The region’s most popular museums are opening their doors for free, offering the community a chance to experience art, history, education and culture.
Twenty local museums including the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum and the Sacramento History Museum will participate in Free Museum Weekend on March 7-8, 2026.
Although free, advanced registration is required because capacity is limited for each museum.
Ticket registration opens March 2 on a first come first serve basis and will continue until March 5, or when they run out of tickets. More than 30,000 tickets will be available for the weekend across all participating locations.
SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity
The SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, located on 400 Jibboom Street will celebrate its 5th year anniversary this year, and according to marketing manager Meara Hain, MOSAC is the only science museum in Sacramento.
“Our main goal is for people to learn their own way, whether that’s through hands-on listening, visually or reading,” Hain said. “At our museum, we cover a lot of different areas of science, from the California water systems to local energy usage in Sacramento. We have an exhibit about the wildlife and surrounding area and then health connections, which kind of goes into how the mind and body connect.”
MOSAC has over 100 exhibits and features a planetarium with daily shows and monthly laser show concerts. The last laser show featured music from Bad Bunny who recently performed at the Super Bowl.
If you’re interested in visiting MOSAC, the museum will have 200 tickets available for Saturday and Sunday.
“We’re a really cool space,” Hain said. “We’re here to serve the community, and we really want to spark that interest in STEM learning and science in our upcoming generations and also re-spark that interest and curiosity in science in our older generations in the community.”
Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum
The Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum, located at 2251 Florin Road, is a collective of artists that celebrates African American history and culture. It has been in Sacramento since 1996.
Shonna McDaniels, the executive director, said the museum’s exhibits feature African civilizations, kings and queens, the trans-atlantic slave trade, and Black historical figures like Harriet Tubman and Ida B. Wells.
“We believe in the time that we are living in today is more important for everybody to understand the contributions of African American people,” McDaniels said. “African American history is world history. We made so many wonderful and astounding contributions to this world.”
other and daughter poetry group Straight Out Scribes mural at the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum.(Courtesy of Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum
McDaniels said the museum will have free art engagement activities for children, installation pieces of Africans before enslavement, Harlem Renaissance and more.
McDaniels said she would love for people to visit the museum and surrounding businesses.
“I think it’s important for our entire community to understand the significance of supporting Black business owners,” she said. “We are a struggling museum because we don’t get the support that we need in the city of Sacramento. So I think that that’s a key factor. Just come out and show some love and come out and support.”
The museum is only participating Saturday and will have 150 free tickets.
Sacramento History Museum
A museum dedicated to the history of Sacramento will also be participating. The Sacramento History Museum is located on 101 I Street and highlights the Gold Rush era, indigenous cultures and diverse stories of the community.
Delta Pick Mello, the museum’s executive director, said the museum has participated in the event since its inception.
Mello said the museum’s current exhibits include Dia de Los Muertos and its history in Sacramento, and a Women’s History Month exhibit focusing on 12 prominent women in the community.
“We’ve also partnered with the Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum and recently opened an exhibit that tells of the African American contributions in farming, from enslavement to today,” Mello said. “We also talk about the indigenous people that lived here, the Nisenan that lived here for hundreds of if not thousands of years prior to first contact with white Americans, immigrants coming from all over the world during their gold rush.”
Actors perform a “ghost tea party” scene inside the Sacramento History Museum on Friday, Oct. 11, 2025, as part of this year’s tour.Tony Rodriguez
The museum also has special activities from gold panning, a print shop, ghost and underground tours.
“We open our doors and welcome people who have maybe never been to our museum, but maybe have never been to a museum, and that has sometimes been the case,” Mello said. “So it’s really a community benefit, and we want people to know what they have in their own backyard, as far as museums, resources.”
The museum is offering 1,000 free tickets each day.
The remaining museums who are participating are:
California Automobile Museum
California Museum
California State Railroad Museum
Capitol Park at California State Capitol Museum
Crocker Art Museum
Don & June Salvatori California Pharmacy Museum
Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park
Locke Boarding House Museum
Maidu Museum & Historic Site
Museum of Medical History
Sacramento Children’s Museum
Sacramento Historic City Cemetery
State Indian Museum
Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park
Utility Exploration Center
Verge Center for the Arts
Aerospace Museum of California
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