Forest Lawn shall become… a place where artists study and sketch; where schoolteachers bring happy children to see the things they read of in books…” — The Builder’s Creed

Building on the momentum of the opening of the Hall of The Crucifixion-Resurrection in 1951 to display two magnificent paintings portraying key events in the earthly life of Christ, Forest Lawn continued to bring world-class art to the community by opening the adjacent Forest Lawn Museum the following year. It was a continuation of the promise of Forest Lawn’s founder, Dr. Hubert Eaton, who wrote in his Builder’s Creed that Forest Lawn should be “a place where artists study and sketch; where schoolteachers bring happy children to see the things they read of in books.”

In that spirit, the Forest Lawn Museum displays a permanent collection of art, including bronze and marble sculpture, stained glass, paintings as well as world-class rotating exhibits.

Some of the many highlights include an exact replication of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Paradise Doors which Michelangelo called upon seeing the originals “worthy to be the gates of Paradise;” a group of bronzes by renowned American artists such as Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell, and Gutzon Borglum, including a bust of the legendary writer Mark Twain expressly commissioned for Forest Lawn; a collection of spectacular medieval stained glass windows dating back to the thirteenth century that the National Academy of Art described as one of the most significant collections in the Western United States; the Song of Angels painting by William Adolphe Bougereau, universally said to be his greatest work; and much more.

With engaging special exhibits and free educational and artistic activities, there is always something new to experience.

We invite you to visit the Museum, Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Group tours are available. For more information, please call 323-340-4782.