Mission
The Free Admission Campaign is a privately financed public policy effort that strives to codify, ensure the enforcement of the incorporated and amended laws of a mid19th-century public-private partnership and make publicly available the facts about New Yorkers’ right to free admission to 17 of the city’s most historic and iconic cultural park institutions.
Vision
The Free Admission Campaign’s vision is to return the 17 museums, gardens, zoos and the aquarium located on public-parkland to their original public-private partnership purposes of free access, popular instruction and entertainment for all New Yorkers.
About the Free Admission Campaign
The Free Admission Campaign was founded in 2012 by native New Yorker, Pat Nicholson. In 2015, Pat was a successful co-litigant in a lawsuit leading to the changing of deceptive signage regarding The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s pay-what-you-wish policy. Additionally, in 2023, the campaign helped introduce a study bill to the state legislature that asked state lawmakers to review the original founding laws of these institutions to uncover and affirm the initial free admission rights promised to New Yorkers. The S.3747/A.4519 bill was sponsored by Senator Cordell Cleare and Assemblyman Charles Fall. The bill is still in committee. The campaign aims to make publicly available the facts about New Yorkers’ reciprocal right to free admission and popular instruction to 17 of the city’s most historic cultural park institutions. The 17 institutions include American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of the City of New York, New York Botanical Garden, New York Hall of Science, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island Zoo, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wave Hill, Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo. The campaign has been featured in Forbes, City & State, New York Daily News, amNY, Next City and more.
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