Pasadena's Kidspace To Offer Free Admission During 'Free-for-All'

LOS ANGELES, CA — Mark your calendars: All those amazing local museums you've always intended to explore will open their doors for free next month as part of the 14th annual "Museums Free-for-All."

The free event is scheduled for Feb. 2-3, and dozens of local museums are participating, it was announced Tuesday. Among the participating museums are The Getty Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena's Kidspace Museum, Forest Lawn Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Tolerance.

"For 14 years, this event has brought many thousands of additional visitors from across the region to our exciting and vital museums. It's a special weekend that invites Southern Californians and others to branch out and explore museums they may have never before visited, or to return to familiar spots," said Jennifer Caballero, president of SoCal Museums and marketing director at the Skirball Cultural Center.

``We are thrilled to continue this tradition, which helps keep Southern California culture accessible to all," she said.

The offer is for general museum admission only and does not apply to specially ticketed exhibitions. Regular parking fees apply at each museum. Consult individual museum websites for hours, directions, and other visitor information.

The Free-for-All is also designed to serve as a reminder that free visitor days are available year-round at museums across Southern California. A calendar of free days can be found at socalmuseums.org/free.

The participating museums, and days of free admission on Feb. 2-3, are below:

Both Saturday and Sunday

-- Armory Center for the Arts

-- Automobile Driving Museum

-- The Broad (Free advance general admission tickets strongly recommended to avoid waiting in the standby line. Visitwww.thebroad.orgto make a reservation.)

-- California African American Museum

-- California Science Center (General admission only. A timed reservation with a convenience fee is required for Space Shuttle Endeavour.)

-- Craft and Folk Art Museum

-- Forest Lawn Museum

-- Fowler Museum at UCLA

-- Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art

-- The Getty Center

-- The Getty Villa (Timed tickets are required for the Getty Villa. Visit www.getty.eduto make a reservation.)

-- Hammer Museum

-- Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

-- Laguna Art Museum

-- La Plaza de Cultura y Artes

-- Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

-- Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

-- Museum of Contemporary Art

-- Orange County Museum of Art

-- Pomona College Museum Art Museum

-- Sunnylands Center & Gardens, Rancho Mirage

-- USC Pacific Asia Museum

Saturday Only

-- Autry Museum of the American West

-- Columbia Memorial Space Center

-- Descanso Gardens (Free tickets available at descansogardens.org/tickets.)

-- Japanese American National Museum (Free tickets available at janm.org/freeforall.)

-- Kidspace Museum, Pasadena

-- La Brea Tar Pits and Museum (General admission only; free tickets available at tarpits.org/freeforall.)

-- Los Angeles County Museum of Art

-- Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

-- Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Sea Center

-- Santa Barbara Museum of Art

-- USC Fisher Museum of Art

-- Wende Museum of the Cold War

Sunday Only

-- Bowers Museum, Santa Ana

-- Muckenthaler Cultural Center, Fullerton

-- Museum of Latin American Art

-- Museum of Tolerance

-- Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (General admission only; free tickets available at nhm.org/freeforall.)

-- Palm Springs Art Museum

-- Skirball Cultural Center (Noah's Ark timed-entry, one-hour tickets are limited and distributed first-come, first-served.)

-- Valley Relics Museum

-- Zimmer Children's Museum by Sharewell

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report. Photo: Maria Cormack-Pitts/Patch