Connecticut museums will let kids in for free again this summer

Kids can explore Connecticut museums for free again this summer. From July 1 through Sept. 4, the CT Summer at the Museum program will provide free admission for Connecticut children aged 18 and under, as well as one adult caregiver accompanying them.

The program was established by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2021 to make it easier for families to get out again following the COVID-19 shutdown. It is overseen by the Connecticut Office of the Arts and CT Humanities.

The deadline for museums to apply for state grants to cover the costs of providing free admission was June 23 and the list of 2023 participants has not yet been released. Last year, 71 Connecticut museums received grants to take part in CT Summer at the Museum. Other museums provided free admission but did not need to apply for the grants.

Among the Hartford area participants in the first two years of CT Summer at the Museum were Connecticut Science Center, The Children’s Museum in West Hartford, Connecticut’s Old State House, Connecticut Historical Society, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Mark Twain House & Museum, Real Art Ways and Wadsworth Atheneum. The Wadsworth already offers free admission for all Hartford residents. Other participants have included both of the state’s major aquariums, in Mystic and Norwalk, the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, the Shoreline Trolley Museum in Branford, Kidcity in Middletown and the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington.

Some arts institutions were inspired by the CT Summer at the Museum to change their admission policies altogether. When the first year of the program ended in the summer of 2020, the New Britain Museum of American Art decided to continue offering free admission to children indefinitely, and found its own funding source to do so.

The grants are administered by CT Humanities, the Middletown-based nonprofit arts organization that was founded nearly 50 years ago to manage arts grants from state, federal and other sources.

To be eligible for the grants, the museums must fit the program’s definition of a museum, be located in Connecticut and be open at least eight hours a week between July 1 and Sept. 4. The grants cover lost admission fees but also expenses that may happen due to an increased number of visitors. The minimum grant is $1,000 but some museums have received as much as $2,700,000.

More information about the CT Summer at the Museum free admission program is at cthumanities.org.