New-York Historical Society Joins Museum and Performance Venues in All Five Boroughs Offering Free Passes to Library Card Holders
Culture Pass, the library-led initiative which provides patrons with free access to cultural institutions welcomed its 100th partner today. The New-York Historical Society joins museums, historic sites, gardens, and performance venues in all five boroughs in providing free passes to library card holders. Since the launch in 2018, the program has distributed 315,000 passes, worth just over $15 million.
“We’re very excited for Culture Pass users to visit us at the New-York Historical Society on the Upper West Side, right across from Central Park,” said Louise Mirrer, President and CEO, New-York Historical. “We have four floors of fascinating exhibitions and displays, revealing untold stories and diverse perspectives from history. Our DiMenna Children’s History Museum gives kids the opportunity to understand what childhood was like in the past through interactive kiosks, and we offer a variety of story times, crafts, and other fun activities for all ages.”
The Culture Pass program launched nearly six years ago with 33 museums, gardens, and historic sites. Now, library card holders can access over 100 sites, including 30 performance venues. Culture Pass organizations generously donate passes to the program on a monthly basis, building awareness, expanding audiences, and providing free access for library patrons to New York’s world-class museums and cultural institutions.
Approximately 75 percent of Culture Pass users report using a pass to go to a cultural site they had not visited before and over half the reservations have been made by New Yorkers living in low or mixed-income neighborhoods.
Library card holders can visit the Culture Pass website and follow the prompts to reserve a pass. Patrons can reserve one pass per cultural institution per calendar year and have up to four active reservations at one time.
In addition to providing passes, select cultural organizations provide educational programs at branch libraries including workshops, readings, artist or author talks, and other engagement opportunities.
Culture Pass has also partnered with Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app, that features expert-curated content and guides to hundreds of museums around the world—including dozens of Culture Pass partner organizations in NYC like the New-York Historical Society. From trip-planning tools and interactive maps to video, audio, and text content, Bloomberg Connects can help patrons enhance their next cultural outing.
“Whether through the pages of a book or through the doors of one of our city’s world class cultural institutions, library cards give New Yorkers access to a diversity of information and experiences. Thousands of New Yorkers have used their library cards to visit New York’s first-class art museums, gardens, performance venues and historical sites, including our newest partner, the New-York Historical Society,” said Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library. “We extend our sincere thanks to all of the cultural organizations who generously donate free passes each month.”
“It’s been great to see more New Yorkers explore and enjoy the city’s wonderful cultural institutions through the free access provided by Culture Pass,” said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx. “In a relatively short time, we’ve seen this innovative program flourish, with many vibrant institutions coming on board. Opportunities for learning, and opening up new worlds, is at the heart of everything we do at NYPL, so I couldn’t be more delighted to welcome the New-York Historical Society as our 100th partner.”
“Now in its sixth year, Culture Pass has become part of the city’s fabric, granting free access for all to New York’s finest cultural institutions simply with a library card,” said Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis M. Walcott. “We are thrilled that the number of participating venues has nearly tripled since the program’s inception, and that the Big Apple’s first museum —the New-York Historical Society – is now among the options.”
Support for Culture Pass is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
About Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn Public Library is one of the nation’s largest library systems and among New York City’s most democratic institutions. Providing innovative library service for over 125 years, we support personal advancement, foster civic literacy, and strengthen the fabric of community among the more than 2.6 million individuals who call Brooklyn home. We are a global leader in the fight for the freedom to read through our Books Unbanned initiative, offering teens across the US access to the library’s online catalog. We provide nearly 65,000 free programs a year with writers, thinkers, artists, and educators—from around the corner and around the world. And we give patrons millions of opportunities to enjoy one of life’s greatest satisfactions: the joy of a good book.
About New York Public Library
For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library receives millions of visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.
About Queens Public Library
Queens Public Library is one of the largest and busiest public library systems in the United States, dedicated to serving the most ethnically and culturally diverse area in the country. An independent, non-profit organization founded in 1896, Queens Public Library offers free access to a collection of more than 5 million books and other materials in 50 languages, technology, and digital resources. Each year, the Library hosts tens of thousands of online and in-person educational, cultural, and civic programs and welcomes millions of visitors through its doors. With a presence in nearly every neighborhood across the borough of Queens, the Library consists of 66 locations, including branch libraries, a Central Library, seven adult learning centers, a technology center located in the nation’s largest public housing complex, and has five teen centers, two bookmobiles, and two book bicycles.
About the New-York Historical Society
Experience 400 years of history through groundbreaking exhibitions, immersive films, and thought-provoking conversations among renowned historians and public figures at the New-York Historical Society, New York’s first museum. A great destination for history since 1804, the Museum and the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library convey the stories of the city and nation’s diverse populations, expanding our understanding of who we are as Americans and how we came to be. Ever-rising to the challenge of bringing little or unknown histories to light, New-York Historical will soon inaugurate a new wing housing its Academy for American Democracy as well as the American LGBTQ+ Museum. These latest efforts to help forge the future by documenting the past join New-York Historical’s DiMenna Children’s History Museum and Center for Women’s History. Digital exhibitions, apps, and our For the Ages podcast make it possible for visitors everywhere to dive more deeply into history. Connect with us at nyhistory.org or at @nyhistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Tumblr.