The SoCal Museums Free-For-All Returns in March

academy-museum — The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Brian Champlin.

One of our favorite events is set to return, but in 2024 you’ll have to way just a few more weeks than usual for the big day.

SoCal Museums annual free admission promo has (pandemic hiatus notwithstanding) normally been held at the tail end of January or early February… a winter affair. This year, however, the tentpole of freebies pops up on Saturday, March 23, four days after the official start of spring.

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What won’t change is that there will be some thirty museums participating, including more than two dozen in the Greater Los Angeles area. The list features locations that provide free admission year-round (The Getty, The Getty Villa, The Broad, etc…) joining others that normally charge for entry (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Autry, Skirball Cultural Center, etc…). The free tickets, which in most cases you’ll have to reserve through each individual museum’s website, are good for regular admission, and don’t include special exhibitions. And of course parking fees still apply.

My two cents? The free-for-all is sure to draw big crowds, so book early and consider homing in on a particular geographical area where institutions are clustered, which will save you on both parking costs and transportation headaches.

For example, you could swing over to over to Wilshire Blvd along Museum Row where you can walk to LACMA, La Brea Tar Pits Museum, and the Academy Museum. Or maybe you’ll stick to DTLA, where you might use Metro to shuttle between The GRAMMY Museum, The Broad, and the Japanese American National Museum.

Your choice!

Either way there are lots of options, all of which you can see below.