Calling Out Through Culture : L.A. a 21st-Century arts mecca for tourists? . . . A financier has a plan

A prominent financier is offering a vision that Southern California should embrace: development and promotion of our cultural institutions to attract what he calls “cultural tourism.”

Eli Broad, chairman and chief executive officer of SunAmerica Inc., believes the Los Angeles of the 21st Century will have a culture as identifiable as those of Paris and New York and that it will color our institutions and draw foreign tourists. He proposes an international exhibition be held here to sell the world on our new capabilities, built around the entertainment industry and others. Culture thus could be an economic engine for the region.

The cultural map of Southern California is already rich with world-class museums, galleries, music halls, theater stages and performance centers. But too few people are aware of this wealth. The region must build and market a coordinated project to turn the world’s eyes to Los Angeles, Broad argues. Already there is a focus, on technology, entertainment and international trade. Now, he says, what is needed is a group that can see beyond individual institutions and sell this array of cultural attractions as a single regional ticket.

Imagine being able to offer tourists a package tour that would take them from the Getty Museum to the Venice boardwalk, LACMA, Rodeo Drive, MOCA, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, Olvera Street and Little Tokyo. That’s cultural diversity. That’s L.A.

With the new century nearing, Broad suggests, developing and promoting culture might just be the best way to invent our future.