• The final Sunday for free admission for St. Johns County residents is September 24, 2023
• Beginning October 1, 2023, the museum will offer a $12.00 discounted St. Johns County resident admission ticket

St. Augustine, FL (May 1, 2023)—The Lightner Museum announced today a revised admissions policy. Under the policy the museum will end free St. Johns County resident admission on Sundays. The policy will be implemented on October 1, 2023.

Opened in 1948 by Otto C. Lightner, the Lightner Museum is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Primary sources of income for the Lightner Museum are revenue from admission tickets, event rentals, grants, and donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals. The Lightner Museum does not receive operational funding from the City of St. Augustine. All revenue supports museum operations including exhibitions and ongoing preservation of the museum’s historic building.

As part of its commitment to enhance the cultural life of St. Johns County, over the past two years the museum has presented seventeen important regional, national, and international exhibitions including; Picturing a Nation: American Art from the Lightner Museum, American Impressionism: Treasures from the Daywood Collection, Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts, and Bouke de Vries: War & Pieces. In fall 2023, during its 75^th anniversary celebration, the museum will present a major new exhibition, The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art. The museum has also made significant improvements to its historic building. Ongoing improvements include the renovation of the museum’s south garden, improvements to its admission area, ground floor galleries, and museum store, upgrades to the museum’s HVAC systems, and a complete rebuild of the museum’s elevator planned for summer 2023.

“When the Lightner Museum first opened, St. Johns County was a very different place,” said David Bagnall, Executive Director of the Lightner Museum. “Over the past 15 years, the population of the County has almost doubled. As the museum looks to preserve its historic building and collections for future generations, the current admission policy is not sustainable.”

The Lightner Museum is one of the only cultural attractions in St. Johns County to presently offer free admission each weekend to County residents. Other attractions in the County either offer discounted admission tickets for residents or are full price. Under the Lightner Museum’s revised admissions policy, a new $12.00 discounted St. Johns County resident ticket will be available beginning October 1. Members of the museum and all children under 12 will continue to be admitted for free. In addition, the museum will continue to offer a range of program and event opportunities with free admission.