Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live!

Looking for a fun, interesting, and educational family activity for this weekend?  A host of Western Massachusetts museums will be offering special free admission on Saturday, September 29th, 2012!  10+ museums in locations from Monterey to Deerfield, Amherst to Williamstown, will be taking part in the annual Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day Live! event.  Free admission will be granted at participating museums when a Museum Day ticket is presented (families can print the ticket from the magazine’s website)  – a single ticket provides free admission to two people per household.

Each museum offers a unique learning experience, and the variety is wide enough that families can choose a location to visit based on their kids’ unique interests or subjects they’re learning about.  Various topics in history (local and national) can be examined at the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage in Greenfield, Amherst’s Emily Dickinson Museum, the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, or by visiting historic Bidwell or Merwin Houses (in Monterey and Stockbridge, respectively).

Art enthusiasts can enjoy the galleries at Amherst College’s Mead Art Museum, The Clark Institute in Williamstown, Stockbridge’s Norman Rockwell Museum, or the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst.

The Springfield Museums are on the list, too, and are home to galleries and exhibits covering a wide variety of topics – everything from motorcycle manufacturing to the science of board games.

Adventurous families can even peruse the list of participating museums across the state and take a field trip to a new location!