Get some free and frugal fun in Los Angeles between now and April 30 with L.A.’s Discover the Arts program!
Supported by the L.A. Inc., the Los Angeles Visitors & Convention Bureau, the program offers some cool free and frugal options to 30+ cultural attractions, some of them lesser known. Offerings include Buy 1 admission to The Grammy Museum and get 1 free, get a free gift with coupon when you visit the free admission California Science Center, or get 50% off adult tickets to the National History Museum.
Be sure to view each offer as they vary. Up to 50% admission does not mean all venues are 50% off. Some are lower discounts, but still a frugal way to have fun! Remember to print out the coupon for each offer.
Hop to the Free Year of the Rabbit Fest!
Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit with FREE admission to the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, Saturday, Jan. 29. Plus experience the free family-friendly fun at the museum’s lunar festival from 11am to 5pm.
The free lunar festival festivities will be held throughout the Museum, including a fully tented parking lot. One of only 4 museums in the U.S. devoted to the arts & culture of Asia and the Pacific Islanders, the museum’s galleries will be open for free.
Make your own calligraphy scroll, learn how to do Chinese flower arranging, watch a traditional Lion Dance.
The Lion Dance is only one of several free performances during the day. Watch teapot balancing, Chinese cultural dances, puppet shows, magic acts, martial arts and acrobatics.
No reservations or tickets required.
Free Tiger-rific Puppet Show1
Master the fine art of experiencing free family-friendly fun in L.A. with Walt Disney Music Hall’s World City shows on select Saturdays. Upcoming Sat. Jan. 22 is a masterful puppet theater performance from Taiwan.
Directed by Taiwan’s leading female puppeteer, Shi-Mei Chiang, Chen Kuai Le Puppet Theater has perfected this traditional art, which can be seen for free at 11am and 12:30pm. The theater is also devoted to the training of new puppeteers; the company includes Chiang’s son and grandson. In additional to the wonderfully colorful puppets, the performance is accompanied by live traditional Taiwanese music.
Tickets are required but are FREE. Here’s how to get them on a first come first serve basis: They are distributed on Grand Avenue at 2nd Street. Tickets for 11am performance given out starting at 10am. Tickets for 12:30pm performance distributed at 11am.
WHERE:
Walt Disney Concert Hall – W.M. Keck Foundation Children’s Amphitheatre
111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90012
Write On Girls!
WriteGirl is the sisterhood of girl writers celebrating the release of a new book at this free event at Borders, Hollywood, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2 to 3pm.
Beyond Words, the 10th anthology from WriteGirl, is better than a single novel. It’s jamming with poetry, stories, lyrics and essays of more than 100 teen girls and women writers. All thanks to to efforts of WriteGirl, the California 2010-2011 nonprofit of the year.
Meet the mentors: Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness), Cecil Castellucci (Boy Proof), Marcia Wallace (The Simpsons and The Young and the Restless), and Mimi Kennedy (Due Date and Private Practice).
Parking: Limited street. Borders lot: Enter just north of Sunset Blvd., west of Vine, on Morningside Court; 1 hour free with validation, then $2 each 20 minutes. MAP to Borders, 1501 Vine Street, Hollywood.
Give your mind a day of service with FREE admission to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Monday, January 17, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Open from noon to 8pm, LACMA is free all day. Plus enjoy a live performance with the legendary jazz group the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra.
While LACMA is free admission this Monday, tickets are required. Just pick them up from the LACMA box office any time LACMA is open Monday.
The free admission day at LACMA is one of several sponsored by Target. Upcoming:
Presidents’ Day, Monday, February 21
Memorial Day, Monday, May 30
Labor Day, Monday, September 5
* Does not include free admission to ticketed exhibitions.
Yeah, baby, these teeth are real!
TGIF with free Friday fun at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach!
Looking for a cool but cheap date night? Hold hands while you see eye-to-eye with the ocean’s ultimate predators during the Aquarium’s Friday Shark Lagoon Nights. The aquarium is free admission from 6pm to 9pm these nights, which run through April 29.
Touch bamboo sharks and see large sharks such as sandtigers and rays in the Aquarium’s Shark Lagoon. Share a cup of coffee, hot cocoa or sip beer, wine and sample desserts, which are available for purchase.
Please note that while it is almost every Friday, some Fridays are excluded. Check the dates for availability before you go. Shark Lagoon Nights can be canceled due to inclement weather.
Artist Timara Lotah's Traditional Tule Dolls
Looking for a free fun family outing this weekend in the L.A. area? Head north on the 101 Freeway to the Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center in Newbury Park for one of two free workshops on how to make Native American tule dolls, this Sunday, January 9.
Chumash artisan Timara Lotah leads the free two-hour art and culture workshops at the center nestled in Rancho Sierra Vista, a National Park site. All ages are welcome. Parking is also free.
The first workshop is 10am to noon and the second is 1pm to 3pm. Sponsored by Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, get more information by calling the National Park Service Visitor Center at 805.370.2301.
How to get there: Take Lynn Rd exit off the 101 FWY. Go West on Lynn Rd (If coming from L.A. turn left on Lynn Rd. If coming from Ventura, go right on Lynn Rd.) Turn left on Via Goleta. Continue all the way to a parking lot where the road ends. Walk 0.3 miles to the Culture Center.
Angelenos Get a Free Ride
Finally, Los Angeles is getting a FREE ride — at least on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve!
The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is offering Angelenos free rides on Metro buses and trains, making it easier to have fun on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
The free Metro rides are offered from 9pm to 2am, December 24 to 25 and December 31 to January 1. Be sure to check the holiday schedule at www.metro.net or call 1.800.COMMUTE.
Lighten up!
This FREE 102-year-old Christmas Boat Parade of 200+ vessels shimmers for 5 consecutive nights for a 14-mile route around Newport Beach harbor. Designated one of the top 10 holiday happenings in the U.S. by the N.Y. Times, the free lighted holiday boat parade sets the harbor ablaze Wednesday, Dec. 15 and to Sunday, Dec. 19 from 6:30PM to 9PM.
Ring of Lights Newport Beach
Gaze at the dazzling display of gleaming multi-million dollar yachts, sleek sailboats, cute canoes and other small boats, many decorated with animated Christmas scenes accompanied by music and costumed carolers. Considered Newport Beach’s Christmas card to the world, the boat parade serves as the backdrop is the annual “Ring of Lights” — bayside homes and businesses surrounding the harbor featuring everything from roof-top animated scenes to dancing Christmas trees. View it all for FREE from surrounding public areas, including the Balboa Pier.
Hammer Down Admission Fees
Come together with classical and contemporary art with free admission at the UCLA Hammer Museum through Saturday, Dec. 18.
Opened in 1990 as a showcase of former Occidental Petroleum Chairman Armand Hammer’s personal collection of old master paintings and drawings, the 14,000-square-foot museum, now managed by UCLA, exhibits Hammer’s permanent collection, primarily Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings by artists such as Cassatt, Monet and Van Gogh. The museum also rotates displays from Hammer’s collection of Honore Daumier and contemporaries. Woven in the mix are temporary exhibitions of under represented and contemporary artists from all fields of visual arts.
Upstairs from the museum is the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, housing 45,000 prints, photos, drawings and artists’ books from the Renaissance to today. Open by appointment only Monday – Friday.
The museum is usually free to all every Thursday. The extra free admission days are part of the Hammer’s 20th anniversary celebration. You save $7 on adult admission, $5 seniors by visiting on a free admission day. The Hammer is also free for Museum members, students with ID, UCLA faculty and staff, military personnel, veterans, and visitors 17 and under accompanied by an adult.
