Since it opened in 1966, LACMA has assembled a vast, encyclopedic collection of more than 150,000 works from around the world; its collection is widely considered the most comprehensive in the western United States. American, Latin American, Islamic, and South and Southeast Asian works are especially well represented. Other standout areas include costumes and textiles, decorative arts, European paintings and sculpture, photography, drawings, and prints. Architectural cohesiveness, on the other hand, is not LACMA's strong suit. The collections are spread through five disparate buildings on the main campus, plus another building two blocks away. Change, however, is on the horizon. LACMA hired museum-visionary Michael Govan as the new director, and construction continues on additions to connect the two structures and open new exhibit spaces, additional gardens, public spaces, and an underground parking facility due to open in late 2007.

Most of LACMA's buildings cluster around a courtyard. A museum equivalent of Art History 101, the Ahmanson building is the largest and most culturally diverse section of the complex. Its displays include ancient Mesoamerican artifacts, Chinese and Korean art, outstanding Islamic collections, and European painting and sculpture. There's also a stellar section on American art, stretching from the Federal-period landscape and genre paintings to frontier art to regional developments, such as California impressionism. Masterworks include George Bellows's Cliff Dwellers, Mary Cassatt's Mother About to Wash Her Sleepy Child, and Winslow Homer's The Cotton Pickers.

The Robert O. Anderson building covers 20th-century and contemporary art, where the European avant-garde (Picasso, Kandinsky, Magritte) meets American artists such as David Hockney and Ed Keinholz. Special exhibits are often mounted in the Hammer Building. The Pavilion for Japanese Art showcases Japanese drawings, paintings, textiles, and decorative arts; it's a particularly peaceful space, as it's mostly lit by natural light and a fountain on the ground floor fills the building with the sound of flowing water. The Bing Center holds a research library, resource center, and film theater.

A pleasant stroll down the adjacent grassy courtyard along Wilshire leads you to the LACMA West, a streamlined building built in 1939. Inside is the Bernard and Edith Lewin Latin American Art Galleries. The Lewins, who started their collection with three Diego Rivera paintings they bought in the 1950s, eventually amassed the largest private collection of Latin American art in the world. In 1999 the Lewins donated more than 2,000 artworks from their collection to LACMA. Heavy on Mexican modern masters (Rivera, Tamayo, Orozco, Siquieros), the Lewins' collection also includes the work of Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, Chilean artist Roberto Mata, Guatemalan artist Carlos Merida, and Uruguayan painter Pedro Figari. Though LACMA West is on a continuously changing exhibit schedule, moving out gallery regulars to make way for large temporary exhibits, the Boone's Children's Gallery always maintains its art-making mission through art classes, interactive displays, and brightly colored decor.

Temporary exhibits sometimes require tickets purchased in advance, so check the calendar ahead of time. Shows in 2008 include Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement, an extensive exhibit of cutting-edge Chicano art, April 6-July 6, and the William Randolph Hearst collection exhibit, which starts in November.