It is surprising how many people are unaware of reciprocal museum memberships. Most museums have a hidden perk if you become a member–agreements between a large number of museums to let members of other institutions in free.
To see what’s what, visit the webpage of a museum you would consider joining. Almost always, in the list of benefits is a list of other museums they have reciprocal agreements with–meaning you can use your card to get into the others for free. Here’s an example from the Detroit Institute of Art.
And Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
The good news is you can support an art institution and receive this great benefit.
To us, the hard part is remembering to look at the list ahead of time when we travel!
