Museum memberships

[fabrisse]

So.

I live in a city with lots of free museums and a couple that cost money (Phillips and Corcoran). I also like to travel and have been looking into booking trains well in advance to get CHEAP tickets to places for a day or weekend from time to time.

There seems to be a membership thingy at The Metropolitan Museum of Art whereby a membership with the MFA in Boston or the MFA in Philadelphia can get you entry to the MET (and a couple of museums in Pittsburgh as well). The thing is I can only find information if I type in reciprocal on the Met's webpage, and I can't tell which membership level it links to. If it's the basic yearly membership, then it's entirely worth it for me. If it only kicks in at $100 or above, it isn't.

Can anyone tell me if a) Membership in the MFA Boston gets me the same deal (entry to Corcoran, MFA Philadelphia, and MET/Cloisters + any others) and b) what level of membership I'd need to take advantage -- through MFA Boston for preference, but I'll take the MET?

Comments

[eanja]

The Boston MFA does, but only if you sign up for one of the $250 ambassador level and up memberships. So basically, as a single adult, they charge you $175 extra for it.

I'd love to know if the Philly MFA has a affordable reciprocal deal- I'd love to go to the MET, but the price is very steep (especially since it theoretically covers the cloisters, but of course it's pretty much impossible to see both of them in one day, so you'd realistically have to pay them separately.)

[eanja]

Also, if you look at the MET membership page, it does list the reciprocal stuff as a specific benefit under the $500 membership, so presumably it does not apply to the lower ones.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Thank you for finding that. I did eventually find it for the MFA Boston, but never did find it for the MET. Definitely out of my price range.

Corcoran is looking like a bargain, though. And Art Institute of Chicago isn't too bad. I'm seriously considering taking a long weekend there, just because it's been so long since I've been.

If I decide to do one, I'll see if we can meet up in New York or even Philadelphia and you can be the second person on my entrance. *G*

[eanja]

Sounds good to me :-).

[hotpoint.livejournal.com]

Hello! These are the membership levels where reciprocal admission privileges kick in at the museums you mentioned:

MET: Sustaining ($550) List here (http://www.metmuseum.org/member/me_reciprocal)
MFA Boston: Ambassador ($250) List here (http://www.mfa.org/membership/membership-faq#reciprocal)
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Ambasssador ($225) Buried in JavaScript here (http://www.philamuseum.org/membership/levels.html)
Corcoran: Supporting ($160) List here (http://www.corcoran.org/membership/reciprocal_museums.php)

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has a Friend level ($100) that includes all the museums you mentioned but the MET: List here (http://membership.walkerart.org/discounts.wac?id=1666)

If you decide to take advantage of any of these I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I can live with having a membership in Minneapolis to pay for my museum habit East of the Mississippi (and LACMA).

Thank you for researching it.