BPS Sundays a hit with families
Thousands take advantage of free admission to cultural institutions
Thousands of BPS students and families are turning out to take advantage of the new program allowing free entry into museums and cultural institutions on the first two Sundays of each month, city officials said Sunday.
“This is the second official Sunday where six institutions across the city are free for our Boston public school students and their families,” Mayor Michelle Wu said at the Museum of Scienceon Sunday. “We’ve already seen even to this point today, not even the whole day, compared to last week, some of the numbers are already up. And so clearly, our young people are out with their families taking advantage.”
The city launched the “BPS Sundays” pilot program last weekend, making admission to six cultural institutions around Boston free for BPS students and up to three family members of the first two Sundays of each month through August.
The program includes the Boston Children’s Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science, New England Aquarium and Franklin Park Zoo.
In the first BPS Sunday last week, the city tallied near 2,500 families across all the participating institutions, said Kenny Mascary, Chief of Staff at the Office of Arts and Culture.
“It’s been a lot, a lot of turnout, and it’s only getting bigger,” said Mascary. “I think we have more people this week than we did last week.”
Wu said the program is aiming to reach BPS families through “every possible touchpoint,” including regular robocalls and emails. The website is being updated with new information and new programming as it comes up, like the ongoing Black History Month events, Mascary said.
“This does make a difference for us,” said BPS mom Rayne Williams, out at the science museum with two kids Sunday afternoon. “We haven’t been to so many of the city’s museums, and this makes it easier to get out of the house on Sundays and have these experiences. And they have fun.”
The Children’s Museum particularly measured how many families were coming to the institution for the first time last Sunday, Wu said, finding around 45% of families had never been before.
“So that’s the kind of information we also want to know, to not only quantify how many people are coming, but what does it mean for their lives,” Wu said. “And is it opening up completely new avenues and new experiences for them.”
“This is what cultural institutions should measure themselves by, which is not are we great museums, but are we making a great difference in the world,” said Museum of Science President Tim Ritchie. “And that’s happening because of this program.”