Your money is no good here: Free museum day returns to Los Angeles on March 23
More than 30 museums across Southern California will throw open their doors on March 23, and the price of admission will be free.
The SoCal Museums Free-for-All spans multiple cities and covers a gamut of artistic interests, including pop culture, cultural heritage, science and history. The offer for March 23, a Saturday, is good for general admission but does not cover parking or any special ticketed events, according to event organizers.
Participating institutions include the Autry Museum of the American West, the Hammer Museum, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes and the Skirball Cultural Center.
Visitors should consult with each museum before heading out, because some locations strongly encourage making reservations and others require ticket reservations. The Museum of Tolerance in Pico-Robertson will be participating in the event on March 24.
The SoCal Museums group is made up of marketing and communications employees in the museum industry and includes museums from across the region. This year’s participants are:
- The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Reservations are encouraged; visit the museum website. Current exhibits include “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” “Significant Movies and Moviemakers: Lourdes Portillo” and “The Art of Moviemaking: The Godfather.”
As a shrine to the Oscars and, more important, a tribute to the movies, the new museum is at its best when it sidesteps the obvious.
- The American Museum of Ceramic Art
Reservations are required; visit its website. - The Armory Center for the Arts
- The Autry Museum of the American West
Reservations are required; visit its website.
The Autry Museum of the American West’s new $32-million Resources Center takes a big step toward healing relations with Native tribes.
- The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
- Bowers Museum
- The Broad
Reservations are encouraged; visit its website. - California Botanic Garden
- The California Science Center
The museum features the space shuttle Endeavour, and although it isn’t open to the public yet, visitors can marvel at the craft while visiting other exhibits.
A shrink-wrapped Endeavour was hoisted and then carefully placed in its final location Tuesday at the still-under-construction Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.
- The Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum
- Catalina Museum for Art & History
- The Cayton Children’s Museum
Reservations are required; visit its website. - The Columbia Memorial Space Center
- Craft Contemporary
Formerly the Craft and Folk Art Museum, the museum on the Miracle Mile currently features the exhibit “Art Iran: Falling Into Language.” According to the museum, the exhibit presents “nine diaspora Iranian artists who engage diverse forms of the Persian alphabet, handwriting, text, and fragments as a way to remain connected to their cultural inheritance and form an essential part of their artistic practice.” - Forest Lawn Museum
- The Fowler Museum at UCLA
When art museums return looted objects to source countries, usually it’s in response to demands. Not this time.
- The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University
- The Getty Center
Timed tickets are required; visit its website. - The Getty Villa
Timed tickets are required; visit its website. - The Grammy Museum
- The Hammer Museum
- Holocaust Museum LA
Reservations required; visit its website. - Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Formerly known as the Santa Monica Museum of Art, ICA LA’s current exhibits include “Scratching at the Moon.” The show is described as the first focused survey on Asian American artists in a major contemporary art museum in Los Angeles. - The International Printing Museum
- Japanese American National Museum
Advance tickets are strongly recommended; visit its website. - Laguna Art Museum
- La Brea Tar Pits & Museum
Advance tickets are required; visit its website. - LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
- The Lincoln Memorial Shrine
If it’s February, this must be Redlands. Home of the only Lincoln memorial west of the Mississippi.
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Advance tickets are required; visit its website. - The Museum of Contemporary Art
Advance tickets are recommended; visit its website. - The Museum of Latin American Art
Current exhibits at MOLAA, which is in Long Beach, include “Cross-Border Women: Alejandra Phelts,” based on the artist’s “interest in recording the desires and daily experiences of women living in Tijuana.” - The Museum of Ventura County
- The Museum of Tolerance
The museum will be participating in the Free-for-All on March 24.
The spike in antisemitism and other hate crimes in L.A. is grim, but a Jewish neighborhood in L.A. offers glimmers of hope.
- The Orange County Museum of Art
- The Santa Barbara Museum of Art
One of the current exhibits is “Janna Ireland: True Story Index,” which includes the artist’s photographs. According to the museum, “Janna Ireland’s photographic practice is primarily concerned with the themes of family, home, and the expression of Black identity in American culture.” - The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
Reservations are encouraged; visit the museum’s website. The Sea Center is not included in the Free-for-All event.
- The Santa Monica History Museum
Reservations are not required; Visit the museum’s website. - The Skirball Cultural Center
Advance tickets are strongly recommended; visit its website. - The Wende Museum
A former atomic bomb shelter built in 1949 in anticipation of a World War III Soviet air strike and occupied by the National Guard will house Los Angeles’ newest museum building.
- The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
