[photo credit: Norton Simon Museum]
From 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., the museum at 411 West Colorado Boulevard will charge nothing at the door, under a standing policy that makes admission free to all visitors on the first Friday of every month. The museum calls the evening Free First Friday. Admission requires no reservation and no advance ticket; the tour requires a sign-up.
The tour, “Norton Simon, the Collector,” runs from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and is led by a museum educator, according to the museum’s event listing. It is limited to 20 participants. Sign-ups are taken in person at the Information Desk when the museum opens, first come, first served, and the group meets in the Entrance Gallery.
The museum opens at 12:00 p.m. on Fridays and closes at 7:00 p.m. Under its general admission policy, visitors who arrive without a ticket or a membership must enter by 6:15 p.m. The Garden Café and the Museum Store close at 6:45 p.m.
What is free that evening is the permanent collection and the Sculpture Garden. The museum lists no special exhibition on view as of July 29, 2026; the next, “The Art of Kandy: Sri Lanka’s Last Kingdom (1469–1815),” opens September 4, 2026. Admission is otherwise $20 for adults and $15 for seniors ages 62 and above. Children 18 and under, students with valid identification and museum members are admitted free at all times.
The garden reopened in November 2025 after a 10-month closure. It was rebuilt under an Exterior Improvement Project the museum announced in a January 7, 2025 press release, which described the work as a $14-million initiative. The Los Angeles Times reported in November 2025 that the completed renovation cost $15 million.
In that press release, Walter W. Timoshuk, the museum’s president and chief executive officer, said the project would “improve the visitor experience.” The work rebuilt the pond, resurfaced the garden paths, added seating and raised a solid wall along the southern and western edges to cut traffic noise. It also rebuilt the pedestrian path from Colorado Boulevard to meet accessibility requirements and moved Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” to the top of it, near the front steps.
Liz MacLean, the project architect and a principal at Architectural Resources Group, told the Los Angeles Times that “people drive by this museum all the time and have no idea” the building is clad in tile by the ceramist Edith Heath.
The museum is at 411 West Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91105, and its general information line is 626.449.6840. Parking is free in the museum lot and limited on adjacent streets. Pasadena Transit lines 10 and 33 and Metro line 180 stop in front of the building, and Memorial Park Station on the Metro A Line, at 125 East Holly Street, is the closest rail stop. Accessible parking is available in the upper and lower lots, entrance ramps serve both levels, and wheelchairs can be requested at the Admissions Desk or the Coat Check. Visitors who need other accommodations can call the Security Department at 626.449.6840, extension 4900. Details are posted at https://www.nortonsimon.org/calendar/2026/summer-2026/free-first-friday-3.
In the museum’s own account of its founding, Norton Simon said a museum should be a place for teaching and for seeing, and that respect for art “comes out of looking more than reading, more than formal instruction.” For three hours on the first Friday in August, the viewing is free.
