Museum Day Live!

the National Museum of Dance will open its doors free of charge along with over 1,400 other participating venues for the eighth annual Museum Day Live! This immensely successful program, in which the National Museum of Dance will emulate the free admission policy of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington, D.C.-based facilities, encourages learning and the spread of knowledge nationwide.

Inclusive by design, Museum Day Live! fulfills Smithsonian Media’s mission to make cultural education accessible to everyone. For one day only, The National Museum of Dance will grant free access to visitors who download a Museum Day Live! ticket at Smithsonian.com. Last year’s event drew over 350,000 museum-goers, and this year’s Museum Day Live! is expected to attract close to 400,000 participants.

Newly opened this year at the National Museum of Dance is Tails and Terpsichore. This exhibit explores the many ways dance and animal themes can combine.  Learn about indigenous dances from around the world that use animal themes, mating dances and fascinating movements animals perform in nature, animal inspiredrepertory from the world’s best dance companies, and much more!

Also new this year is En Pointe! The pointe shoe is revealed inside and out. Find out how these dance icons are made byhand, learn their history, and hear from ballet’s finest on their experiences training and performing in the peculiar shoes.

The National Museum of Dance’s 2012 annual Art in the Foyer show is a color photography series by Jacob’s Pillow’s resident photographer, Christopher Duggan. Duggan shows large format prints of the Pillow’s Inside/Out dance performances—outdoor shows set in the beautiful hills of Massachusetts’s Berkshire Mountains.

Additional exhibits include American Ballet Theatre: Then & Now; Eleo Pomare: The Man, the Artist, The Maker of Artists; Washington Bathhouse; the Alfred Z. Solomon Children’s Wing, and the C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame.

The Museum Day Live! Ticket is available to download at Smithsonian.com/museumday. Visitors who present the Museum Day Live! Ticket will gain free entrance for two at participating venues for one day only. One ticket is permitted per household, per email address. For more information about Museum Day Live! 2012 and a list of participating museums and cultural institutions, please visit Smithsonian.com/museumday.