The Getty Center's closing date is March 15, 2027, but that isn't really when the museum ends. Galleries are already shut, and the exhibitions still running end on different dates through the winter. Every show left on the hill will be up at the same time only from December 15 to January 3. For anyone who lives below the tram in Brentwood, the Getty's last full season comes during the holidays.
The museum on the hill is already smaller
Getty announced the closure on April 9, 2026. It called the work its most significant modernization since the Center opened in 1997, with reopening planned for spring 2028. Part of that work isn't waiting for March. On Getty's Building Getty's Future page, the North Pavilion, the South Pavilion and the plaza-level galleries of the East Pavilion are listed as closed for renovation.
The reason is mostly mechanical. Getty is replacing 80 air-handling units across all the pavilions with more efficient electrical systems. Alongside that come gallery cleaning and refinishing, new restrooms, new wayfinding, and display changes for accessibility. So the Center open this month is already a shorter walk than the one most longtime visitors know. What's left is a set of exhibitions with very different end dates.
Eight shows, one overlap
These are the Getty Center exhibitions on Getty's current schedule that run into the final months, sorted by when they close.
| Exhibition | On view through |
|---|---|
| "Every minute is history": Five Views of Los Angeles | January 3, 2027 |
| Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography | January 3, 2027 |
| The Holy Family at Home | January 10, 2027 |
| Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions | February 28, 2027 |
| Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of Mai and 18th-Century Portraiture | March 14, 2027 |
| The Making of a Medieval Manuscript | March 14, 2027 |
| A Light in the Dark: Joseph Wright of Derby | Opens November 24, 2026; through March 14, 2027 |
| Paul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line | Opens December 15, 2026; through March 14, 2027 |
The last two rows set the window. The Paul R. Williams exhibition is the final opening before the closure, on December 15. The two Los Angeles-focused photography shows close on January 3. Between those dates all eight are on view together. After January 3 the count drops to six, after January 10 to five, and after February 28 to four.
The two late openings are the strongest reasons to go this winter. The Williams show marks the public debut of the archive of the first Black architect licensed in the western United States. It looks at his work building for and with Black communities across Los Angeles. The Wright of Derby show brings back together several of the 1760s London paintings that made his name for capturing light breaking through darkness. Among them is the Getty's recently rediscovered Two Boys with a Bladder.
Sixteen open days, counted
The window from December 15 through January 3 is 20 calendar days, and the Getty isn't open on all of them. The Center is closed every Monday, which takes out December 21 and December 28. It's also closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and it closes early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. That leaves 16 open days, and two of them are short.
Three of those days are Saturdays: December 19, December 26 and January 2. Saturday is the Center's late night. Hours run 10am to 9pm, compared with 10am to 6:30pm Tuesday through Friday and on Sunday. Admission is free with a timed-entry reservation. Parking costs $25 per car, $15 after 3pm and $10 after 6pm. On Saturdays it's free after 6pm. So a Saturday visit timed for the evening costs nothing at all and leaves three hours with every remaining show on the hill.
On a weekday visit, an early lunch on San Vicente can come before the drive up Sepulveda. The Palisadian-Post reported that Flour Pizzeria & Cafe would open a Brentwood location at 11684 San Vicente Blvd. in February 2025, after its Via de la Paz location in Pacific Palisades was lost in the fire. Next door at 11686 San Vicente Blvd. is Burger She Wrote, which Westside Current reported as the brand's first Westside restaurant.
The evenings before the overlap
The weeks before December 15 aren't a waiting room. The Getty's events calendar packs its public programs into November and early December:
- Saturday, November 14: "Canto de Todes," a performance and conversation with Dorian Wood at 6:30pm. A listening experience runs in the Central Garden from 10am to 6pm the same day, weather permitting.
- Sunday, November 15: "Oaxacan Recipes and Remembrance with Bricia Lopez."
- Thursday, November 19: "Sacred Heritage in the Andes: Conserving the Baroque Church of Rondocan."
- Sunday, November 22: "Getty Supper Club: La Belle Époque." The bilingual "Images and Imagination" collage workshop and the "Artist-at-Work: Serigraphy" demonstration run the same day, and again on December 13.
- Saturday, December 5: "Drawing in the Dark," 5pm to 9pm, with "Artist-at-Work: Light and Shadow" the same day.
- Sunday, December 6: "Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter and Draftsman."
- Saturday, December 12: "Non-Consenting Collaborators with Gala Porras Kim."
Several of these programs tie straight into the late openings. "Drawing in the Dark" and "Light and Shadow" fall less than two weeks after the Wright of Derby show opens on November 24, and the December 6 program is about Wright himself. If you see the paintings in late November and come back for the December programs, you'll understand the show better before the holiday crowds arrive. Thanksgiving Day, November 26, is one of the Center's annual closures.
January through March 14, a narrower museum
After January 10 the Center gets thinner fast. Reggie Burrows Hodges stays through February 28. That leaves four exhibitions for the last two weeks: Portrait of Mai, The Making of a Medieval Manuscript, Joseph Wright of Derby and Paul R. Williams. All four close March 14, 2027, a Sunday and the Center's final public day before the doors close on the 15th. For anyone saving the Williams show for a quiet weekday, the late-winter stretch has fewer shows competing for the afternoon. It also has neither of the two photography shows to pair it with.
Where the Getty goes for a year
Getty says the Getty Villa at 17985 Pacific Coast Highway will stay open throughout, with exhibitions, public programs and a new gallery showing a selection of paintings from the Center's collection. Admission at the Villa is also free with a timed-entry reservation.
Closer to Brentwood, Westside Current reports that Getty will open a programming space on Sepulveda Boulevard, in a building across from the Center. It will host special programs during the closure and stay a dedicated program space after the Center reopens. The same report says Getty has bought a property in Westwood near the planned Metro stop at Westwood and Wilshire, as long-term housing for its scholar programs. It also quotes Getty president and CEO Katherine E. Fleming as expecting to welcome visitors back in spring 2028, "in time for the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles."
The Center that reopens will greet visitors differently. Getty's May 28, 2026 release names the firms involved. Gehry Partners is designing the arrival experience, OLIN the landscape, and WHY Architecture the Welcome Hall. Doppelmayr is building a replacement tram with greater capacity. The plans include upgrades to the Lower Tram arrival area, a sheltered stairway, relocated outdoor sculpture, new contemporary art commissions, a garden café, and a Welcome Hall with an expanded bookstore and a full-service café. Getty also says the work will improve cell phone and Wi-Fi service across the campus.
For Brentwood owners weighing a sale or a purchase in the months before the Getty Center reopens, The Go Group follows these neighborhood timelines closely and puts that knowledge into every strategy we build. Schedule a Confidential Consultation.
