The Library’s New Museum Pass Program: Guggenheim, Intrepid, Stamford Museum and More!

That Town of Pelham Public Library card in your wallet just got even more valuable. You already know it gives you free access to thousands of books and other materials and a growing list of free e-resources, but now, through the Library’s new Museum Pass program, it gives you the chance to get free (or discounted) passes for general admission at a dozen top museums.

“For several years now, a growing number of member libraries of the Westchester Library System have been offering museum passes to their cardholders,” said Library director Patricia Perito. “We’re happy to now offer this popular new service in Pelham and hope our cardholders will make use of these passes and let us know what they think of this program.”

The Library’s head of circulation, Kathy Egan, and Library board member Laura Woods were instrumental in getting the program set up.

OH! THE EXHIBITS YOU’LL SEE, FOR FREE!

The Museum Pass program all adds up to great art, exhibits and activities, and usually for free. Reserve the pass to the Guggenheim Museum, and you could soon be off to see the current exhibition “Kandinsky Before Abstraction,” which covers the early career of the artist. The cost of an adult general admission ticket would be $25.75.

At the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum, it means you could see exhibits like Hubble@25, a look back at the first twenty-five years of the groundbreaking Hubble telescope, or tour the recently-added interactive submarine exhibit. Even with an online discount, adult general admission tickets are $22, youth tickets are $17, and tickets for kids age three to six are $10.

At the Stamford Museum, it means you and your family could attend this weekend’s Maple Sugar Festival Weekend. Tickets are $10 for non-members over the age of three.

The other nine museums in the program are: the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the Frick Collection, the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, the Katonah Museum of Art, the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, the Museum of the City of New York, the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase and the New York City Fire Museum.

HOW THE MUSEUM PASS PROGRAM WORKS

In many ways, the Museum Pass program works like taking out a book from the Library. There are a limited number of passes that Library cardholders – adult cardholders only — can take out, and they can be borrowed for a limit of three days. While each pass differs in what it covers, all passes are for more than one person.

For instance, each pass to the Guggenheim is for four adults or students and admits other adults for half price, with children twelve and under free; the pass to the Stamford Museum grants free admission for two adults in the same household and their children under the age of 18.

The library’s website has full details and is where you can reserve a pass, which you can then pick up from the circulation desk. To get to the Museum Pass page, go to pelhamlibrary.org and click on “Programs” > “Museum Passes.” When you click on “Request Pass” for the museum of your choice, you will be asked to put in the bar code from your library card and your library PIN, which is usually the last four digits of your phone number.

And yes, there are late fees for those who don’t bring the passes back in a timely manner. It’s a $10 per day overdue fee, with other fees applying to lost passes. See the site for further details.

The Museum Passes page also includes links to the home page of each museum in the program, so it’s easy to get full descriptions of what’s going on at the museum, or museums, of your choice. (In some cases, there may be fees for special exhibits that are not covered by general admission.)

Enjoy this great new program, and tell the Library staff what you think of it!

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UPCOMING PROGRAMS
All Library programs are free and open to the public. To sign up for events that require pre-registration, call (914) 738-1234. Out of courtesy to fellow attendees, please be on time.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
Story Time:  Tuesdays, for ages 3-5, 10:30 – 11 a.m.; Wednesdays, for ages two and under, 10:30 – 11 a.m.
Bring the little ones in your life to the Library’s Story Time for pre-schoolers! Attendance is limited to the first 40 people who sign in, caregivers included. Sign-up begins at 10:15 a.m.

Homework Help: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30 – 4:45 p.m.
For children in grades 1 – 8. Students must bring their assignments and textbooks.

Chess Instruction Returns: Mondays, March 16, 23 and 30; April 6 and 20, 7 p.m.
John Gallagher will again teach chess at the Library in a series of Monday evening sessions for ages five and up. Children must be registered; older siblings and parents are welcome as well.

Keep an eye on the Bookmark, the Library website and the monthly e-newsletter for programs during spring break!

ADULT PROGRAMS
Author Talk: Doug Hearle to Discuss His New Novel, Outsource: Thursday, March 12, 7:30 p.m.
Long-time Pelham resident Doug Hearle will come to the Library to discuss his new novel, Outsource. The book is about a New York businessman who is recruited by the CIA in the 1980s because of his contacts with high government officials in southeast Asia and involves a plot to assassinate a head of state. Hearle worked for the CIA in southeast Asia as a consultant to foreign governments and companies in dealing with America. Books will be available for buying and signing. 

Book Club: Thursday, April 2, 7:30 p.m.
The Book Club will discuss Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner. In this novel, Stegner, who won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, explores the mysteries of friendship, tracing the bond that develops between couples Charity and Sid Lang and Sally and Larry Morgan from their first meeting in 1937 through their eventual separation to their final get-together in 1972.

Author Talk: Mark Adams Discusses Meet Me In Atlantis: My Obsessive Quest to Find the Sunken City: Thursday, April 16, 7:30 p.m.
Adams, a Pelham resident and author of the acclaimed bestseller Turn Right at Machu Picchu, will visit the Pelham Library to discuss his newest book.

Computer and Device Instruction: Call the Library to make an appointment for individualized instruction in popular programs, or bring your device and get started with free apps that give library patrons access to free e-books, e-audiobooks, e-music and more.

LIBRARY NOTES
When Weather Closes the Library: If the Library closes due to inclement weather, the news will be posted on the Library home page at pelhamlibrary.org, on its Facebook page and on a recording at the main number, (914) 738-1234. You can renew books at any time by calling the Westchester Library System at (914) 674-4169 or do so online. Due dates will be extended if the Library closure is unexpected.

(Reprinted with permission. This story originally appeared in The Pelham Weekly on March 6. 2015. Photo courtesy of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.)