Don’t underestimate the money-saving would possibly of a humble library card.
You don’t must be a bookworm to profit out of your native library’s choices. Some library programs assist you to reserve free or discounted passes to native museums, zoos, aquariums and different arts and tradition organizations like theaters and orchestras.
Usually, museum cross applications are provided in partnership with metropolis degree governance and are designed to permit free or diminished worth entry to important arts and cultural sources. Consider the applications as an extension of the mission of public libraries to offer public entry to data.
Not solely are free passes a terrific possibility for households with kids, but in addition for folks of all ages who love visible and performing arts and animals. Some cross applications, although, are solely open to households with kids.
We’ve highlighted a number of applications beneath.
Examine along with your native library to see whether or not it operates one thing comparable. As an alternative of free tickets, some library programs supply reductions on merchandise or parking.
Museum passes are only one unconventional factor that libraries lend. There’s an entire lot extra. You may borrow every thing from video video games to science tools.
New York Metropolis
Brooklyn, Queens and New York Public Libraries supply the Tradition Move museum program for entry to a protracted checklist of cultural institutions. We misplaced depend at 30.
The spectacular checklist of museums contains the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Jewish Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.
Any regular card holder, ages 13 and up, can reserve passes, however Ecards and Educator card holders aren’t eligible. Passes can be found on the primary of every month for the next month and the quantity of individuals admitted for every cross varies by establishment.
Boston
Out there in any respect places of the Boston Public Library System are passes to six museums, plus the New England Aquarium. Passes to extra museums and sights can be found at choose branches.
To reserve a pass, you will need to present proof of Massachusetts residency and have a bodily library card, not an e-pass. Some passes are disposable and a few should be returned. Returnable passes embody fines if not returned on time, so remember to learn the principles.
Atlanta
The Fulton County Library System affords a ticket to the town for card holders by way of the partnership pass program.
Collaborating Atlanta sights embody the Alliance Theatre, Middle for Puppetry Arts, state parks, the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the Georgia Aquarium. Passes to the Atlanta zoo can be found for a household of three after trying out the Zoo Atlanta DVD.
Tampa Bay Space
With over 30 museums in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, the Tampa Bay Space public library programs assist cross applications that may get you into among the space’s hottest museums and venues. All you want is a library card.
Hillsborough County’s Discovery Pass affords entry to 13 museums and sights together with the Glazer Youngsters’s Museum, Stageworks Theatre and The Florida Orchestra. The variety of admissions varies with every venue and a few have ready lists. You’ll be able to test availability on-line, however passes should be picked up from a Hillsborough library department.
Pinellas County Library System’s museum pass program options 11 museums together with household favourite Nice Explorations Youngsters’s Museum, in addition to the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Artwork and the Museum of High-quality Arts. Passes will be checked out in particular person on a first-come, first-served foundation and are good for a seven-day mortgage interval.
Miami
The Miami-Dade Public Library System’s museum pass program lets library card holders take a look at free passes to 18 native sights, together with the Coral Gables Museum, the Miami Youngsters’s Museum and Pérez Artwork Museum Miami. Although not technically a museum, Zoo Miami can also be a part of the museum cross program.
Library patrons can take a look at one cross per seven-day interval. Passes present at some point of free admission for a household of 4, with age necessities for youths at Deering Property, Fruit & Spice Park and Zoo Miami.
Patrons can not renew the passes or reserve them for a selected date. Passes are first-come, first-served.
Chicago
The Chicago Public Library has a Kids Museum Passport program that gives free museum passes for a dozen native sights, together with the Artwork Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Historical past Museum and the Museum of Science and Business. Library card holders may even get free admission at locations that aren’t museums — like Brookfield Zoo and Shedd Aquarium.
Household passes can be found for as much as 4 folks. Households should embody at the very least one baby below 18 and not more than two adults.
Households can take a look at one museum cross per week for a one-time go to per reservation. There’s a 24-hour ready interval earlier than library card holders are allowed to take a look at one other cross to the museum they only visited.
However wait, there’s extra. Your library card may additionally offer you free entry to streaming apps that can assist you get monetary savings on films, music and extra.
Denver
Those that have library playing cards with the Denver Public Library can get free admission on the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Historical past Colorado Middle, the Molly Brown Home Museum and the Museum of Modern Artwork Denver.
A celebration of seven can go to the character and science museum with one museum cross. The Historical past Colorado Middle and Molly Brown Home allow solely teams of 4 per every museum cross. The cross for the Museum of Modern Artcovers admission for 4 adults.
Museum passes will be reserved as much as 30 days upfront.
Dallas
The general public library system in Dallas companions with the Metropolis of Dallas Workplace of Arts and Tradition to offer the Culture Pass Dallas program, permitting patrons with a library card entry to museums, theaters and different arts venues. With a catalog of 34 cultural establishments, the Tradition Move Dallas program is likely one of the most strong on our checklist.
Library card holders can have as much as 5 reservations at a time and as quickly as a reservation date passes, one other will be added. There is no such thing as a restrict to the quantity of pass reservations you can also make in a 12 months.
Los Angeles
The County of Los Angeles Public Library and the town’s public library system share Uncover & Go, a museum pass program that offers library card holders free admission at 12 museums, together with the Craft Modern museum, the Chinese language American Museum and the Los Angeles Zoo.
Library patrons could make reservations as much as three months forward of time however can have solely two lively reservations at a time. Some passes will admit as much as 4 museum guests. Nonetheless, the variety of free tickets per cross varies by attraction.
San Francisco
The general public library system in San Francisco additionally affords the Discover & Go museum cross program, which supplies library patrons entry to 29 museums and different sights within the Bay Space.
Passes might embody the Conservatory of Flowers, Exploratorium, Haas-Lilienthal Home and the Museum of African Diaspora.
On-line reservations can be found and passes are legitimate for one use inside a seven-day interval. The passes are solely accessible for households with kids.
Seattle
Seattle Public Library card holders can go to 11 native sights, together with the Museum of Flight, the Seattle Artwork Museum and the Nationwide Nordic Museum. The museum pass program even contains sights that aren’t museums, just like the Seattle Aquarium and the Woodland Park Zoo.
Library patrons can reserve one cross per week. Nonetheless, they’ll’t reserve a cross to the identical museum twice inside 30 days. Passes will be reserved as much as 30 days forward of the scheduled date.
Museum passes supply free admission for at the very least two adults.
Contributor Veronica Leone Matthews is a North Carolina-based freelance author with 11 years of expertise writing for non-profits and better training. She covers way of life subjects for The PNW.
Nicole Dow, a former workers author at The PNW, additionally contributed.