Fun Fridays Are Coming!

Today, the Highland Street Foundation announced the fifth annual Free Fun Fridays program during a press conference call with Matthew Malone, the Massachusetts Secretary of Education, Joshua Kraft, the Nicholas President and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, and Linda Steigleder, the President & CEO of Hancock Shaker Village.

“This is our biggest and best Free Fun Fridays program,” said Highland Street Foundation Executive Director Blake Jordan. “Free Fun Fridays shines a spotlight on the broad and diverse art and cultural offerings across Massachusetts. Whether you live in Boston or the Berkshires, Worcester or Cape Cod, the North Shore or the South Coast, you can take advantage of this free program.”

Free Fun Fridays is the annual summer program that opens doors at no cost to visitors to many of the most treasured cultural venues in Massachusetts. This year, 60 museums and cultural venues will participate in the program, which is an increase from the 50 venues that participated in 2012. Beginning June 28th through August 30th, six cultural venues will be open free-of-charge every Friday for 10 weeks this summer.

“Keeping young people intellectually and socially engaged in the summer is very important – whether the children are in pre-school or all the way through high school. This is a great program for families to take advantage of this summer,” said Matthew Malone, Massachusetts Secretary of Education.

The Highland Street Foundation provides grants to participating venues to cover the cost of opening their doors for free. The Highland Street Foundation has invested $650,000 to support the Free Fun Fridays program this year.

This year, the program welcomes back favorite sites like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Peabody Essex Museum, along with new venues, including The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Barrington and the Ocean Explorium in New Bedford. A complete list of all participating venues and dates is below.

To learn more about the Free Fun Fridays, and the Highland Street Foundation, visit www.highlandstreet.org or join us on Facebook and on Twitter @HighlandStreet.

The following institutions are participating in Free Fun Fridays 2013:

Friday, June 28, 2013
Freedom Trail Foundation (Boston)
Mass MoCA (North Adams)
Stone Zoo (Stoneham)
Worcester Art Museum (Worcester)
Heritage Museums & Gardens (Sandwich)
Tanglewood (Lenox)

Friday, July 05, 2013
Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center (Mattapan)
Cape Cod Museum of Art (Dennis)
Martha’s Vineyard Museum (Edgartown)
Children’s Museum at Holyoke (Holyoke)
Volleyball Hall of Fame (Holyoke)
Peabody Essex Museum (Salem)

Friday, July 12, 2013
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston)
Larz Anderson Auto Museum (Brookline)
Cape Cod Children’s Museum (Mashpee)
Pilgrim Hall Museum (Plymouth)
Museum of Russian Icons (Clinton)
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (Becket)

Friday, July 19, 2013
JFK Library & Museum (Boston)
Reagle Music Theatre (Waltham)
Buttonwood Park Zoo (New Bedford)
Danforth Art (Framingham)
Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield)
Garden in the Woods (Framingham)

Friday, July 26, 2013
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (Boston)
New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston)
American Textile History Museum (Lowell)
Children’s Museum in Easton (North Easton)
Amelia Park Children’s Museum (Westfield)
Higgins Armory Museum (Worcester)

Friday, August 02, 2013
Boston Children’s Museum (Boston)
Franklin Park Zoo (Dorchester)
Arnold Arboretum (Boston)
Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton)
Wenham Museum (Wenham)
The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center (Great Barrington)

Friday, August 09, 2013
Boston Harbor Island Alliance (Boston)
The Sports Museum (Boston)
Battleship Cove (Fall River)
Ocean Explorium (New Bedford)
The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History (Brewster)
The Eric Carle Museum (Amherst)

Friday, August 16, 2013
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (Boston)
USS Constitution Museum (Charlestown)
Concord Museum (Concord)
Edward Gorey House (Yarmouth Port)
Springfield Museums (Springfield)
Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield)

Friday, August 23, 2013
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston)
Museum of African American History (Boston/ Nantucket)
New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford)
Fitchburg Art Museum (Fitchburg)
Fruitlands Museum (Harvard)
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown)

Friday, August 30, 2013
Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth)
The Discovery Museums (Acton)
New Repertory Theatre (Watertown)
EcoTarium (Worcester)
Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge)
The Mount: Edith Wharton’s Home