[photo credit: Visit Pasadena]
The Norton Simon is not a large museum, and that is part of the argument for going on a Friday evening. Three hours is enough to walk the whole thing without the endurance calculus that a bigger institution demands.
Free admission for all visitors runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday. No reservations, no advance tickets, no membership. The museum is open noon to 7 p.m. on Fridays; the galleries and the sculpture garden are both open, though the café and store close at 6:45 p.m., and final entry for visitors without tickets is 6:15 p.m.
At 5 p.m., the museum offers a tour titled “Norton Simon, the Collector,” which traces how an industrialist assembled one of the more improbable private collections in the country — European painting and sculpture spanning seven centuries alongside a major holding of South and Southeast Asian art.
Regular admission is $20 for adults and $15 for seniors 62 and older. Museum members, students with identification and everyone 18 and under are always admitted free, as are active military personnel, museum colleagues, members of the American Alliance of Museums and the International Council of Museums, working members of the media, holders of an EBT card, visitors who are legally blind and their caregivers.
Timing note for readers planning around exhibitions: the museum’s two Goya shows, “I Saw It: Francisco de Goya, Printmaker” and “I Saw It: Modern Artists Respond to Goya,” close Wednesday, August 5 — two days before this Free First Friday. “The Art of Kandy: Sri Lanka’s Last Kingdom” opens September 4.
Free First Friday at the Norton Simon Museum will run on Friday, August 7 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Norton Simon Museum, 411 W. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena. For more information, visit nortonsimon.org. Admission is free. No reservations required.