Smithsonian Magazine is bringing back its annual Museum Day in September, giving visitors a chance at free admission to more than 1,000 museums, zoos, and cultural centers for the day.
Museum Day will be held on September 18. The annual event was canceled last year during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s theme is “Experience America,” chosen to emphasize the reopening of cultural experiences across the country.
“Museum Day represents a national commitment to access, equity and inclusion. And after a rough year and a half, we’re excited for museums to open their doors and offer these educational and cultural experiences to the public for free this Museum Day,” Amy Wilkins, chief revenue officer at Smithsonian Media, told USA TODAY.
Tickets will be available starting August 18. Visitors must choose the museum they want to see, then download a free ticket for Museum Day, good for two visitors. Only one offer can be claimed for any email address.
So where can you go with this offer? The list is extensive and covers 46 states.
From the Oscar Anderson House in Alaska to the Florida Agricultural and Rural Museum, or the L.C. Bates Museum in Maine to the International Printing Museum in Southern California, participating centers can be found from coast to coast.
The options include some places that don’t fit the normal idea of a traditional museum.
Consider the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, dedicated to preserving the living legacy of burlesque as an art form, or the Gone With the Wind Museum in Marietta, Georgia, featuring artifacts from the film and book by Margaret Mitchell.
Baseball fans might enjoy the Louisville Slugger Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, where the company has been making bats for 125 years. You’ll see actual bats used by Babe Ruth, step into a batting cage to swing a replica of your hero’s bat, or examine the largest bat in the world, measuring 120 feet in length.”As we begin to feel a sense of normalcy in our day-to-day lives, we are honored to welcome the public back to Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. and New York and museums around the country this Museum Day,” Wilkins told Travel + Leisure. “In a year that has challenged us in unprecedented ways, it is our hope that this year’s event serves as a reminder of the people, places, and cultural experiences that have the power to unite us all.”
