Your NYC library card will now get you free admission to 30+ museums

For those New Yorkers who haven’t gotten their IDNYC, there’s now a new way to gain free access to museums across the city–your library card. Today, Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), the New York Public Library (NYPL), and Queens Library launched Culture Pass, “a joint library-led, city-wide initiative providing free access to more than 30 museums and cultural institutions across all five boroughs available to every NYC library card holder.” According to a press release, all card holders have to do is go online to reserve a free day pass for themselves and up to three guests at 33 cultural organizations, from the Whitney Museum and MoMA (where regular adult entry is $25/person) to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Wave Hill.

Photo via NYPL

While IDNYC gets New Yorkers memberships at 40+ institutions, as well as entertainment-based perks, they only last for a year. As the press release explains, “Culture Pass organizations donate passes to the program on a monthly basis and are offered the opportunity to reach new audiences by reserving a portion of the passes for patrons living in underserved neighborhoods.” Institutions will donate about 150 passes each month, which the NYPL values at roughly $2 million annually.

Current institutions participating in Culture Pass are:

• Brooklyn Botanic Garden
• Brooklyn Children’s Museum
• Brooklyn Historical Society
• Brooklyn Museum
• Children’s Museum of Manhattan
• Children’s Museum of the Arts
• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
• The Drawing Center
• The Frick Collection
• Historic Richmond Town
• International Center of Photography
• Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
• Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
• The Jewish Museum
• Louis Armstrong House
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• The Morgan Library & Museum
• Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1
• Museum of Chinese in America
• Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
• Museum of the City of New York
• New York Transit Museum
• Noguchi Museum
• Queens Historical Society
• Queens Museum
• Rubin Museum of Art
• SculptureCenter
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
• Society of Illustrators
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• Sugar Hill Children’s Museum
• Wave Hill
• Whitney Museum of American Art

Do note that passes for a given date may sell out, and cardholders can only have two pending reservations at a time. They can also only visit each museum once a year. Reservations can be made up to two months in advance. Upon arrival, guests will have to show a printout or mobile version of their pass.

Find out more about Culture Pass and reserve your passes here >>

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