By Daniel Munoz
[reprinted from the ASIS Cultural Properties Council August 2016 Newsletter]
The Hammer Museum opened to the public in November 1990. Founded by Dr. Armand Hammer, former Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, the Museum was built adjacent to the Corporation’s international headquarters in Westwood. The Museum features galleries from Dr. Hammer’s collections — old master paintings and drawings, and a collection of works on paper by Honore Daumier and his contemporaries — as well as galleries for traveling exhibitions, mostly contemporary art. Dr. Hammer passed away in December 1990, three weeks after the opening of the Museum.
In 1992, the Museum began negotiating with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to assume management and operations and in April 1994, the partnership with UCLA was finalized. Today, the Museum is one of three public arts units of the School Arts and Architecture at UCLA. It is located on the South side of the University campus, on the corner of the Wilshire and Westwood Blvd.
In 2014 the Museum decided to waive its admission fee, and reiterated its commitment to its mission statement – “The Hammer Museum at UCLA believes in the promise of art and ideas to illuminate our lives and build a more just world”. Today, all Hammer exhibitions and programs (over 300 public programs a year) are free to the public.
I joined the Hammer on January 2012. Before that I worked at AEG and had the opportunity to work at the Staples Center, LA LIVE and Grammy Museum in a number of security roles. At the GRAMMY Museum I was hired to create its Security department before it opened to the public in December 2008. Prior to my tenure at AEG I worked as a Security Professional in a five star Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles for 11 years.
My time here at the Hammer has been filled with excitement. The Hammer is always busy. On any given day, the Museum is full of visitors enjoying our galleries, attending an evening program, relaxing in our courtyard, or having a meal at our Café. Even with our upcoming gallery renovation project, which will last approximately 3 ½ months, the Museum will have some art on display in addition to numerous programs available for visitors, from film screenings to performance art.
The Hammer has a proprietary security department. Security operates 24/7 and is responsible for the operations of its Security Operations Center (SOC). In addition, they are the first responders for all types of emergencies, and patrol the property throughout the day and night. The gallery staff is composed primarily of UCLA students and they report to the Visitor Experience department. Before 2014, the gallery staff, still composed primarily of UCLA students, reported to Security. Many lessons were learned during this transition and now the two departments work seamlessly well together to protect both visitors and the art. The Museum also uses a contract security company to help cover non-security essential posts during high impact events. Because we are a University Museum we work closely with UCPD and benefit from their proximity.
Currently, we are working on the final phase of our Security Operations Center renovation project, continually evolving our emergency preparedness policies, and preparing for this summer’s rolling blackouts. Our upcoming galleries renovation project is slated to start this fall and that will bring new challenges. In addition, and with the help of other local Museum Security Directors, I’m working on reinstating our Museum’s Security Director’s Round Table meetings. I strongly believe in and encourage sharing information to help others, and have benefitted from learning about other museum’s systems, procedures and security structures, and of which I have incorporated into our operations at the Hammer.
