Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

What Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles does

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) is a private, nonprofit contemporary art museum operating at 1717 E 7th Street in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District. It traces its lineage to the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), which closed its Bergamot Station location at the end of May 2015; the institution rebranded as ICA LA on May 6, 2016, and opened its new ~12,700-square-foot, wHY-designed (Kulapat Yantrasast) building with a Mark Bradford-designed visual identity on September 9, 2017. ICA LA's core offering is an in-person exhibition program — 81 exhibitions tracked in its database — supplemented by public programs, performances, screenings, and bilingual tours (496 events listed), plus Learning Programs (Digital Projects, Education Projects, Special Projects, Public Programs), the Agency of Assets Boyle Heights youth-leadership initiative, and two residency tracks (Artist in Residence and Bookshelf Residency). Admission is always free.

ICA LA's underlying technology stack is the custom "Economy" content management system developed by Linked by Air, with a tailored typography system (DINICA, Gruenewald VA) and an editorial platform called Yellow Pages; the museum distributes digital content via YouTube, SoundCloud, and Mailchimp and operates an online shop for exhibition catalogues and editions. Its revenue model is a typical nonprofit arts mix: individual donations and capital campaigns (a $5 million campaign was launched in 2016), recurring membership and Patron Group subscriptions, corporate sponsorships and venue rentals, institutional grants (Getty Foundation, NEA, City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs, Robert Lehman Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation, Wyeth Foundation, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Pasadena Art Alliance, Patricia A. Quick Charitable Trust, among others), one-time shop and catalogue sales, and ticketed fundraising events (Spring Benefit, INCOGNITO, Gala Bruncheon). ICA LA serves three primary segments: a distributed general public of museum visitors (free admission), a geographically concentrated Arts District/Boyle Heights community engaged through Agency of Assets and civic programming, and a high-value patron/corporate sponsor base that underwrites exhibitions, education, and capital projects.

Name

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Legal name

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Website

https://theicala.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) is a private, nonprofit contemporary art museum in the Downtown LA Arts District offering free admission, a curated exhibition program, residencies, public programs, and learning initiatives, supported by donations, memberships, grants, and corporate sponsorships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Contemporary Art Museum

NAICS

Museums (712110), Museums (71211)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYTHAJADAH

Art Galleries & Exhibition Spaces (Commercial & Nonprofit)

Travel & Hospitality/Tours, Attractions & Experiences/Museums, Galleries & Cultural Institutions

SECONDARYTHAJADAA

Art Museums

Travel & Hospitality/Tours, Attractions & Experiences/Museums, Galleries & Cultural Institutions

Keywords

• Contemporary art museum
• Art exhibitions
• Artist residency programs
• Museum learning programs
• Art education

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual donations and capital campaign: $5 million capital campaign launched in 2016 to fund new museum building; broad individual donor base including founding patrons (Geoffrey Anenberg, Vera Campbell, Laura Donnelley, Honor Fraser, etc.) and artist-donated works.
2. Membership and patron groups: Recurring membership program plus Patron Groups (likely tiered recurring contributions).
3. Corporate sponsorships and entertainment venue rentals: Sponsorships for exhibitions, education programs, special events, and technology projects; private receptions and corporate events at the 12,700-square-foot Arts District building designed by wHY.
4. Institutional support and grants: Institutional support programs plus grants from the Getty Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs, Robert Lehman Foundation, Madeline and Bruce M. Ramer, Wyeth Foundation, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Mike Kelley Foundation, Pasadena Art Alliance, Patricia A. Quick Charitable Trust.
5. Shop and publication sales: Online and onsite shop sales of exhibition catalogues, artist editions, and merchandise (e.g., Martín Ramírez catalogue at $35, Brett Westfall t-shirt at $50, artist books $55–$60).
6. Fundraising events: Benefit Brunch, Spring Benefit, INCOGNITO art sale (annual benefit with hundreds of contributing artists), and Gala Bruncheon — ticketed/table-based fundraising events.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Core offering

ICA LA is a single-institution contemporary art museum that presents exhibitions of contemporary art in its 12,700-square-foot Downtown Los Angeles Arts District building at 1717 E 7th St. Its core offering is the museum visit experience—always free admission—anchored by a rotating program of curated exhibitions in the main galleries and Project Room/Annex/Courtyard spaces, supplemented by public programs (talks, performances, tours), Learning Programs (Digital, Education, Special Projects, Public Programs including the Boyle Heights-focused Agency of Assets), two residency tracks (Artist in Residence and Bookshelf Residency), and an on-site/online shop.

Product overview

ICA LA (Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) is a single-institution contemporary art museum offering a unified program rather than a modular SaaS-style platform. Its core offering is the in-person Museum Building at 1717 E 7th St in the Downtown Arts District, around which the rest of its products and services revolve: the Exhibitions Program (with the Project Room, Annex, and Courtyard Exhibitions sub-program for emerging artists), the Public Programs & Calendar of Events, the Learning Programs (Digital Projects, Education Projects, Special Projects, and Public Programs such as Agency of Assets), the Artist in Residence (AIR) and Bookshelf Residency programs, the ICA LA Shop, Membership & Patron Programs (including the Spring Benefit and the Curator's Council), the Yellow Pages online editorial platform, the ICA LA Digital Projects video/audio channel, the Stream ICA LA Spotify playlists, the Election Reform! Store special project, and the #icalagoessolar sustainability initiative.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Exhibitions Program ICA LA's primary program of curated contemporary art exhibitions presented in the museum's main gallery spaces, available to all visitors free of charge and tracked in a public schedule of past, current, and upcoming exhibitions.
• Project Room, Annex & Courtyard Exhibitions Sub-program of smaller-scale, curator's council-funded emerging-artist exhibitions in ICA LA's Project Room, Annex, and Courtyard spaces, supporting artists who are not yet the subject of full main-gallery presentations.
• Public Programs & Calendar of Events ICA LA's calendar of ticketed and free public programs including performances, talks and panels, Art Buzz tours, screenings, and workshops, presented alongside the museum's exhibitions for general audiences and members.
• Learning Programs (Digital, Education, Special Projects, Public Programs) ICA LA's learning and community engagement division, offering Digital Projects, Education Projects, Special Projects, and Public Programs such as Schools/Community and the Agency of Assets youth leadership program, directed at students, educators, and local residents.
• Artist in Residence (AIR) Program Formal artist residency program at ICA LA providing selected artists with time, space, and resources to develop new work within the museum context.
• Bookshelf Residency Second distinct residency track at ICA LA focused on research and publishing-oriented practice, exemplified by projects such as Genderfail's 2024–2025 archive of protest-inspired typography.
• ICA LA Shop ICA LA's online and on-site retail shop selling exhibition catalogues, artist editions, apparel, and donation products, with pop-ups from partners such as Marfa Book Co. and The Good Liver.
• Membership & Patron Programs Tiered Membership and Patron Group programs providing recurring support to ICA LA, including Institutional Support, Artist Edition Series, Sustainability, Corporate partnerships, and the annual Spring Benefit.
• Yellow Pages (Online Journal) ICA LA's online editorial platform publishing long-form articles, interviews, reviews, and special project documentation authored by staff and contributors.
• ICA LA Digital Projects (Video and Audio Content) ICA LA's ongoing program of digital video and audio content distributed via YouTube and SoundCloud, including exhibition walkthroughs, artist talks, and curatorial conversations.
• Election Reform! Store at ICA LA Fall 2018 Special Project in collaboration with artist Brendan Fowler, activating ICA LA as a voter-registration hub, civic-engagement apparel store, and community programming space.
• ICA LA Solar Channel (#icalagoessolar) ICA LA's campaign to become the first solar-powered art museum, including a Kickstarter crowdfunding effort to install 206 rooftop solar panels and a video interview series on sustainability.
• ICA LA Museum Building (Private Venue Rentals) ICA LA's 12,700-square-foot renovated industrial museum building at 1717 E 7th St in the Downtown LA Arts District, designed by wHY (Kulapat Yantrasast) and available for private receptions and corporate events alongside its public exhibitions and programs.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Whitney Museum of American Art: Premier US museum dedicated to contemporary American art, with a deep exhibition, education, and residency program. Operates at much greater scale than ICA LA but shares the single-discipline focus on living and recent artists.
• The Broad: Downtown Los Angeles contemporary art museum with a much larger footprint and permanent collection. Highly comparable as a free-admission LA contemporary art institution, but operates at significantly greater scale and resources than ICA LA.
• Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles: Major Los Angeles contemporary art institution with multiple sites and a permanent collection. Overlaps with ICA LA in mission and audience but operates at a much larger scale with collection-based programming.
• Hammer Museum: UCLA-affiliated contemporary art museum in Westwood with free admission and a strong emerging-artist and public programs mandate — directly comparable mission, though backed by UCLA's larger institutional resources. Former employer of ICA LA Curator Jamillah James.

Direct peers

• Institute of Contemporary Art Boston: Non-collecting contemporary art museum on the Boston waterfront with free admission, similarly focused on emerging artist programming, public programs, and a single-building model. Closest structural and curatorial analog to ICA LA.
• MCA Chicago: Non-collecting contemporary art museum in Chicago focused on exhibitions of living artists, free public programming, and education — closely mirrors ICA LA's curatorial and audience-development model in a different city.
• MASS MoCA: Large-scale contemporary art institution in North Adams, MA known for long-duration installations, residencies, and education programming. Compares to ICA LA in its commitment to emerging and experimental artists and deep public engagement, though at far greater scale.
• Fabric Workshop and Museum: Philadelphia-based contemporary art museum and artist residency program combining exhibitions, commissions, and learning. Comparable to ICA LA in integrating residency programming, public engagement, and experimental exhibition-making in a single mid-sized venue.

Others

• Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami:
• MoMA PS1:

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/icala (YouTube channel referenced via embedded videos at youtube.com/vi/...)
• Xx.com/theicala

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles