The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved plans for a downtown museum to house the billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad’s art collection, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The 5-0 vote essentially clears the way for construction of the $80-million to $100-million facility as part of Los Angeles’s Grand Avenue project. Final approval by the Grand Avenue Authority, a state-local body overseeing the downtown revitalization effort, is considered a formality as all four of its members have publicly stated support for the museum.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Broad said he is waiting for the authority’s vote on Monday before formally announcing whether he will house his collection of 2,000 contemporary works in Los Angeles or at a competing site in Santa Monica.

In other arts news, several major North American museums are employing observers to study visitors’ habits at close range and collect data on how museumgoers use exhibits, information displays, and other features, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Metropolitan Opera set an opening-day box office record Sunday, selling more than 24,000 tickets, worth nearly $2.7-million, for its forthcoming season, which will feature a much-anticipated new staging of Wagner’s Ring cycle, says the theater news site Broadway World.

And a memorial library and museum dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut is set to open this fall in the late author’s hometown of Indianapolis, the Associated Press writes.

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