It’s a museum. Sounds boring… What if I said you’d be wrong?

The most fun than any I’ve ever been to and FOR FREE!?

It’s just like any other museum, right? No. Not everyone’s a fan of museums. Impressing my mom with one can be an especially challenging task. If you catch her in a museum, you’ll often see her quickly skimming through the displays. However, this time was different. The Skirball Cultural Center combines an everyday museum, an interactive experience, and beautiful photo opportunities into one location, in a way that you wouldn’t expect.

My parents loved it. My 7th grade brother loved it. My 12th grade sister loved it. My college self loved it. I’d take my friends here. I’d take my future children here. I’d take someone on a date here. I’d take my future in-laws here. Read on to learn how to get in for free and what to expect on your trip there.

How to get in for free?

On the first full weekend of each month (Saturday and Sunday), Bank of America cardholders can get free admission to 225 different cultural institutions. The BofA card can be credit or debit. Luckily, all five of my family members have at least one Bank of America card.

When I first saw this offer, I was worried that there would be a limit of one free admission per family. I imagined that we would have to all enter the museum at staggered times to make it seem like we weren’t a family so that each individual could get in for free. However, that was not the case at all. My family and I were able to smoothly walk in as one group and get all five of our free tickets without a hassle. We went up to the ticket desk, showed the names on our Bank of America cards, presented our photo IDs, and we were on our way.

FYI, School ID’s also work. I know this because my little brother used his middle school ID to get his ticket. The ticket lady said that it was cute. haha

Share this with someone who you’d want to go with! It’s FREE!

How long can I take advantage of this?

As far as I can tell, this has been going on for the past 25 years and will continue indefinitely. When I first saw the offer in my Bank of America app, it had a fast approaching expiration date but then the expiration date changed to some date far in the future. I think they might’ve done that just to encourage me to take advantage of it sooner rather than later and I’m glad I did.

Is there anything near me?

They have museums spanning 38 states and 157 cities. You can find the list of available locations here.

Three convenient choices, why Skirball?

For our first trip, we decided to go to the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Out of all the California cultural institutions that are available, the ones in LA are the most convenient to us in terms of driving distance. Our LA options were the Autry Museum of the American West, LACMA, and the Skirball Cultural Center. I looked through the websites and the pictures on Yelp of each place.

Of the three, Skirball seemed like the best option and after going, I can confirm that it was a wonderful choice (although I haven’t gone to the other two yet so we will see if it is the best choice).

How crowded is it?

It wasn’t busy at all. The weather was beautiful, it wasn’t any kind of special holiday, and it was a Sunday. So I was shocked at how peaceful it was. There was nothing stopping other people from being there and yet, the place felt almost empty. It’s like I found a hidden gem. Parking was easy and free since they have their own parking lot. They even have a parking lot dedicated to just handicapped parking.

• Come here on any weekend and you’ll be in for quite the treat.

What came with the free admission?

Originally, I thought we’d only get access to the outdoor gardens and the main exhibit. I would’ve been completely satisfied in being able to partake in just the two. However, after presenting our card and ID, the ticket clerk asked if we also wanted to see the Noah’s Ark exhibit. I saw on the website that Noah’s Ark was a specially ticketed exhibit so I was a little surprised that she mentioned it. I asked if it was free and she said yes! It was set for a later time (about 30 minutes from when we arrived), so I was a little hesitant since we had time sensitive plans for after the museum but we would’ve missed out on the best part of our visit had I denied the offer.

Our First Stop: The Main Exhibit

To be honest, I didn’t know the main exhibit was Jewish-based until I got there. My dad had mentioned it in passing when I brought up the location of the cultural center but I thought he was just making a wild assumption. Some might think that religion is boring but their exhibit surpassed expectations. Like most exhibits, there were all kinds of artifacts and displays and the first room you walk into is admittedly nothing special. But once we got past that, time ended up passing quickly as we wandered from room to room in the deceptively small exhibit. Their clever arrangement of everything made it feel so expansive. The superb layout felt maze-like in a good way, like I wanted to explore all my different options before getting to the end. There was a replica of a synagogue that my mom had fun taking pictures in. It was made out of plastic but it looked like the real deal in a drastically smaller fashion. It even had a little drawer and cabinet that you could open and close to view some of the things you might find in a synagogue. Other areas had some fun things like the hand and torch from the Statue of Liberty, and an everburning flame. Not to spoil the fun, but the flame was inside a little cavernous area that they created. It felt kind of zen to be in there.

None of us were impressed when we first stepped into the exhibit, especially my mom. But sooner than we expected, our scheduled time for the Noah’s Ark exhibit arrived.

Next Up! Noah’s Ark Exhibit

We were allotted an hour and a half for the exhibit and we thought that that was more than enough time for a “kid’s” exhibit. Just so you know, the youngest one in our family is my seventh grade brother, a little past the age of wanting to play on the slide for casual fun. So when I say that any age would enjoy Noah’s Ark, I’m not joking. My parents couldn’t stop themselves from playing with all the little trinkets and gadgets too, and we couldn’t either.

• Along with all the cool buttons and levers, there were plenty of opportunities for some great pictures there.

Don’t be embarrassed to play!

Noah’s Ark is an interactive indoor playground that tugs on your curiosity without making you read anything. There’s wheels to spin, levers to pull, puzzles to solve, books to read, an indoor playground to explore, a suitcase combo to crack, and puppets to play with. The staff there are also really friendly and told us that they’d played with the area themselves. While wandering around, there were staff whose job was just to play with the children. At one point, they brought out a chicken and a fox puppet, and just committed to the roles of those animals as they wandered around the place, pecking at anything and everything as a real chicken would. Right before the two puppets exited, I got to witness a little standoff between the two. Spoiler alert: it ended with a cute little kiss between the two. Happy endings all around.

Every Tiny Detail of Noah’s Ark

If you are fine with spoiling some of the fun for yourself, I will explain every little detail that I remember from Noah’s Ark. You enter into an upstairs room with animals made out of everyday materials like tires, sink faucets, gongs, etc. There’s a device you can spin to make birds spin and another device that pulls back a mallet to hit a gong. I almost missed the gong but something in my soul pushed me to turn a random wheel. It didn’t feel like it would do anything at first but just when I was about to look away, my entire family jumped at the gong sound that boomed throughout the area. We were all so evidently shocked that I swear I saw the nearby staff member laugh at what had happened. I think I rang that gong twice more just for the fun of it.

After that, the exhibit carried on into a downstairs area. The downstairs was divided into two spacious rooms, a hallway in the middle, and then the last two big rooms.

In the first room, there were interactive displays that simulated the weather, a crankable ramp that sent foam animals up into the ship, two wooden camels, and a builder’s area. The second room had so many animal puppets that it felt like your hand could be any animal. There was also a tortoise, a crocodile and a hippo that you could sit on. Three small wooden tree houses were scattered across the ground, ready for anyone to climb into and explore. One of which had an interior with walls made out of fake corn. Each treehouse had a little rope that you could tug on to reveal a cool scene above you. The hallway had huge glass walls, revealing different replicas of Noah’s Ark, and the beautiful garden and amphitheater outside. Towards the end of the hallway was a puzzle that instructed us to find the six animals marked with a snake symbol to crack the code to a suitcase. It didn’t make a lot of sense but we were able to match the animals with the numbers on a chart and opened the suitcase to reveal a little reptilian surprise. Side note, the surprise wasn’t all too great but the satisfaction of knowing that we cracked the lock was more than enough of a prize. The third room had an indoor playground that the staff invited adults to climb up on. This room also had a toy kitchen, all kinds of fake foods, a fake broom and dustpan, and a dome with fake gorillas and penguins to play with. There were also all kinds of chutes to throw fake strawberries down. The final room was the plainest of them all. Think of it as the room to relax in after you’ve gone wild exploring the first three rooms. There was a Noah’s Ark replica that you could play with like a dollhouse, plenty of chairs, and a bookcase with all kinds of kid’s books. It felt like a library reading area.

My descriptions don’t do the place justice.

What’s the catch to Noah’s Ark?

You’d think that it’d be swarming with children in there, but despite it being the busiest area of the whole cultural center, you don’t have to worry about there being too many kids since there are scheduled time intervals to prevent too many families from occupying the area at once.

It was a really well thought out playroom that allows anyone (but children especially) to learn through interaction, imagination, and exploration without too much supervision required. In our entire time there, I don’t recall hearing a single child cry. If more infants were able to spend time in areas like these, I feel like so many more people would be inclined to learn just for the sake of learning.

• I’d go again and again!

The Beautiful Outdoor Area

After Noah’s Ark, we wanted to go outside to the garden area that we saw from the hallway of Noah’s Ark. We had a little trouble communicating with the staff member as to how to get there, but I think there was just a little confusion as to where we were asking to go. It took an extra minute but we were kindly pointed to the location we sought. Once we got there, we found a rainbow making structure, lush plants, and an aesthetic seating area. The rainbow structure is basically a curved wall that sprays mist, making it so light can naturally create rainbows in the mist. There wasn't enough mist for us to see a rainbow from far away but if you ran through it like I did, you can see rainbows. There’s a sidewalk that runs right along the wall so I think they invite you to run through. The lush plants make for great pictures and there were also some spray bottles that you could use to spray the succulents for fun. Additionally, there’s an aesthetic seating area beanbags, books, toys and flowy curtains. You saw it already in the first picture of this blog.

“spray bottles that you could use to spray the succulents for fun”

Free Arts and Crafts

A nearby door led into an art studio where we were able to decorate our own pots with a variety of craft supplies. They even had packets of flower seeds for us to take home and plant. They didn’t provide the soil though. Although, that would make quite the mess on the ride home so it’s probably for the best. My siblings and I decorated two pretty pots with tapes, markers, feathers, a lego piece; The choices were endless. By the time we finished with our pots, more than 2 hours had already passed for our entire stay and we hadn’t even explored the Discovery Center yet. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do so that day because my sister had plans to go prom dress shopping so we had to leave early. I really wanted to try it since there’s some kind of archeology dig there but now I’ll have to wait until next time to learn what that was all about.

The Wayfinding Exhibit

I didn’t realize this on the way in, but there were metal signs that lined the garden and the path to the parking lot that are basically all about mindfulness and reflection. Each sign had an inspiring quote or a thought provoking sentence. There were more throughout the entire cultural center but we weren’t able to explore all of them with our limited time. They are all part of another exhibition called Wayfinding. They’re definitely easy to disregard when you don’t know what they’re for but once I found out what their purpose was, I would’ve loved to read all of them.

Kill Your Expectations?

I said a lot of good things about Skirball and my “Museums on Us” experience but I don’t expect everyone to have the same positive experience so I’m gonna tell you to drop any wonderful daydreams of how your trip might go. Set the expectations low so that you can be delighted or satisfied with the actual trip. Be real with yourself. It might go well. It might go splendid. It might go completely horrible, or be super crowded. The place could close down or you could be met with bad customer service. However, I had a good time and I believe that I had a replicable experience. If you can enjoy the small things and let your mind return to the curious child that you once were, you will have fun. Faith, trust, and free stuff.