NYC Museums With No Admission Fee Ever

NYC has some of the world’s best museums, most of which charge admission, or suggested admission, to $25.

Even though many have FREE admission days or evenings, there also are top museums FREE to visit any time, with no admission fee ever.

Any one of these six FREE museums is worth a visit, whether you are a resident NYC cheapskate or a visiting cheapskate.

And, of course, each of these FREE museums will happily accept a donation.

SEE ALSO 

FREE days & times at NYC museums with admission fees

Get FREE museum admission with the IDNYC card

Several of these museums are included

in the new NYC guidebook by

NYC on the Cheap Editor Evelyn Kanter.

Available now online and in bookstores.

National Museum of the American Indian

The NYC outpost of the NMAI, the Smithsonian museum in Washington, DC, is in Lower Manhattan, a great destination for architectural buffs and for those who appreciate the culture and contributions of Native Americans from the North Pole to the South Pole.

Exhibits are in a Beaux Arts building designed by famed architect Cass Gilbert, with a rotunda that reminds me of the US Capitol, and with carved statues by Daniel Chester French, who also sculpted the iconic statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

There are permanent and rotating exhibits, and films and lectures are also FREE.

The NYC-based Thunderbird American Indian Dancers (one of the members is pictured here) perform here often, and the pre-holiday Native American Art Market brings juried artisans from around the world to what we think is the best arts and crafts market of the season.

• Open daily year-round, 10am to 5pm, Thurs. until 8pm.
• Closed Dec. 25th, Open July 4th and New Year’s Day.