July 2011 Museums On US and other museum freebies

Bank of America’s Museums On Us program offers Bank of America and Merrill Lynch credit or debit card holders (along with a photo ID), the opportunity to visit over 150 cultural institutions in over 87 cities located in 29 states, free of charge on the first full weekend of every month.This month Museums on Us will take place on July 2, 2011 and July 3, 2011, so add this to your list of fun things to do over the July 4th weekend. This offer excludes fundraising events, special exhibitions and ticketed shows and cannot be combined with other offers.

Several participating museums also offer additional ways to visit their collections for free or at discounted prices. This information is listed below along with each museum’s current exhibitions.

Here’s what you can expect to see this month::

Museum of Fine Arts

Harvard Museum of Natural History

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden

Cape Cod Museum of Art

Worcester Art Museum

Mass MoCA

Here’s what you can expect to see these museums this weekend:

Museum of Fine Arts

In addition to participating in Museums on Us, the Museum of Fine Arts is celebrating the holiday weekend by offering free admission on Friday July 1, 2011 from 10am to 9:45pm.

Ending soon:

Mirror of Holland : Drawings from the George and Maida Abrams Collection - Ending July 31

Modernist Photography 1910-1950 - Ending July 3

New this month:

Europe at Mid-Century : Dubuffet, Giacometti, Picasso

Ongoing:

Art of the Americas Wing

Community Arts Initiative : And Their Families

Global Patterns : Dress and Textiles in Africa

Embroideries of Colonial Boston : Pictorial Embroideries

An Unspoken Dialogue with Japanese Tea

Preserving History, Making History : The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Goddess of Music and Good Fortune

Two Masters of Fantasy : Bresdin and Redon

Violet Isle : A Photographic Portrait of Cuba by Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb

Harvard Museum of Natural History

In addition to participating in Museums On Us, the Harvard Museum of Natural History offers free admission to current Harvard I.D. holders and a guest. They also offer free admission to Massachusetts residents every Sunday morning from 9am to noon (all year), and on Wednesdays from 3pm to 5pm (September – May). The museum also participates in the CityPASS program.

Special exhibits:

Headgear: The Natural History of Horns and Antlers

The Language of Color

Climate Change: Our Global Experiment

Permanent exhibits:

New England Forests in the Zofnass Family Gallery

Africa Gallery

Great Mammal Hall

Evolution

Arthropods: Creatures that Rule

The Glass Flowers

The Zoological Galleries

The Mineralogical and Geological Gallery

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden

This summer the DeCordova is also offering free weekday admission from July 5, 2011 to September 2, 2011; Tuesday – Friday 10am to 5pm, and on Thursday until 8pm.

Ursula von Rydingsvard: Sculpture

Andy Goldsworthy: Snow

Wall Works

Special Project: Nature Special

Cape Cod Museum of Art

This museum is also offering free admission on Fridays beginning July 8, 2011 from 10am – 5pm, courtesy of the Highland Street Foundation. Then on July 9, 2011, bring the whole family for free admission to family day when there were be lots of fun activities, hands-on demonstrations and tours.

Ending soon:

Twosomes, Photography by Mark Chester – Ending July 10

Varujan Boghosian:recent works - Ending July 31

Edward Giobbi:collages & paintings - Ending July 31

New:

The Great Silenceby Lorrie Fredette

Perspectives on the Provincetown Art Colony

Ongoing:

Matryoshka Dolls: A Collection of Malcolm Shriber

The art of Cape Cod - 200 years

Currently on exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum:

Leisure, Pleasure, and the Debut of the Modern French Woman