Free Admission with Smithsonian's Museum Day Live!

Smithsonian is making it easy for you to be a Local Tourist. Museum Day Live! returns with free admission at museums all over the country. Smithsonian magazine has partnered with Microsoft to bring you a day of education, learning, and fun, for free!

There are more than 1200 museums participating in this free day.

You need a ticket to take advantage of the free admission, and that ticket is good for you and a guest. Make note: there can be only one. You can’t just download tickets willy-nilly. The rules state one ticket per email address, and once you select that museum, you can’t change it. You can see all the FAQs here. 

There are many participating museums in Chicago, including the Adler Planetarium. After you’ve gazed at the stars you can dive into the sea at their neighbor, the Shedd Aquarium. That lovely institution is free September 4- 30, no ticket required. 

Click here for all the free museum days for the rest of 2018.

You could also take a day trip, with a quick jaunt to Galena and the U.S. Grant Museum, or see how 1920s Chicago high society lived at the Lake of the Red Cedars Museum in Cedar Lake, Indiana. 

Below are the participating museums in Chicago and the surrounding area. Pick one, or go with a friend and you can each pick your favorite!

Adler Planetarium 

American Writers Museum

Aurora Regional Fire Museum, Aurora

Barrington History Museum, Barrington

Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso, IN

Chicago History Museum

DuSable Museum of African American History 

Geneva History Museum, Geneva

Glessner House Museum

Hoosier Grove Museum, Streamwood

Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art, Elmhurst

Mayslake Peabody Estate, Oak Brook

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum

National Hellenic Museum

National Museum of the American Sailor, Great Lakes

SciTech Hands On Museum, Aurora

Smart Museum of Art (free every day)

Stacy’s Tavern Museum, Glen Ellyn

Swedish American Museum

The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Willowbrook Wildlife Center, Glen Ellyn

Find even more free things to do in Chicago!