Must-have item for a trip in USA.
T.J. Eom, Sogang University
When – 19 Jan, 2018 to 12 Feb 2018
While I was looking for a trip to the West of the United States, I bought an ISEC student ID card because it was accepted in many attractions around U.S.
# The Broad
You have to make a reservation in advance if you want to get in quickly. If you don't make a reservation, you'll have to wait for a long time. So, I waited 30 minutes before the opening and that was good choice. The Walt Disney Concert Hall next to The Broad looks great, so I recommend you take a picture. https://www.thebroad.org/visit.
The Broad Museum was close to the Civic Center and Grand Park stations that overlaped the red and purple of Metro.
It was a huge modern art museum, and it had many famous artists such as Roy Fox Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Most importantly, the admission was free!
# The Broad
General admission to The Broad is free and includes to the third floor galleries, which display a robust and changing selection of artworks from the Broad collection, and to the exhibition, A Journey That Wasn't, which examines the passage of time and features the return of the beloved video installation, The Visitors, by Ragnar Kjartansson.
# MOCA
MOCA (Museum of Comtemporary Art, Los Angeles)
MOCA is located very close to The Broad as mentioned above. As far as I remember, the entrance fee was 15 dollars, but if you have ISEC student card, you can get a discount of 5 dollars. Also, if you show tap card, which is a subway card, you can get an additional 2 dollars discount, so please show tap card.
Actually, in February, when I went there, the art museum was under construction, so I didn't see many works. But the construction will be completed in early March, so I recommend you to go. You need to issue a ticket at the box office in the attached photo and go down the road around the wall right behind it. And I recommend you stop by Grand Park after visiting the two nearby museums.
# LACMA (Los
Angeles County Museum of Art)
Actually, I've never been to the L.A. County Museum due to a matter of time, but I've heard that it also has a great collection of works. Also, the Urban Light next to the museum is very famous, so you can go and take pictures. When it gets dark, the street lights turn on, and it's really cool.
# Norton Simon Museum
It was really nice. I'm not very well versed in modern art, so I couldn't understand some of the works in the road and Moca. You can't even see the explanation of all the works. The Norton Simon Museum, by the way, had a large collection of works from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. So I didn't need to interpret it that much.
I was also excited to see the works of great artists such as Rembrandt, Degas, Picasso, Gogh, Kandinsky, and Matisse.
Outdoor sculptures of Rodin are on display. There are many things to see, so I recommend you to go. You can go there from the Memorial Park station using the metro gold line. Before you go to the art museum, I recommend you to visit Pasadena City Hall because it's right near the station. Of course, you can get a discount with your ISEC student ID card. I don't remember how much it was.
# Huntington Library
I thought it would be a library because it was called Huntington Library, but what size is it as big as Seoul National University? It wasn't a library. In the museum , there were several buildings that collected American works and European works.
And there was a museum which had many ancient books such as the Gutenberg Bible, Lincoln letters and books of Galileo. It was my first time seeing such great ancient books, so my heart was pounding.
Also, there were more than 10 gardens, including Japanese gardens, Chinese gardens, desert gardens, and tropical gardens, each of which was enormous. If you want to see all of them, you can come in at 10 a.m. and come out at 5 p.m., but you can't. As there are so many things to see, I recommend you to come early to see.
So, the admission fee was quite expensive, probably $25 or $30 and you can save $3.5 if you have ISEC card. It's not expensive at all because it is great place to spend the whole day here. It's far from the subway station, so I recommend you get off at the subway station and take a taxi or Uber.
# Huntington Library admission Fees
Adults: $25.00(Mon-Fri) | $29(Sat-Sun)
Students: $21.00(Mon-Fri) | $24(Sat-Sun)
Travel tips and recommendations
It is true that public transportation in LA is less developed than in Seoul and New York, but there are quite a few places to go by subway. I recommend you to use public transportation because you can travel to many good places such as Santa Monica Beach, Hollywood, downtown L.A., and universities located in L.A. Use Uber for places that are hard to get by public transportation.
To use public transportation, you need a tap card, and you can get it next to the subway. It's $1.75 at a time.And when you get off, there will be extra charge if you don't stamp your card. Buy a daily pass if you think you'll move a lot.
The sun goes down very fast and it gets dark before 6 pm.
There weren't many museums than New York, but I'm very satisfied with the size and work of the museums I visited in LA!
I hope you bring ISEC student ID which works as a passport in many places around the west of the U.S. even if you are not interested in saving the admission fee of the museums.
Because there is a big risk to carry a passport all the time.