One of the things I love about social media is learning about different activities our family can do together. My network of family, friends, and mom bloggers leaves me with lots of ideas and options to keep my kids busy. One of the recent posts I've seen on a few feeds is The Broad museum in Los Angeles.
The colorful, eye-catching pieces of art was something I knew my boys would enjoy, as well as giving us a chance to engage in conversation about different kinds of art and art expression.
Here are some tips to make the most of your visit to The Broad:
1) Plan Ahead
Although The Broad has free admission, a visit during peak times of the year can find you waiting in a line to get into the museum. We didn't plan well and waited about an hour in line. Advanced ticketing can be done online. Reserve your tickets at least a 90 days in advanced to get your desired day and time to visit.
2) What to Eat?
The curb right in front of The Broad has at least half a dozen food trucks to satisfy your hunger. There is a nice grassy area adjacent to the museum with places to sit and enjoy your lunch.
3) Special Exhibits
During our visit, we had hopes to see Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room but we didn't reserve our tickets in time to do so and the stand-by tickets were too late into the afternoon for our day trip to LA. Be advised, advanced ticketing for entry to the museum is separate from the tickets for entry into special exhibits. Tickets for entry to the special exhibits can be done online or stand-by tickets are available first-come, first-served each day at the museum.
4) Bring your smartphone and headphones
There are audio tours for adults and kids that you can access from your smartphone. I saw a few kids with their headphones on listening as they were intently enjoying the art.We didn't plan well and didn't have our headphones ready.
5) Visiting with kids? Pay attention to the "explicit" signs on the wall.
There are a few graphic pieces of art that portray violence or exhibit sexual content. I am pretty open with my kids when it comes to topics like this but once we entered the "explicit" areas, I knew my kids were going to have questions to the images they saw that I wasn't ready to answer. I would recommend going into the "explicit" exhibits first to decide whether on not it's OK for your kids to view.
Visit www.thebroad.org/ for more information. Our family enjoyed our visit to The Broad and hope your family will also!
The colorful, eye-catching pieces of art was something I knew my boys would enjoy, as well as giving us a chance to engage in conversation about different kinds of art and art expression.
Here are some tips to make the most of your visit to The Broad:
1) Plan Ahead
Although The Broad has free admission, a visit during peak times of the year can find you waiting in a line to get into the museum. We didn't plan well and waited about an hour in line. Advanced ticketing can be done online. Reserve your tickets at least a 90 days in advanced to get your desired day and time to visit.
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| Jelo killing time while we waited to enter. We waited about 45 minutes. |
The curb right in front of The Broad has at least half a dozen food trucks to satisfy your hunger. There is a nice grassy area adjacent to the museum with places to sit and enjoy your lunch.
 |
| A row of food trucks right outside The Broad |
During our visit, we had hopes to see Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room but we didn't reserve our tickets in time to do so and the stand-by tickets were too late into the afternoon for our day trip to LA. Be advised, advanced ticketing for entry to the museum is separate from the tickets for entry into special exhibits. Tickets for entry to the special exhibits can be done online or stand-by tickets are available first-come, first-served each day at the museum.
4) Bring your smartphone and headphones
There are audio tours for adults and kids that you can access from your smartphone. I saw a few kids with their headphones on listening as they were intently enjoying the art.We didn't plan well and didn't have our headphones ready.
5) Visiting with kids? Pay attention to the "explicit" signs on the wall.
There are a few graphic pieces of art that portray violence or exhibit sexual content. I am pretty open with my kids when it comes to topics like this but once we entered the "explicit" areas, I knew my kids were going to have questions to the images they saw that I wasn't ready to answer. I would recommend going into the "explicit" exhibits first to decide whether on not it's OK for your kids to view.
We had lots of great conversation in the car on the way home about the pieces of art we saw.
Here are some questions to guide the conversation:
1) What was your favorite piece of art? What about it did you like?
2) Any of the art remind you of something you have experienced or seen before?
3) Which of the art did you not like? Why?
4) Why do you think the artist used paint/photos/cutouts/glass? Would you add anything?
5) Why do you think the artist created that piece of art?