Cooperstown Museums Announce Access Program for Low-Income Families

Cooperstown Museums Announce Access Program for Low-Income Families

“Museums for All” program to increase accessibility of museum resources at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, The Farmers’ Museum, and Fenimore Art Museum

Cooperstown, New York — Today the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, The Farmers’ Museum and the Fenimore Art Museum announced that they have joined Museums for All, a signature access program of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), administered by the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM), to encourage people of all backgrounds to visit museums regularly and build lifelong museum-going habits. 

This program will provide those receiving food assistance (SNAP) benefits with free admission, for up to four people, when they visit any of these three Cooperstown based museums, with the presentation of a SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. 

“It is our mission to share a broad and inclusive cultural experience with everyone,” said Dr. Paul S. D’Ambrosio, president and CEO of Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum. “Participating with Museums for All is an important step in breaking down the economic barriers to access our museums.” 

Museums for All is part of the museums’ broad commitment to seek, include, and welcome all audiences. Museums for All helps expand access to museums and raise public awareness about how museums in the U.S. are reaching their entire communities.

“Our adoption of the Museums for All program will ensure that cost is not a barrier to visiting the Hall of Fame” said Josh Rawitch, president at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “Every family should have the opportunity to visit our Museum and connect with baseball history, and this program is an important step toward making that a reality.” 

More than 850 institutions participate in the initiative, including art museums, children’s museums, science centers, botanical gardens, zoos, history museums, and more. Participating museums are located nationwide, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Virgin Islands. 

About Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.

About The Farmers’ Museum

As one of the oldest rural life museums in the country, The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, New York, provides visitors with a unique opportunity to experience 19th-century rural and village life first-hand through authentic demonstrations and interpretative exhibits. The museum, founded in 1943, comprises a Colonial Revival stone barn listed on the National Register for Historic Places, a recreated historic village circa 1845, the Empire State Carousel, and a working farmstead. Through its 19th-century village and farm, the museum preserves important examples of upstate New York architecture, early agricultural tools and equipment, and heritage livestock. The Farmers’ Museum’s outstanding collection of more than 23,000 items encompasses significant historic objects ranging from butter molds to carriages, and hand planes to plows. The museum also presents a broad range of interactive educational programs for school groups, families, and adults that explore and preserve the rich agricultural history of the region. Visit FarmersMuseum.org.

About the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is open seven days a week year round, with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. From Labor Day until Memorial Day Weekend, the Museum observes daily regular hours of 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Ticket prices are $28 for adults (13 and over), $22 for seniors (65 and over) and $17 for juniors (ages 7-12) and $19 for those holding current memberships in the VFW, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion and AMVets organizations. Members are always admitted free of charge and there is no charge for children 6 years of age or younger. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. For more information, visit our website at baseballhall.org or call 888-HALL-OF-FAME (888-425-5633) or 607-547-7200.