Sculpture Garden Near Me in Brentwood: The Getty's Stark Collection Before 2027

The Getty Center is free to enter with a timed reservation, sits on a hilltop at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Brentwood, and hides one of the best outdoor sculpture collections in Los Angeles across its travertine terraces: 28 modern works given by Hollywood producer Ray Stark and his wife Fran. If you searched for a sculpture garden near me on the Westside, plan it now. Getty has announced the whole Center will close to the public from March 15, 2027, with reopening planned for spring 2028.

Ray Stark, the Hollywood producer, died in January 2004, twelve years after Fran. Their collection of 28 modern and contemporary outdoor sculptures went to the J. Paul Getty Museum, a gift reported in May 2005, and by June 2007 the pieces had been placed among the Center's gardens and terraces. It instantly turned a campus known for paintings and manuscripts into a place where you can walk outdoors from Henry Moore to Joan Miró.

The setting does half the work. Richard Meier's campus opened on December 16, 1997, after construction began in 1987 on a 110-acre hilltop in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is clad in 1.2 million square feet of travertine, 16,000 tons quarried at Bagni di Tivoli, 15 miles east of Rome. Look closely at the stone and you will find fossilized leaves, feathers and branches.

Getty splits the collection between two spots. The Fran and Ray Stark Sculpture Terrace sits beside the Museum's West Pavilion and focuses on the shift toward abstraction, with Barbara Hepworth's Figure for Landscape, Henry Moore's Seated Woman and work by René Magritte. The Lower Terrace Sculpture Garden lies west of the Central Garden and overlooks the city, with pieces by Miró and Alexander Calder.

That lower garden is where to slow down. It holds Mark di Suvero's Gandydancer's Dream and George Rickey's Three Squares Gyratory, a kinetic piece whose steel squares turn in the wind, so a breezy afternoon is the best time to watch it move. Elsewhere on the South Terrace you will find Saul Baizerman's Night and Giacomo Manzù's Seated Cardinal.

Several of the best pieces are not part of the Stark gift at all. Aristide Maillol's Air reclines on the Museum's grand staircase, so you pass it on the way in. Alberto Giacometti's Standing Woman I waits in the Museum Entrance Hall, and Ellsworth Kelly's Untitled stands at the southern end of the Museum Courtyard. Martin Puryear's That Profile was already on the hill before the Stark works arrived.

Over at the Getty Research Institute plaza there are pieces by Jack Zajac and Roy Lichtenstein, which most visitors miss because the building sits away from the Museum. A full loop of the outdoor works, without going inside the galleries, takes about an hour at an easy pace.

Robert Irwin, the California artist commissioned in 1992, built the 134,000-square-foot Central Garden as a sculpture you walk through. A stream runs through it and over a stone waterfall into a pool holding a maze of azaleas, with more than 500 plant varieties around it. Getty registers it as the largest artwork in the Museum's collection. Carved into a stepping stone is Irwin's line, "Always changing, never twice the same."

Free 45-minute garden tours leave daily from the green sign to the left of the Museum entrance, first come, first served, with room for 25. Weekday tours start at 11 am, noon, 1 pm and 2 pm, and Saturdays add slots through 5 pm. A free 45-minute architecture tour leaves from the Museum Courtyard, and the GettyGuide app has a self-guided garden tour.

Bring your own lunch if you like. Getty allows outside food and non-alcoholic drinks, and picnics are welcome on the lawn next to the Central Garden, on the terrace outside the Garden Terrace Cafe, and at the tables by the Lower Tram Station. No alcohol, glass or metal cutlery. Food stays out of the galleries, except baby bottles, and bags larger than 11 by 17 by 8 inches go to Coat Check.

Phones and handheld cameras are fine outdoors and in the permanent galleries, with natural light only and no tripods. Selfie sticks are allowed outdoors only. Professional shoots, including weddings, engagements and modeling, are banned, and so are drones. Pets are not allowed on the grounds or in the garage, though service animals are, and smoking is not allowed anywhere.

The Center opens Tuesday to Friday and Sunday from 10 am to 6:30 pm, and Saturday from 10 am to 9 pm. It is closed Mondays, and on New Year's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The smartest slot is Saturday after 6 pm, when parking is free and the travertine glows at sunset. On a weekday, arrive for the 10 am opening and walk the terraces before school groups fill them.

Skip the indoor plan if you came only for sculpture this autumn: the South Pavilion, the North Pavilion galleries and the plaza-level galleries of the East Pavilion are closed for renovation. Every visitor over age two needs a timed reservation, up to six per booking, and same-day slots are sometimes available.

There is one public entrance, at North Sepulveda Boulevard and Getty Center Drive, and no street parking nearby. The garage costs $25 per car or motorcycle, $15 after 3 pm and $10 after 6 pm, and it is free on Saturdays after 6 pm. Payment is cashless and parking cannot be reserved. Cyclists park free, and active and veteran US military members park free through Veterans Day, November 11, 2026.

Metro bus 761 stops at Getty Center Drive and Sepulveda Boulevard. From the Lower Tram Station, a computer-operated tram climbs the hill in about five minutes. Free standard strollers and wheelchairs are lent at the Lower Tram Station and at Coat Check, first come, first served.

Address: Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049. Admission is free with a timed-entry booking. Hours are Tuesday to Friday and Sunday 10 am to 6:30 pm, Saturday 10 am to 9 pm, closed Mondays. Parking is $25, or $15 after 3 pm. The current show, Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography, runs through January 3, 2027. The Center closes on March 15, 2027.