Library cards rival golden tickets with culture pass option

As of Friday afternoon, libraries were still flooded with people applying for cards. The New York Public Library has received more than 12,000 online applications since Monday, when the program began. The average number of sign-ups per day is usually about 290, but on the first day of Culture Pass, the library received 5,000 applications for cards online, Angela Montefinise, a spokeswoman for the New York Public Library said. There is no data yet on in-person applications.

“We knew that there was considerable need and demand for a program like this,” Montefinise said by email. “So while the overwhelming response hasn’t been surprising, it has been extremely gratifying to see a program designed to promote learning, culture and knowledge quickly become the hottest ticket in town.”

Since Monday, the Brooklyn Public Library averaged over 900 library applications per day. Through Thursday, the Queens Library received an influx of 1,800 sign-ups, a 34 percent increase from the previous week, said Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman.

By Friday morning, more than 9,500 tickets had been reserved on the Culture Pass website, culturepass.nyc, Josh Balber, a spokesman for the program, said Friday. With Culture Pass, those who have a valid New York City library card can reserve spots online for two to four people at any of the attractions. A total of 58,000 passes will be available from the arts organizations for the year, a number that may grow, Montefinise said. For example, 50 passes to the Frick Collection had originally been available; the Guggenheim initially had 100 passes available per month, but because of the popularity of the program, the museum decided to increase the number to 200 passes a month, a spokeswoman said.

The passes are released monthly and are available for dates up to two months in advance. Cardholders may only visit each institution once a year. The next wave will be available on the Culture Pass website on Aug. 1.

Passes for the Whitney Museum of American Art, Wave Hill, the New York Transit Museum, the Morgan Library & Museum, the Met, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, the International Center of Photography, the Frick Collection and the Cooper Hewitt, were gone by Friday afternoon.

Tickets to the Brooklyn Museum, the Children’s Museum of the Arts, and other institutions were still available. And eight cultural institutions that were not previously involved with the program have inquired about participation, Balber said.

A Queens resident, Dominique Lebreton, 58, rushed to the Mid-Manhattan Library to renew her card Friday afternoon so she could get a free ticket to the Met or MoMA. She’s had a library card since she was 11, when she used to check out CDs, she said, but hasn’t used it since the 2000s.

It’s a “real treat” to get into MoMA, she said. But she was too late — at least for this weekend.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Library cards rival golden tickets with culture pass option

Tickets to those attractions were among the first to go under the new Culture Pass program, which offers library cardholders free access to 33 cultural institutions across the city.

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