Santa Barbara County museums offer reduced admission to low-income families

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - Eighteen museums across Santa Barbara County have joined Museums for All to provide discounted admission for low-income families.

Museums for All is a signature access program of the Institute of Museum and Library Servies and is administered by the Association of Children's Museums. It aims to encourage people of all backgrounds to visit museums regularly and build lifelong museum-going habits.

The program supports those receiving food assistance benefits by offering admission to participating museums at a minimal fee of $0 to $3 per person, up to four people. Visitors need only present a CalFresh (SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer – EBT) card as proof.

Similar free and reduced admission is available to eligible members of the public at more than 700 museums across the country.

The 18 Santa Barbara County museums participating in the program include:

• Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara
• Casa del Herrero
• Dunes Center
• Elverhoj Museum
• Goleta Valley Historical Society
• Lompoc Museum
• Ganna Walska Lotusland
• MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation
• Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara
• Museum of Sensory & Movement Experiences
• Old Misson Santa Barbara
• Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
• Santa Barbara Historical Museum
• Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
• Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History & Sea Center
• Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation
• Santa Barbara Zoo
• Wildling Museum of Art & Nature 

“This collaboration activates the transformative power of the county’s museums and cultural institutions to sustain our residents’ most important human impulses and needs – to open our eyes, to delight our senses, to feed our minds, and to raise up our spirits," said Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History President & CEO Luke J. Swetland. "For those among us who are most economically challenged, these needs are acute and urgent, though too often ignored or sidelined. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is proud and humbled to be a part of this effort to raise all of us up together.” 

“We all want our museums and institutions to be inclusive and to be places where all in our community feel welcome," said Robin Gose, president and CEO of MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation. "We know there are certain people who, for a variety of reasons, don’t choose to visit museums. This county-wide embrace of the Museums for All program is an important step in removing a barrier to attendance. We hope that by offering free or reduced admission, we are eliminating financial reasons for not visiting. For MOXI, it is especially important to offer equitable access to families with children because every child deserves the same opportunities to learn and thrive by having fun learning experiences outside the home or classroom." 

Since the program’s inception in 2014, Museums for All has helped expand access to museums by facilitating more than 3,000,000 visits across the country and raised public awareness about how museums in the U.S. are reaching their entire communities.

More than 700 institutions participate in the initiative, including art museums, children’s museums, science centers, botanical gardens, zoos, history museums, and more. Participating museums are located nationwide, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Virgin Islands.