1984

JOANNE HEYLER

Founding Director, The Broad

THE BROAD ART FOUNDATION

At the core of any great art museum is a great collection. The Broad museum’s collection story starts a bit unusually. Over thirty-five years ago, Eli and Edye Broad established The Broad Art Foundation in order to build a contemporary art collection to share with the world. Through the Broads’ public-spirited vision, the Foundation became known not just for the remarkable span and depth of its holdings but also for lending artworks generously: more than 8,500 loans to more than 500 institutions around the world. It wasn’t until 2015 that we reached the milestone of opening the museum, the Foundation’s new home, which helped us expand, dramatically, the public’s access to our growing trove of contemporary art.

But the museum—with its unique and now-famous white honeycomb “veil” facing Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles—was not just an exercise in striking architecture. The designers of Diller Scofidio + Renfro were inspired by the long history of the Broads’ art collecting and their sustained focus on sharing with the public their long-term support for so many artists. Diller Scofidio + Renfro made sure that key components of that history were expressed through its building design.

What do I mean by that? For one thing, the architects organized and engineered the entire building around the “vault”—a dramatic, massive sculptural structure cantilevered within the perforated white veil—that holds much of The Broad Art Foundation’s remarkable repository of artworks. Concealed within the vault’s opaque form, works are stored and maintained until curators install them in the galleries. Like a greenroom for art, the vault’s stars quietly await their moments on the museum’s public stage.

The vault is a constant presence. Gaze upward while in the lobby and you see its grey volume hovering above. Ascend the escalator or elevator and you tunnel through it. Take in the spectacular, skylit galleries on the top floor and you simultaneously—if unknowingly—walk on top of it. It is the literal core of the building, ever present yet mysterious.

At two unexpected moments, however, that mystery is lifted. Inside The Broad’s curved public stairwell, where many visitors circulate from the top-floor galleries back to the museum lobby, people cluster around two large plate-glass windows along the way. The attraction is the deep vista offered of the treasure within the vault. Rack after rack of carefully stored paintings come into view. As I walk down the stairs, I overhear comments like “That’s what will be on view next,” or “Isn’t it amazing there’s so much more art in the collection?” I always smile, not only because we had hoped revealing what’s inside the vault would delight visitors, but also because sharing what’s normally inaccessible aligns with the ethos of the Broads’ philanthropy.

We selected the architectural vision of Diller Scofidio + Renfro in no small part because of that cantilevered vault at the heart of the building. It shows that the art foundation’s work is not only central to the museum, but also actually holds up the galleries. There’s a lovely poetry there.