Are you new to Boston? Looking for something unique and fun to do? Look no further than one of the 58 museums the city is home to! There’s a museum for everyone, from history to art enthusiasts. We’ve rounded up three museums that Northeastern students can access for FREE (yes, you read that right!) or at a discounted price using your Northeastern student ID. Read ahead to find out more:
1. Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)
Where: 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Seaport
This waterfront museum is a feast for the senses with its striking architecture, visual arts, and performances. During the summer, the ICA offers sessions every Friday where you can explore the art galleries, take in the harbor view, and enjoy a live music performance. If you’d like to explore further, the ICA is hosting Revival – a monumental large-scale exhibition of artists who reclaim and reuse industrial materials – until September 5, 2022.
Our exhibit pick: we recommend checking out the Swinguerra exhibition (runs until September 5, 2022) which explores the history of underground Brazilian dance and music through video and photography. The exhibition highlights disadvantaged queer communities of color and traces a path in relation to Brazil’s colonial and slave trade history.
How to gain admission: follow the instructions on ICA’s website, and use this code to reserve your FREE ticket: NEU2022ICA. Present your Northeastern ID when you check in at the entrance.
2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Where: 25 Evans Way
Did you know that this museum has a Netflix documentary about it? This is A Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist highlights the 1990 Gardner museum theft, where 13 valuable works of art (including Rembrandt’s portrait of an artist as a young man) were stolen. The works are still missing to this day and their empty frames are on display to the public. If you find this intriguing like we do, head to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, an 8-minute walk from Northeastern’s main campus. So, how did this museum come about? Isabella Stewart was born in New York City and married Jack Gardner, with whom she moved to his hometown in Boston. Isabella was captured by the intellectual prowess of Boston, and during her travels to Europe, began collecting rare books and manuscripts. During her first visit to Venice, she was inspired by the palazzo to create her museum in Boston. One of her most valuable acquisitions is Rembrandt’s self-portrait at the age of 23. This painting set a precedent for the museum to develop a collection where all future purchases would need to match its quality and aristocratic origin.
Our exhibit pick: don’t miss the Drawing the Curtain exhibition (until September 11, 2022), which celebrates Maurice Sendak’s (a children’s book author and illustrator) more than 100 whimsical yet sophisticated illustrations, dioramas, and costumes for opera and ballet.
How to gain admission: buy your timed entry tickets on the museum’s official website. Northeastern students with a current student ID receive discounted tickets for $13.
3. The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA)
Where: 465 Huntington Avenue
The 20th largest museum in the world is right at our main campus’ doorstep with just a 2-minute walk! If you haven’t visited the museum, it is breathtaking. If you have, there is always more to see. The MFA is home to more than 450,000 works of art, including beautiful permanent collections about Ancient Greece and Rome, Prints and Drawings, and Contemporary Art. The museum also exhibits one of the largest collections of the famous impressionist painter, Claude Monet.
Our exhibit pick: the MFA is holding an exhibition (until September 11, 2022) on Philip Guston, a Canadian-American painter, known for his drawings and paintings ranging from everyday scenes to narrative political topics. His work is defined by the “brutality of the world” and the joy that Guston found in the painting process.
How to gain admission: get your FREE general admission and $7 special exhibition tickets at the MFA entrance. Ensure to present your Northeastern student ID to avail the tickets.