Choose wisely. Due to generous grants, some museums in New York City are free 100 percent of the time. The National Museum of the American Indian is free every day and provides guided tours at no additional charge.
Visit museums on their weekly free nights. For example, the Whitney Museum of American Arts, located at 945 Madison Avenue, is pay-what-you-wish every Friday Night and stays open until 9pm.
Donate. Many major museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History, operate on donations. Though you must pay something, entrance is granted on as little as a penny or as much as the suggested price of twenty-two dollars.
Visit on a special occasion. Every summer in early June, New York City opens its museums along Fifth Avenue free to the public for the annual event Museum Mile. El Museo del Barrio, the Museum of the City of New York, the Jewish Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the National Academy Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Neue Galerie of Art, the Goethe-Institut/German Cultural Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are all free of charge to the public for 3 to 4 hours in the evening.
