Serving Boston for over a century and brimming with art, history, and gorgeous greenery and florals, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s free first Thursdays return every month!
This is an opportunity for anyone to enjoy the museum, with free entry every first Thursday of every month.
Although the program is completely free, the museum recommends advanced registration, since entry remains ticketed. Tickets for free first Thursdays go live two weeks before the event for non-members and four weeks before for members. Museum goers can also purchase tickets at the door, but it is based on availability and occupancy.
Free first Thursdays apply to entry between the hours of 3-9 PM at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Fenway, adjacent to the Back Bay Fens.
Free first Thursdays at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
April is an especially beautiful time at the museum. Honoring Gardner’s tradition, the palazzo is decorated in cascading blossoming nasturtiums. They’re generally installed a week before Easter, which falls on Sunday, April 5 this year, making April 2 a great time to take advantage of the free-entry promo. Below is a full list of this year’s upcoming free first Thursdays:
- April 2
- May 7
- June 4
- July 2
- August 6
- September 3
- October 1
- November 5
- December 3
About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Isabella Stewart Gardner and architect Willard T. Sears built the museum, opening it in 1903. Gardner designed the museum to house her personal art collection, which she curated from her travels and brought to live in the museum’s Venetian-style Palazzo.
The museum is also famous for the devastating theft that occurred in 1990 and remains unsolved to this day. In 1990, 13 works of art with an estimated worth of $500 million were stolen from the museum. The robbery is the largest property crime in the United states.
In 1994 the museum made the decision to display the empty frames as a message and hope that the stolen pieces will return.
You can explore the Venetian-palazzo, floral displays, gorgeous art and artifacts, as well as the Dutch room on the second-floor where the heist took place at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Fenway.
