Art Museums make Cambridge residents welcome

James Cuno, the Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums, and Susan Flannery, director of the Cambridge Public Library (CPL), recently agreed to forge “a partnership in cultural literacy” between their respective institutions.

Under this new agreement, the Art Museums are extending free admission to all Cambridge Public Library cardholders to the Fogg Museum, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and the Busch-Reisinger Museum. Cardholders simply show their card for free admission to these institutions.

“We are happy that we can extend free admission to the citizens of Cambridge,” Cuno said. “And by aligning ourselves with the library, we emphasize our mission of teaching and research, and the value that we place on our collections for their ability to teach us about the history, culture, values, and aesthetics of our past.”

The new arrangement extends an existing policy of making the museums accessible to local residents. Realizing that the price of admission can be a barrier for many museum-goers, the Art Museums chose not to raise the $5 admission fee in recent years. Students continue to be admitted for free, and, more recently, free admission was extended to the public all day on Wednesday, and on Saturday mornings until noon.