As cultural institutions are recognizing the potential for pooling resources, the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles are establishing a joint collection of contemporary art by Los Angeles artists, to be founded through the acquisition of nearly 300 artworks from the collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn.

“We’re all going to share the labor of it, we’re going to share the costs of it,” said Ann Philbin, the Hammer’s director. “All three of our institutions deeply care about the art that’s being made in our city — not just for this moment in time but out into the future. We think it’s going to be part of art history writ large.”

Jarl Mohn, a venture capitalist who served as chief executive of National Public Radio until 2019, said he was inspired by the cooperative nature of “PST Art,” an exhibition — about to open its third edition — in which museums and other nonprofit organizations across Southern California show art related to one theme over several months.

“When I decided I wanted to give the collection away — but keep it as a live object, keep it growing — I said, ‘I think we should revisit this notion of a collaborative thing,’” Mohn said in an interview. “It will make a big statement about our town. It will make a big statement about what we think is going on here.”

The collection, which will be called the Mohn Art Collective: Hammer, LACMA, MOCA — or MAC3 — will start with 260 artworks from the Mohns. The Hammer Museum will add to it with 80 pieces that have been acquired since 2012 through its Made in L.A. biennial exhibitions of Los Angeles artists.

For the first joint acquisitions, curators from all three institutions unanimously selected 16 works from “Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living,” bringing the MAC3 collection to 356 artworks.