I’ve got my ticket, go get yours.
More than 1,250 museums across the nation will offer free general admission on Museum Day, Saturday, Sept. 22, with Smithsonian magazine playing host to the annual celebration of boundless curiosity.
The one-day event began in 2005, and allows free entry to anyone presenting a Museum Day ticket, good for two guests.
Tickets are available to download by visiting www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday. You can search for one of 15 museums in California, including the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, the Latino art Museum in Pomona, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, and Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles.
Other museums and cultural institutions offering free Museum Day admission are the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles; California African American Museum in L.A., Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro, and museums in Carson, Santa Ana, Riverside and Laguna Beach.
Participants are allowed to download one ticket per email address. Generally, if your selected museum offers free admission to children, they don’t count as your plus-one, but call the museum to be sure.
Of course, many of our local museums offer free admission to guests all the time or once a month. The Huntington Library in San Marino offers free admission to all visitors on the first Thursday of every month, with advanced tickets. For more information, visit www.huntington.org.
California Science Center, at Exposition Park in L.A. is always free, as is the Museum of Contemporary Art’s West Hollywood location at 8687 Melrose Ave. MOCA’s Grand Avenue and Geffen Contemporary locations offer free admission to the public from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays.
Kidspace Museum in Pasadena plays host to a free family night from 4 to 8 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month (except September.) Kidspace is at 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena.
The Natural History Museum at 900 Exposition Blvd. in Los Angeles offers free museum admission on the first Tuesdays of every month, except July and august and free admission every Tuesday in September. Reserve your tickets in advance to be sure you get tickets and skip the line, by visiting www.nhm.org, and click on “Plan your visit.”
We will be spending Museum Day at the newly reopened USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, which has a great exhibit, “Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century,” exploring the relationship Mexico had on contemporary Chinese art. Makes you want to know more, right?
My three are older now, so I have the luxury of being able to stop and read every plaque and sign in museums we visit. Yes, it’s a gift. Happy Museum Day, at any rate. Go see where your curiosity leads you.
Anissa V. Rivera is a columnist for the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Azusa Herald, Glendora Press and West Covina Highlander, San Dimas/La Verne Highlander, Southern California News Group, 605 E. Huntington Drive, Suite 100, Monrovia CA 91016, 626-301-1461.
