Friday, September 28, 2007

Visit a Museum Near You Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the third annual Smithsonian Magazine's National Museum Day. Designed to promote awareness of historical and cultural institutions nationwide and to encourage people to be tourists in their own backyard, the day has several hundred participating institutions nationwide. If you're American, there's bound to be one near you! On this day, Smithsonian members get in free to participating museums. And if you're bitterly regretting not returning that subscription card, you can go online and print out an admission card (clicking on the post title will take you there) that will get you and a friend in for free.

My own august institution is participating. I can speak only for it, of course, but we've definitely ramped it up a little. We're having a book signing with a local author who writes about topics relevant to our museum, a talk about everyday preservation with a curator from another museum (who is a friend and mentor of mine), a storybook character in the morning for the kids, and chips, pop and hot dogs for sale all day long (what can I say, it's an excellent money spinner!). So if any of you will be sitting around bored tomorrow, don't be. Get out there and visit a museum!