40 Southern California museums offering free admission next month

Itching to go on a museum trip? Next month may be the perfect time to get a fix of the wide range of art, cultural heritage and history scattered around Southern California. 

On March 23, 40 institutions are participating in the "Museum Free-for-All" event. 

"We are thrilled, once again, to invite visitors from across Southern California to see the remarkable range of art, cultural heritage, natural history, film, and science that our museums and cultural organizations have to offer,"  Alexa Nishimoto, SoCal Museums President and Marketing Associate, wrote. "The Museums Free-for-All has always been an opportunity for people to see something new or to revisit a treasured spot."  

While visitors will still have to pay for parking at each spot, general admission will be free for many places, including the handful of exhibitions along the iconic Museum Row along Miracle Mile. Some galleries either require or encourage advanced reservations but many more will be open for the public. 

"The Free-for-All also serves as a reminder that many museums here in Southern California are always free and others offer these types of opportunities year-round," Nishimoto wrote.

Below are the museums participating in the event.

• Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (Advanced reservations encouraged. Visit academymuseum.org to make a reservation) 
• American Museum of Ceramic Art (Advanced reservations are required. Visit amoca.org to make a reservation)
• Armory Center for the Arts
• Autry Museum of the American West (Advanced reservations are required. Visit theautry.org to make a reservation) 
• Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
• Bowers Museum
• The Broad (Advanced reservations are encouraged. Visit broad.org to make a reservation) 
• California African American Museum
• California Botanic Garden
• California Science Center
• California Botanic Garden
• California Science Center
• Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum
• Catalina Museum for Art & History
• Cayton Children's Museum (Advanced reservations are required. Visit caytonmuseum.org to make a reservation) 
• Columbia Memorial Space CenterCraft Contemporary
• Forest Lawn Museum
• Fowler Museum at UCLA
• Frederick R. Weisman of Art, Pepperdine University 
• The Getty Center (Timed tickets are required for The Getty Center. Visit getty.edu to make a reservation) 
  
• The Getty Villa (Timed tickets are required for The Getty Villa. Visit getty.edu to make a reservation) 
• GRAMMY Museum
• Hammer Museum
• Holocaust Museum LA (Reservations required. Visit holocaustmuseumla.org)
• Institute of Contemporary Art, LA
• The International Printing Museum
• Japanese American National Museum (Advance tickets strongly recommended. Visit janm.org to make a reservation) 
• Laguna Art Museum
• La Brea Tar Pits & Museum (Advance tickets required. Visit tarpits.org to make a reservation)
  
• LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
• Lincoln Memorial Shrine
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) (Advance tickets are required. Visit lacma.org to make a reservation)
• The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) (Advance tickets are recommended. Visit moca.org to make a reservation) 
• Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)
• Museum of Ventura County
• Orange County Museum of Art
• Santa Barbara Museum of Art
• Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (Advanced reservations encouraged. Visit sbnature.org Sea Center not included) 
• Santa Monica History Museum (Visit santamonicahistory.org to make a reservation)
• Skirball Cultural Center (Advance tickets strongly recommended. Visit skirball.org to make a reservation) 
• Wende Museum
• Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum

The event will not cover specially ticketed exhibits. For more info on the museums participating, click here.