Trail notes
- General admission to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s permanent collection galleries is always free; some special exhibitions and events require paid tickets.
- The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Friday. It is closed Mondays.
- Daily highlights tours at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. are free but require a ticket and are limited to 15 people.
One of the best free things to do in Cleveland, Ohio, is also one of the grandest. The Cleveland Museum of Art, which opened in 1916 in University Circle, charges nothing for general admission. You can walk in on a rainy Saturday, spend an hour or a whole day in the permanent collection, and leave without paying a cent, as long as you know which few things carry a fee.
The basics
| Details from the museum | |
|---|---|
| Admission | General admission is always free |
| Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Wednesday and Friday | 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Monday | Closed |
| Address | 11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106 |
| Phone | 216-421-7350 |
The museum is also closed on January 1, Presidents Day, July 4, Thanksgiving Day and December 25, and closes at 4 p.m. on December 24 and December 31. It is open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
What is free and what is not
The museum puts it plainly in its visitor questions: general admission to the permanent collection galleries is always free. Tickets for select exhibitions and events can be reserved online or by phone, and some of them require paid admission. Check the museum’s calendar before you go to see which exhibitions are ticketed.
- Free: the permanent collection galleries, daily highlights tours (ticket required), the ArtLens app tours, the sculpture garden outside.
- Sometimes paid: special exhibitions and some events.
- Paid: the parking garage, the café and the restaurant.
Active and retired military members with ID can receive up to four complimentary tickets per ticketed exhibition per visit, as part of the Blue Star Museums program, the museum says.
Free tours and quiet hours
Daily highlights tours run at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. They are free, but a ticket is required, and each group is limited to 15 people. Tickets can be reserved in advance online or picked up at a ticketing desk on site, first come, first served. If you prefer to wander, the museum’s ArtLens app offers self-guided multimedia tours.
For visitors who need a calmer setting, Sensory-Friendly Saturday events run every third Saturday of the month from 9 to 10 a.m., before the usual opening, with adaptations for different sensory needs.
Tip: The Wednesday and Friday evening hours are the easiest way to fit a visit around a work week.
Getting there and parking
The museum has its own parking garage, entered from Jeptha Drive; you pay at the garage entrance by credit card or cash. Accessible parking is on the top level, near the north entrance, and on level P2, which connects to the lower level of the museum through a tunnel. Parking is the main cost of a museum day, so transit or a shared ride can keep the visit truly free. For buses and trains around the city, see Cleveland Without a Car: RTA Fares, Passes and Free Rides for a Weekend.
All visitors pass through metal detectors at the entrance, and the museum has a strict no-weapons policy. A coat check is in the north lobby.
Small comforts inside
- A free device-charging station in the ArtLens Gallery, with lockers that include Lightning and USB-C cables.
- The Ingalls Library and Museum Archives, open to visitors.
- A café open Tuesday through Sunday, with longer hours on Wednesday and Friday; it is closed Mondays.
A simple first visit
The permanent collection is too large to see properly in one go, so treat a free museum as a place to return to. On a first visit, pick two or three galleries that interest you, join one of the free highlights tours to get your bearings, and leave time for a break. Because admission costs nothing, there is no pressure to stay all day: an hour on a Wednesday evening and another on a rainy Sunday can be better than a long, tiring marathon.
Don’t skip the outside
The museum sits beside the Fine Arts Garden and Wade Lagoon, a public space for strolling and picnics. University Circle’s guide to the garden points out several outdoor sculptures: Tony Smith’s black geometric work Source near the north entrance, Deborah Butterfield’s life-size Horse, cast in bronze from found wood, on the west lawn, and Robert Indiana’s colorful Art on the eastern lawn by the south terrace. Walking the paths around the lagoon costs nothing and is a pleasant way to start or end a visit.
Beyond the main building
The museum runs two other spaces worth knowing. The Community Arts Center is open every weekend for art making by families and individuals of all ages. Transformer Station, in Ohio City’s Hingetown neighborhood, presents work by emerging artists, time-based media and live music, which makes it an easy pairing with a market morning; see West Side Market and Ohio City: A Free Morning in a Historic Food Hall.
Make a day of University Circle
The art museum is surrounded by other cultural institutions, parks and gardens, several of them free or with free days. A free shuttle connects parts of the neighborhood. See Free Things to Do in University Circle and Around It for the rest of a no-cost day nearby.