La Brea closes July

If you want to walk past a mastodon skeleton at La Brea Tar Pits, you now have a deadline: the George C. Page Museum says it closes July 7, 2026, for a two-year renovation, and its ticketing page is already warning that dates after June are not on sale. (tarpits.org) (nhm.org) This is the first major renovation of the Page Museum since it opened in 1977, which means Los Angeles is about to put one of its best-known fossil museums under construction for the first time in nearly 50 years. (latimes.com) (beverlypress.com) The museum building will close, but the tar pits and Hancock Park are expected to stay open, so visitors will still be able to see the asphalt seeps and the outdoor excavation area even while the main galleries are dark. (nbclosangeles.com) (tarpits.org) La Brea is not a normal museum built around objects shipped in from somewhere else. The fossils are coming out of the ground on the same 13-acre campus, and the site says more than 100 excavations have been made there since the early 1900s. (tarpits.org) That is why the renovation is aimed at the whole visitor setup, not just paint and carpet. Reports say the work is meant to modernize the building and improve accessibility before Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. (latimes.com) (cbsnews.com) The timing matters because La Brea is not the only Los Angeles museum trying to get ready before the Games. Getty says the Getty Center will also close, starting March 15, 2027, with reopening planned for spring 2028 after what it calls its biggest modernization since the campus opened in 1997. (getty.edu 1) (getty.edu 2) Getty’s project is focused on the arrival experience: the tram, Welcome Hall, galleries, accessibility upgrades, and energy resilience, while the Getty Villa in Malibu will stay open and carry extra programming during the closure. (getty.edu) (foxla.com) Put those two closures together and Los Angeles is effectively rebuilding parts of its cultural front door before 2028. One museum is centered on Ice Age fossils bubbling up through asphalt on Wilshire Boulevard, and the other is a hilltop art complex that normally draws more than a million visitors a year. (tarpits.org) (nationaltoday.com) For locals, the practical part is simple: La Brea’s indoor museum is on the clock now, the last normal summer visit is this one, and the full experience is not expected back until 2028. (tarpits.org) (nbcsandiego.com)