Brooklyn Boro

Brooklyn Public Library’s Culture Pass offers free day passes for museums

July 18, 2018 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
You can get a day pass to get into the Brooklyn Museum for free with a library card, thanks to the new Culture Pass program. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas
Share this:

A Brooklyn Public Library card now provides you with the opportunity to do lot more than just check out the latest spy thriller from your local branch.

Under a new program called Culture Pass, a library card can be used as a ticket into more than 30 museums and cultural institutions around New York City, including such borough icons as the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Historical Society.

The Brooklyn, Queens and New York public library systems are all participating in Culture Pass.

Here’s how Culture Pass works: Library card holders can go online to register to obtain a free day pass to any one of 33 cultural institutions around the five boroughs. When visiting the selected cultural institution, the card holder must display a digital day pass or a printed version in order to gain entry.

The institutions taking part in the program include: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Frick Collection, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, the Louis Armstrong House, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Jewish Museum and the New York Transit Museum.

If you don’t have a library card, now is the time to apply for one.

Linda Johnson, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library, said Culture Pass fits in with the library’s overall mission to bring culture into people’s lives.

“As the most democratic institution in our society, the library’s core mission is to provide resources for learning, culture and creativity to people of all ages and backgrounds, in essence to provide access to the world’s collective knowledge,” Johnson said in a statement after the new program was officially launched on July 16.

The cultural institutions taking part in the program will be donating the free day passes on a monthly basis and will be reserving a portion of the day passes for library card holders living in underserved neighborhoods, according to Brooklyn Public Library officials.

“In a city so rich with creative activity, every New Yorker deserves to have access to transformational cultural experiences,” said New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl.

The program is mutually beneficial to libraries and the city’s cultural hot spots, according to Johnson.

“Culture Pass will help build awareness, expand audiences and provide access for library patrons to New York’s world class museums and cultural institutions. We are thrilled to be joining forces with such esteemed visual arts and science museums,” Johnson said.

Culture Pass is the second major New York City program in which a card can be used to gain entry into a museum.

When the de Blasio administration introduced the IDNYC program in 2015, residents who obtained the city-sponsored identification cards could use them to sign up for year-long free memberships at dozens of cultural institutions in the five boroughs.

The IDNYC cards serve as a form of official identification for residents to use to open bank accounts, enter city buildings such as schools and for interacting with the New York Police Department on summons and desk appearance tickets.

For more information on the Culture Pass program, visit: www.culturepass.nyc.

 

Subscribe to our newsletters


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment