The San Diego Natural History Museum, one of Balboa Park's major attractions, hopes to attract new visitors on Museum Day. (Courtesy photo)
Fossils, fine art or fish — on Museum Day, you can explore just about anything you wish.
Smithsonian magazine’s fifth annual Museum Day, scheduled for September 26, is a one-day event where admission fees are waived at participating museums and other cultural attractions across the country.
Many of San Diego’s educational and cultural institutions are participating in the event. So far, 14 locations within the county have volunteered: Birch Aquarium at Scripps; California Center for the Arts, Escondido Museum; Escondido History Center; Mingei International Museum Escondido; Mingei International Museum San Diego; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Oceanside Museum of Art; Reuben H. Fleet Science Center; San Diego Air & Space Museum; San Diego Archaeological Center; San Diego Chinese Historical Museum; San Diego Natural History Museum; The Adobe Chapel Museum and The Whaley House Museum.
The promotion coordinator at Smithsonian Media, Elizabeth Stoll, says that the event has continually grown since its inception and that a record number of museums and other attractions — 1,250 — are participating this year. According to Stoll, roughly 930 locations took part last year while only a couple hundred participated in the first annual event.
Stoll says that one of the reasons museums choose to participate is to “promote culture and learning to the general public.” She says that doing so is the objective of the fee-free Smithsonian Institution Museums in and around Washington, D.C.
“Since the majority of Americans may not be able to make a trip to D.C. every year to see the amazing collections at the Smithsonian for free, five years ago we decided to try to make it so that the general public would be able to have access to this wealth of knowledge in a way that they might not necessarily be able to everyday,” Stoll explains.
This will be the second time the San Diego Natural History Museum opens its doors for the event. Spokeswoman Delle Willett says the museum is hoping to attract new members and visitors.
“I hope that people who haven’t been to the museum in a long time or people who have never been to the museum will take advantage of this free day to come and see what we have to offer,” Willett says.
There are several exhibits to explore at the museum, including the Fossil Mysteries exhibit, which opened in 2005. According to Willett, it is one of the more popular exhibits, and museum attendance and membership “spiked” once it opened.
“If people only come and see one thing, Fossil Mysteries is really an amazing exhibit. The fossils that are in the exhibit were all found here, in our region by our scientists,” Willett says. “A lot of people are really amazed to see the types of animals we had here in the past. They think that they existed in other places, but not here.”
While museum-goers can view fossils of extinct species at the San Diego Natural History Museum, visitors can enjoy hundreds of live creatures at Birch Aquarium at Scripps.
The Birch Aquarium at Scripps will offer plenty of fishy fun on Museum Day. (Courtesy photo)
Executive Director Nigella Hillgarth says that the aquarium would be a great choice for children on Museum Day. In fact, about 50 percent of visitors are between the ages of two and eight.
“We’re very much a family-friendly aquarium,” Hillgarth says. “It’s a wonderful place to bring kids.”
Some of the exhibits are designed for older children and adults, too. In reality, the aquarium offers enough to interest just about anyone as it holds more than 5,000 specimens representing more than 380 species of fish and invertebrate.
Still, if art is what you’re looking for on Museum Day, California Center for the Arts, Escondido has plenty of pieces.
The current exhibit, “Quint: Three Decades of Contemporary Art,” features work from 47 artists. The paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings, prints and more come from artists who have been represented by La Jolla’s Quint Gallery for the past 30 years.
Curator Olivia Luther says that it’s an “honor” to participate in the event and offer free admittance to everyone, including those struggling because of the economy. Aside from promoting knowledge and culture, some museums are participating for this reason, too.
“Any way we can offer to be more accessible, in this case, offering free admission to the public, really helps us and it helps the public out, especially in these economic times,” Luther says. “For us, it’s just another way to become more accessible.”
Kristina Blake is an SDNN intern.
Event info
What: Museum Day
When: Saturday, Sept. 26
Where: At all participating locations
How much: Free. Museum Day admission cards can be downloaded from the Smithsonian magazine’s Web site. Passes are good for general admission into a museum for two people.
Contact: http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday
There are many more museums that will be open in the area. For a list of other museums in San Diego County and across the country that are participating, please visit http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/venue.html
Tags: art center, Birch Aquarium at Scripps, California Center for the Arts, Delle Willett, Elizabeth Stoll, free event, free San Diego museums, museum, Museum Day, Museum Day 2009, Nigella Hillgarth, Olivia Luther, San Diego museums, San Diego Natural History Museum, SDNN, Smithsonian
