FREE FOR GOOD! Westwood Village
The Hammer Museum champions the art and artists who challenge us to see the world in a new light, to experience the unexpected, to ignite our imaginations, and inspire change.
The Hammer understands that art not only has the power to transport us through aesthetic experience but can also provide significant insight into some of the most pressing cultural, political, and social questions of our time. We share the unique and invaluable perspectives that artists have on the world around us.
A vibrant intellectual and creative nexus, the Hammer is fueled by dynamic exhibitions and programs—including lectures, symposia, film series, readings, and musical performances—that spark meaningful encounters with art and ideas.
And through our unwavering commitment to free admission and free public programs, the Hammer is open for all and FREE FOR GOOD.
A BIGGER, BETTER HAMMER MUSEUM
If oil magnate Armand Hammer were alive today, he might marvel that the museum he launched in Westwood before his death in 1990 has evolved into one of the most forward-focused art institutions in Los Angeles. After all, the museum was originally designed to house his fine collection of old-master paintings and drawings, as well as works on paper by Honoré Daumier and his 19th-century contemporaries.
But in the ensuing decades, as the art world has continued to evolve, so has Los Angeles — and so has the Hammer Museum, which is now a part of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. In 1994, UCLA assumed management and operations of the museum, and the Hammer kept its original purpose but also expanded its mission. Today, the Hammer has a wide reputation for innovation and for showcasing new artists.
“L.A. has become a hotbed of contemporary art and artists,” says Ann Philbin, the museum’s director since 1999, “and the Hammer has become a premier institution where they are shown.”
Under Philbin’s leadership, the museum has expanded its collections and programs, including establishing the Hammer Projects series of exhibitions and installations featuring local, national and international emerging artists. It also launched the Made in L.A. biennial, now in its fourth edition. Through these and other innovations, the Hammer has quadrupled its attendance to about 250,000 a year.
Meanwhile, Occidental Petroleum, which occupied the adjoining building, relocated to Houston, Texas. So the Hammer has begun a major, multiyear expansion that will take the museum far into the 21st century.
Earlier this year, the Hammer announced a $180 million capital campaign. Almost half of those funds will be used to expand gallery and other public spaces, while the rest will go toward exhibitions, programming and an endowment. The museum has already raised more than $130 million, including $30 million from L.A. philanthropists Lynda and Stewart ’59, J.D. ’62 Resnick and $20 million from Hammer board chair Marcy Carsey.
The renovations and additions being designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture, who was commissioned in 2000 to create the museum’s 2003 master plan, include:
• A newly designed entrance at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards to maximize the museum’s visual presence at one of the nation’s busiest intersections. In the coming years, the museum will also benefit from a planned Metro Purple Line station across Wilshire.
• More than 10,000 square feet of additional exhibition space for contemporary art.
• New permanent collection galleries and a study room for the Grunwald Center Collection.
• 20,000 square feet of enhanced public spaces, including a new restaurant.
• A new and more accessible Hammer Store.
In all, the expansion will provide 60 percent more gallery space for exhibitions. The museum will remain open during construction, and admission will continue to be free. “We’re accessible to everyone, and that keeps people coming back,” Philbin says. “L.A. has been growing as one of the world’s most exciting cultural creative communities, and the museum has grown alongside it.”
HISTORY OF THE HAMMER MUSEUM
The Hammer Museum opened to the public in November 1990. Founded by Dr. Armand Hammer, former Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the Museum was designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. Financed by Occidental, the Museum was built adjacent to the Corporation’s international headquarters in Westwood. At that time, the Museum featured galleries for Dr. Hammer’s collections — old master paintings and drawings, and a collection of works on paper by Honore Daumier and his contemporaries — as well as galleries for traveling exhibitions. Dr. Hammer passed away in December 1990, three weeks after the opening of the Museum leaving many spaces unfinished.
In 1992, the Museum began negotiations with its neighbor, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to assume the management and operations of the institution. In April 1994, the partnership with UCLA was finalized and the following year the University relocated its collections and the staff of the Wight Art Gallery and the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts to the Hammer. The Museum also assumed responsibility for the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, located at the north end of the UCLA campus.
Henry Hopkins, then director of the Wight gallery and professor in the Department of Art, became director of the Museum until his retirement in 1998. In 1999 Ann Philbin was named director and has developed a strong and original institutional identity and built a national and international reputation for thematic contemporary exhibitions, scholarly historical exhibitions, and contemporary artists’ projects. During her tenure the Hammer has formed a Hammer Contemporary Collection which now holds over 2,000 artworks. In addition, Philbin has overseen substantial renovations to the museum’s building, including the completion of the 300-seat Billy Wilder Theater and museum café. With Philbin’s direction, the museum instituted the internationally acclaimed Hammer Projects, a series of more than one hundred contemporary exhibitions and installations featuring local, national, and international emerging artists. Philbin also created a series of dynamic public programs which are core to the Hammer’s identity and regularly feature many of the most influential authors, artists, and creative thinkers of our time.
Hours
The museum is open every day, except Mondays, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.
Monday: Closed
Tuesday – Friday: 11:00 a.m.-8:00p.m.
Saturday & Sunday: 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Admission to all exhibitions and public programs is free and open to the public. Free admission to the Hammer Museum is made possible through the generosity of Erika J Glazer and Brenda R. Potter.
For additional information, visit the website @
hammer.ucla.edu
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