Relatively few of Southern California’s billionaires, as identified by Forbes, are major contributors to cultural institutions, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The daily newspaper’s Culture Monster blog reports that 31 of the world’s 1,011 billionaires live in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, but it lists only nine as significant arts patrons, led by Eli Broad, a major benefactor to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Los Angeles Opera.

Read more about Forbes’s latest billionaire list and its implications for giving on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Give and Take blog.

In other arts news, ground was broken Tuesday on a $45-million art museum backed by Mr. Broad at his alma mater, Michigan State University, the Lansing State Journal reports. The California philanthropist and his wife donated $28-million toward the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, which will feature a striking angular design by Baghdad-born architect Zaha Hadid.

Also, New York’s City Center is embarking on a $75-million renovation of its landmark Manhattan building, The New York Times reports. The arts group said it has raised about three-quarters of its $57.2-million capital goal for the project, with city funds accounting for most of the cash on hand.

And gourmet restaurants and novel “concept” events have increasingly become part of major art museums’ arsenals for attracting a bigger, broader audience, according to a Times special report on the international museum landscape.

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