3 New Orleans institutions with verified free admission. New Orleans free days are a Louisiana-resident perk funded by The Helis Foundation: NOMA free on Wednesdays, the Ogden free on Thursdays — and NOMA's Besthoff Sculpture Garden is free for everyone, every day.
| Institution | Free day | Who qualifies | Reservation |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans Museum of Art | Wednesdays | Louisiana residents | Required |
| Ogden Museum of Southern Art | Thursdays 10am–5pm | Louisiana residents | See page |
| Louisiana State Museum (Cabildo & Presbytère) | No regular free day | Children 6 and under free | See page |
| Day | Who's free in New Orleans |
|---|---|
| Wednesday | NOMA |
| Thursday | Ogden Museum (10am–5pm) |
Lay the schedules side by side and a nearly admission-free week appears: Wednesday belongs to NOMA; Thursday belongs to Ogden Museum (10am–5pm). The honest caveat: 2 of New Orleans's 3 programs are resident-gated, so out-of-towners should read each page's "who qualifies" line before building the week around it. Batch-announced free dates come on top of the weekly pattern — each program's page has the current list.
Paying the door price at all 3 of New Orleans's tracked paid institutions would cost an adult $53 — NOMA is the biggest single line at $23. Timed against the free calendar, a couple keeps up to $106 of that and a family of four up to $212. The asterisk: NOMA, Ogden Museum gate their free routes by residency, so out-of-town totals run lower — each page's "who qualifies" line has the exact rule. Context: the median city we cover tracks 4 institutions; New Orleans sits at 3, below it, so each free day here carries more of the load. With fewer scheduled routes than most covered cities, New Orleans leans harder on the no-calendar options below: bank-card weekends and EBT admission fill the gaps the schedule leaves.
On Museums on Us weekends — the first full weekend of each month — Bank of America cardholders walk into participating New Orleans institutions free. SNAP EBT cardholders have Museums for All (free–$5 for up to four people, any normal day).
Traveling members: a museum, science-center or zoo membership from home may already cover New Orleans admission through NARM, ASTC or AZA — the reciprocity lookup checks in one search.
Each month we send New Orleans's verified free days in one short email: dates, who qualifies, done.
↥ Check another museum → Browse all free museum & zoo days →
None of the New Orleans institutions we track are free every day, but 3 run regular free days — see the table above.
Some do. New Orleans Museum of Art require advance free tickets; the per-institution pages here spell out the mechanics and link where to book.