Free Admission at Smith College Museum of Art

Advances Access, Accessibility and Inclusion

By: Smith - Sep 26, 2023

 

Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) is now free to all visitors starting immediately. By ending paid admission, the museum advances access, accessibility and inclusion for our neighbors and surrounding communities. SCMA has provided free or reduced admission to many visitors in the past, but moving forward there will be no cost barrier to engaging with art on the Smith College campus.

All activities will be accessible for free, including gallery tours, public programming and art making opportunities for all ages. Thousands of visitors annually enjoy exhibitions,  installations and teaching galleries curated from 28,000 objects and artworks in the SCMA collection.

This investment in community has been made possible by Smith alumnae Jan Fullgraf Golann ‘71 and Jane Timken ‘64. "Connecting people with art is fundamental to the mission of the Smith College Museum of Art. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Jan Fullgraf Golann and Jane Timken, I'm thrilled that admission to the museum is now free for all visitors," says Jessica Nicoll, Director and Louise Ines Doyle '34 Chief Curator. The alumnae network has truly demonstrated a spirit of openness and sharing through this gift. Smith College joins many peer institutions across the nation in removing the admission fee for its museum.

SCMA is currently conducting site improvements to support increased community engagement. Construction will continue at the museum building on Elm Street throughout the end of August 2023. Visitors are welcome and there will be updated signage to help them locate the best path into the building. Group tours will be paused until fall 2023, when staff and guides will accept new requests. Visit our website for updates on art on view at https://scma.smith.edu/art/on-view/current also attached here as a pdf file.

As a teaching museum affiliated with Smith College, SCMA is dedicated to connecting people to art, ideas and each other by engaging people with firsthand experiences of art, artists and museum practice; collecting, researching, presenting and preserving an expansive collection of art in the service of learning, teaching and critical dialogue; and by fostering an environment that welcomes diverse perspectives  and inspires imagination. In SCMA’s galleries, classrooms and Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, visitors experience a world-class collection that includes modern and contemporary art, American and western European masterworks, antiquities, emerging collections of Asian and African art and a comprehensive collection of works on paper. SCMA and the Museum Shop are open to the public year round Tuesday–Sunday, 11am to 4pm. An accredited member of the American Alliance of Museums and a founding member of Museums10, a regional cultural collaboration, SCMA is also a member of the College Art Association and the New England Museum Association.