There is a recurring free museum weekend in Los Angeles that runs every month, covers two of the city's larger institutions, requires no booking and no queue at seven in the morning, and is attached to a piece of plastic that several million people in this county are already carrying. The reason nobody uses it is that it is run by a bank, and nobody reads anything a bank sends them.
The best recurring free weekend in the city is attached to a card most people already carry and never think about. Ask Karpo which ones near you are open this weekend.
How it works
Bank of America runs a programme called Museums on Us. On the first full weekend of every month, holders of a Bank of America, Merrill or Bank of America Private Bank credit or debit card get free general admission to participating museums. You show the card and photo identification at the desk.
In Los Angeles the participating institutions include LACMA and the Skirball Cultural Center. Nationally the programme covers more than two hundred and twenty-five museums across a hundred and forty-eight cities in forty states plus Washington DC, which makes it the largest standing free-admission arrangement in the country and is useful well beyond the city you live in.
Read 'first full weekend' carefully
This is the detail that catches people out every few months. It is the first full weekend, meaning the first Saturday and Sunday that both fall within the month — so if a month begins on a Sunday, the free weekend is not the one containing the 1st.
Check the date for the specific month rather than assuming it is the first Saturday you see on a calendar, because turning up on the wrong weekend and paying full admission for two adults is an expensive way to learn the rule.
What it covers and what it does not
It is general admission. Ticketed special exhibitions are not included, and at LACMA in particular the headline show is frequently a separate ticket — so a free weekend gets you the permanent collection and the general galleries, not necessarily the exhibition you saw on a billboard.
It also covers the cardholder rather than functioning as a family pass. A couple who both bank there should each bring their own card; a group of four with one card between them should expect to pay for three. Parking is separate everywhere and, at LACMA, is a genuine cost worth planning around.
- First full weekend of every month, Saturday and Sunday
- Bank of America, Merrill or BofA Private Bank credit or debit card, plus photo ID
- In Los Angeles: LACMA and the Skirball Cultural Center participate
- Nationally: 225-plus museums, 148 cities, 40 states and Washington DC
- General admission only — ticketed special exhibitions and parking are extra
Doing both in one day
LACMA is on Wilshire in the Miracle Mile; the Skirball is up in the Sepulveda Pass off the 405. That is fifteen to twenty-five minutes apart on a weekend, which makes both in a day entirely realistic if you sequence it properly.
Do the Skirball first. It opens at ten at weekends and closes at five, which is an earlier finish than LACMA, so taking it in the morning avoids the one hard constraint in the day. Then come down the 405 and across to Wilshire for the afternoon, with lunch somewhere along Fairfax between the two.
If you would rather not spend the day driving, take one and use the other next month. The programme repeats twelve times a year, which removes any urgency from the decision — the entire advantage of a recurring free day over a one-off.
What to do with a free LACMA day
The campus is mid-transformation and has been for years, which is worth knowing so you arrive with the right expectations. Parts of it are a building site, parts are a new building, and the permanent collection is distributed across the site rather than laid out in one obvious sequence.
Go with two or three specific things in mind instead of trying to read it as a whole. The outdoor works are free to stand among at any time and are the correct place to start or finish, and the surrounding stretch of Wilshire — the Tar Pits immediately east, the Academy Museum immediately west — means a free morning here sits inside a genuinely dense afternoon if you want to extend it.
Using the programme outside Los Angeles
The part most cardholders never realise is that this travels. More than two hundred and twenty-five participating museums across forty states means that if the first full weekend of the month happens to coincide with a trip, the same card works at a major institution in whichever city you have landed in.
That is worth thirty or forty dollars a head in most places and rather more in a few. Check the participating list against wherever you are going before you buy a ticket at a desk — it is the single most valuable and least advertised thing attached to an ordinary current account.
The Skirball's other route in
Worth knowing if you do not bank with Bank of America: the Skirball is free to everybody every Thursday anyway. So for that half of the pairing, the card weekend is only useful if a weekday is impossible for you.
Which sharpens what the card is actually for in this city. It is the LACMA half that matters — a large institution with no comparable standing free day — and the Skirball is a bonus you could have had on a Thursday for nothing.
Getting to each one
LACMA is on Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and La Brea, with the Metro D Line extension having put rail within reach of the Miracle Mile — a significant improvement on a district that was car-only for decades. Parking on site is paid and the surrounding streets are heavily restricted on weekends.
The Skirball is straightforward by car with parking on site and essentially unreachable without one. On a Saturday the 405 through the pass is far kinder than on a weekday afternoon, which is another argument for putting it first in the day.
Practical notes
Bank of America's Museums on Us gives Bank of America, Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank credit and debit cardholders free general admission on the first full weekend of every month, on presentation of the card and photo ID. Participating Los Angeles institutions include LACMA and the Skirball Cultural Center; nationally the programme covers more than 225 museums in 148 cities across 40 states and Washington DC. It covers general admission only, not ticketed special exhibitions, and not parking. Check the exact dates each month, since the first full weekend is not always the first Saturday. Do the Skirball in the morning — it closes at 5pm — and LACMA in the afternoon. The Skirball is separately free to everyone on Thursdays.
Tags: #LosAngeles #LACMA #Skirball #WeekendPlans #MuseumsOnUs #FreeMuseumDay #ThingsToDoLA #MiracleMile #SepulvedaPass #Museums #Budget #LAWeekend #Art #DayOut
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know which free weekends near you are on, what they cover and what they do not? Ask Karpo and build the day around the ones that overlap.
