Pavilion
- East Pavilion, plaza-level galleries
This winter's exhibitions fill the spaces that are still open: the West Pavilion on its lower and plaza levels, the upper level of the East Pavilion, and the Research Institute Galleries. A complete loop of what's on view is shorter than it used to be. That suits an evening visit. Three hours is enough to see everything without rushing, and a Saturday evening gives you exactly three hours.
The Show That Wants the Lights Low
The exhibition that ties the season together opens Tuesday, November 24. A Light in the Dark: Joseph Wright of Derby fills the West Pavilion plaza level through March 14, 2027, the last day before the closure. In the 1760s, Wright showed a series of paintings in London that made a provincial artist famous across Britain. The Getty's exhibition page credits his reputation to "his astonishing ability to capture the magic of light piercing the dark." The show brings several of those paintings back together, including Two Boys with a Bladder, a work the Getty owns and recently rediscovered. The exhibition page also features A Philosopher Giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in Which a Lamp is put in the Place of the Sun, painted in 1766 and lent by Derby Museums. The wall text is in both English and Spanish.
These paintings are about a single light source in a dark room. A Saturday visit lets you walk out of them onto a dark plaza, with the city lit up below the hill. The season's main family event is built around the same idea. Drawing in the Dark runs Saturday, December 5, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Museum Entrance. Costumed models pose under dramatic lighting inspired by Wright, and visitors of any age or skill level can drop in and draw them. The event is free and needs no event ticket, though the general timed-entry reservation still applies. The next afternoon, Sunday, December 6, a free talk on Wright starts at 4 p.m.
What Saturday Costs Compared With Every Other Day
Admission is always free with a timed-entry reservation, and reservations open six weeks ahead. The real cost is parking, and the price falls as the day goes on.
When you park | Fee |
|---|---|
Any day, before 3 p.m. | $25 |
Any day, after 3 p.m. | $15 |
Sunday through Friday, after 6 p.m. | $10 |
Saturday, after 6 p.m. | Free |
The Center is open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and on Sunday, closed Monday, and open until 9 p.m. on Saturday. The $10 evening rate looks like the bargain on paper, but on a weekday it gets you less than half an hour before closing. Saturday is the only evening with free parking and a museum still open behind you. Parking is cashless, so bring a card.
Sixteen Saturday Nights, and Which Ones Count Most
The Wright of Derby show is up for sixteen Saturdays, from November 28 to March 13. Those Saturdays aren't equally useful, because the other exhibitions close on a staggered schedule and three of them leave in the first ten days of January.
Date | What happens |
|---|---|
Sat, Nov 7 | When the Holy Family Went Viral, free talk, event ticket required |
Sat, Nov 14 | Dorian Wood, Canto de Todes, free performance and conversation |
Tue, Nov 24 | A Light in the Dark: Joseph Wright of Derby opens |
Thu, Nov 26 | Closed for Thanksgiving Day |
Sat, Dec 5 | Drawing in the Dark, 5 to 9 p.m. |
Tue, Dec 15 | Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line opens |
Sun, Jan 3 | Last day for Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography and Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles |
Sun, Jan 10 | Last day for The Holy Family at Home |
Sun, Feb 28 | Last day for Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions |
Sun, Mar 14 | Last day for Wright of Derby, Paul R. Williams, The Making of a Medieval Manuscript and Reynolds's Portrait of Mai. The Center closes the next day. |
From December 15 through January 2, all eight exhibitions in the table are open at the same time. No other stretch this season shows that much at once. Three Saturdays fall inside that window: December 19, December 26 and January 2. The holidays don't take any of them. Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day are full closures and Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve close early, but none of those dates is a Saturday this season.
If you're building one evening around that window, here is an order that works:
- Book a timed entry for late Saturday afternoon, then park after 6 p.m. so it's free.
- Start in the West Pavilion plaza level with Wright of Derby, while the windows outside are as dark as the paintings.
- Go downstairs to the West Pavilion lower level for the Mexican photography and the five views of Los Angeles before they close on January 3.
- Cross to the Research Institute Galleries for Paul R. Williams, then finish on the East Pavilion upper level with Reggie Burrows Hodges.
The Central Garden still appears in the Getty's visitor guide with its paths and tours, and the tram still runs between the lower and upper stations. Both are part of the upgrade plan for the closure year. The plan includes changes to the tram system and a redesigned arrival experience, so the trip up the hill in 2028 may not look like the one you know now.
After Nine on San Vicente
A 9 p.m. closing used to leave few dinner options nearby. San Vicente now has one more. Burger She Wrote opened its first Westside location on October 3 at 11686 San Vicente Blvd. Westside Current describes a 25-seat shop that stays open until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, or 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. On a Saturday, that leaves two hours after the galleries close, which is enough for the drive down to San Vicente and a meal at the end of the evening.
March 15 and the Building Across Sepulveda
When the Center closes, it won't disappear from the area entirely. As the Los Angeles Daily News reported, the Getty plans to hold special programs during the closure in a space on Sepulveda Boulevard across from the Center, and the Getty Villa will stay open. The Getty says the building is being renovated now and will stay a program space after the Center reopens. It hasn't announced an address or an opening date. The reopened Center is also planned with a renovated Welcome Hall, a new café bookstore, an updated main café, and better cell service and Wi-Fi across the campus.
Until then, the hilltop campus offers one more winter of Saturday evenings, with the Wright of Derby paintings on view through the last weekend before the doors close on March 15.
Wright built his reputation on what a single, well-placed light does to a room, and the same principle shapes how a home photographs at dusk. If you're thinking about how your own property would read in evening light, or what it might be worth this season, Andrea Alberts would be glad to talk it through. Get My Valuation.