It’s Museum Day. Here’s how to get free tickets and have some fun

The San Jose Museum of Art, seen here in 2007, is one of hundreds of museums participating in Saturday’s free admission Museum Day event.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The San Jose Museum of Art, seen here in 2007, is one of hundreds of museums participating in Saturday’s free admission Museum Day event.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Museum Day is here for one day and one day only — so you’ll need to hurry if you want to take advantage of the chance to get free Saturday admission to one of the hundreds of participating museums.

The yearly event is hosted by Smithsonian Magazine and involves museums and cultural institutions coming together to offer free admission for patrons who would otherwise have to pay for entry. Though there are museums participating that usually have free admission.

You just need an email address to get a ticket

To get a ticket you’ll need to go to the Smithsonian Magazine website and pick which museum you want to go to. You’ll be able to search to see which museums near you are participating, and from there you just have to put in your email address and name.

After that, you can download your ticket and head out for some fun. Each Museum Day ticket is good for two people, so if you’re in a group larger than that, a few people might need to sign up.

A lot of museums are still feeling financial stress from the pandemic

The event is happening as museums are still struggling from the hits they took during the first few years of the pandemic.

The American Alliance of Museums estimated it will take years for museums to fully recover. In February, the group released survey results that detailed those financial losses.

AAM President and CEO Laura Lott noted that federal relief helped remove the threat of closure that many institutions were facing, but “2021 proved to be another painful year in which operating income sank further and attendance was down nearly 40% for many of our nation’s museums.”

But there’s hope that a free day at the museums might spark subsequent visits.