CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/20/2023

Museum Store of the Month: The Broad

"The public needs art," Keith Haring wrote in his journals, "and it is the responsibility of a 'self-proclaimed artist' to realize the public needs art, and not to make bourgeois art for the few and ignore the masses. Art is for everybody." This is precisely the point of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody, the critically-acclaimed exhibition on view now at The Broad. And it's the same philosophy that visitors will encounter in the museum's super-fun, super-accessible, super-smart Haring-centric store, The Shop at The Broad.

A feast for the eyes and the mind, The Shop at The Broad is a Los Angeles cultural destination and a shrine to gorgeous books and cool merch year round. But let's face it, this month—and all the way through October 2023—The Shop at The Broad is especially hot as it channels Haring's influential for-the-people Downtown NYC boutique, the Pop Shop.

It would be hard to have more fun at such a serious and major survey, which brings a bright, joyful Pop sensibility to some of the most important issues of the artist's time, from the crack epidemic to racial equality, gay rights and the AIDS epidemic. And The Shop at The Broad does not disappoint when it comes to matching the artist's openness and energy.

Not only does The Shop have stacks of the gorgeous new exhibition catalog co-published with DelMonico Books, but it's surrounded by related editions by Keith Haring and friends from the 80s artworld.

Books on Jean-Michel Basquiat, the infamous East Village nightclub Club 57 and many others create a smart, festive atmosphere for lovers of Pop art, Keith Haring, graffiti art and the Downtown NYC scene.

The truth is, art really is for everybody.

"Here’s the philosophy behind the Pop Shop," Haring wrote: "I wanted to continue this same sort of communication as with the subway drawings. I wanted to attract the same wide range of people, and I wanted it to be a place where, yes, not only collectors could come, but also kids from the Bronx. The main point was that we didn’t want to produce things that would cheapen the art. In other words, this was still an art statement." At The Shop at The Broad, visitors can shop high-end items like a Keith Haring Eames chair, but there are T-shirts, books and postcards too.

And then again, who doesn't love shopping in an architectural landmark?

The Broad was founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, the museum offers free general admission and presents an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement. The Broad is home to nearly 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and contemporary art.

The Shop at The Broad
The Broad
221 S Grand Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Store Hours
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 11 AM–5 PM
Thursday: 11 AM–8 PM
Saturday–Sunday: 10 AM–6 PM

Photographs by Benny Chan, Timmy Norris, Joshua White/JWPictures, Eric Holguin.