A new initiative will allow the public to visit area museums and cultural institutions for free. The event called Museum Day Live! will take place on September 27.
Mayor Byron Brown says the initiative will allow people to visit museums that they may not normally be able to afford.
“It exposes new audiences that maybe weren’t thinking about the great art and culture that we have here. [It allows people to] be opened up to a whole new world that they didn’t know existed right in their own community and to have them also be people that enjoy the arts and recognize the importance of the arts in their own community,” said Brown.
The one day event allows patrons to visit thirteen museums and cultural institutions free of charge across western New York. The initiative is part of Smithsonian Magazine’s 10th annual Museum Day Live! to boost the arts.
Arts Services Initiative of Western New York Executive Director Tod Kniazuk says the program will offer people the opportunity to visit new institutions.
“…Like the Buffalo Religious Arts Center that’s only open on a limited basis, that really reflects the character of our city’s churches and art through religion expression. There is the Lower Lakes Museum, the Steel Museum that talks about or industrial past,” said Kniazuk.
Kniazuk says families can save a lot of money by participating in the event. Tickets are needed to enter the venues. They can be found at Arts-Access.org.
Museums included are:
- Albright Knox Art Gallery
- Buffalo History Museum
- Buffalo Museum of Science
- Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village (Amherst)
- Buffalo Religious Arts Center
- Burchfield Penney Art Center
- The Colored Musicians Club
- Fenton History Center (Jamestown)
- Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum (N. Tonawanda)
- Lower Lakes Marine Historical Society
- Nash House Museum
- Steel Plant Museum
- Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site