![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/945x596-norton-simon-museum_0003_043-NortonSimon.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
[photo credit: Visit Pasadena]<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 caf\u00e9 and store close at 6:45 p.m., and final entry for visitors without tickets is 6:15 p.m.<\/p>\n
At 5 p.m., the museum offers a tour titled \u201cNorton Simon, the Collector,\u201d which traces how an industrialist assembled one of the more improbable private collections in the country \u2014 European painting and sculpture spanning seven centuries alongside a major holding of South and Southeast Asian art.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Timing note for readers planning around exhibitions: the museum\u2019s two Goya shows, \u201cI Saw It: Francisco de Goya, Printmaker\u201d and \u201cI Saw It: Modern Artists Respond to Goya,\u201d close Wednesday, August 5 \u2014 two days before this Free First Friday. \u201cThe Art of Kandy: Sri Lanka\u2019s Last Kingdom\u201d opens September 4.<\/p>\n