Many of Boston’s best-known cultural institutions will be letting in Boston families with school-aged children for free twice a month under an expanded initiative..
The popular program, which launched as a pilot in February under Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration, will continue through December 2026.
The expanded effort, named “Boston Family Days,” allows any Boston child from kindergarten through 12th grade, plus up to two of their family members, to get free admission on the first and second Sundays of every month at participating institutions.
“We have the world’s best institutions here,” Wu said on GBH’s The Culture Show Wednesday. “Now we are able to guarantee that all young people growing up in Boston essentially have a birthright to be able to experience and have full ownership over these amazing windows to the world.”
She said the pilot program proved how the cost of attendance had been a barrier for many. Standard admission can be upwards of $100 for an entire family to spend the day at one of the institutions.
“Nearly 50% of the families who arrived were reporting that they were coming for the very first time to that institution,” Wu said of the pilot program participants. “And so you have kids growing up in Boston, maybe their parents as well, who always felt like some spaces weren’t for them in our city. And at it’s heart, this program is about making each of these institutions feel like home, because they really belong to everyone.”
Families and Boston city councilors had criticized the pilot for only covering Boston Public Schools students. While more than two-thirds of Boston children attend the city’s public schools, about 20,000 go to charter schools, parochial schools, out-of-district public schools, and other institutions.
One other change to the program is that it reduces the number of guests each child can have, from three down to two.
The Franklin Park Zoo, the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, the Boston Children’s Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art are all returning to the program. It’s been expanded to also include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of African American History and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Boston Family Days is partly funded with city dollars, and also money from Jim and Cathy Stone, Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Barr Foundation and Amazon.
“I think making new memories, and having this be such an important part of how our young people are developing — that’s something that really appeals to any organization looking to make an impact,” Wu said.
Any families where the children do not attend Boston Public Schools will need to enroll online directly with the city. The signup will go live later this month.
The expanded program runs through 2026, but the mayor already has her sights set on what could come after that.
“We very much hope this is the new model moving forward,” Wu said. “Obviously we still have to measure and see how it goes for the institutions, and how all the logistics work out in this new step, but we wanted to give it enough of a period of time to have all the resources in place to guarantee that.”
