Boston has excellent art museums & galleries to enjoy on your getaway

Massachusetts > Boston > Indoor Activities > Museums and Galleries

Come to Boston for culture and discover the amazing variety. Explore millennia of art and history and works of the masters from Picasso to Warhol. There’s African, Asian, Islamic, Chinese and Indian art and artifacts, sculpture, ceramics and prints, Greek and Roman statuary and the oldest collection of automobiles. The Mary Baker Eddy Library celebrates an extraordinary life in an 11-story Boston landmark. The U.S. revolutionary warship Old Ironsides houses the ship's logs, weapons, charts, journals, and more. Stay in luxury 4-5 star luxury hotels and enjoy additional pampering at a hotel spa.

Harvard Semitic Museum

6 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA, 02138 Phone: 617-495-4631

Museum’s thousands of artifacts illuminate the culture of the Near East

Founded in 1889, the Harvard Semitic Museum explores the rich history of cultures connected by the family of Semitic languages. Its more than 40,000 artifacts, including pottery, sculpture, coins and cuneiform tablets, come primarily from Harvard-sponsored excavations in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria and Tunisia. Exhibits range from a full-scale replica of an ancient Israelite home to a full-scale reproduction of an Egyptian throne from 2550 BC and a resin cast of the Dream Stela, found between the paws of the Great Sphinx. Lecture topics at the free museum, one of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, include photographing King Tut and old and new discoveries about the Nubian kings and queens of Kush.

Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

At Harvard University - 11 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA, 02138 Phone: 617-496-1027

Experience the World in One Museum

Explore towering Native American totem poles, large Maya sculptures, and artifacts of the ancient world at Harvard’s anthropology museum. Ambient sound, motion, and historic and contemporary Plains art animate nineteenth century Lakota drawings from a warrior’s ledger collected at the Little Bighorn battlefield. Discover the native cultures of Latin America before and after 1492, when the first voyage of Christopher Columbus initiated dramatic worldwide changes. Explore the enduring importance of rivers and canoes in Penobscot tribal life and on relationships between the tribe and non-Indians. See how students lived at colonial Harvard, and the role of the 17th-century Indian College in Harvard’s early years. Trace the history of early anthropology through the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and more in the museum’s 150th anniversary exhibition. Admission to the connected Harvard Museum of Natural History and its famed Glass Flowers is included. Open daily 9:00 AM–5:00 PM.

Harvard Peabody Museum of Natural History Cambridge MA Crdit Alex Jaffe- Crimson

Harvard Museum of Natural History

26 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA, 02138 Phone: 617-495-3045

Dinosaurs, Glass Flowers, Meteorites – Explorers Welcome!

One of the four Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, this museum displays some 11,000 specimens drawn from Harvard’s vast collections, including the Blaschka Glass Flowers, Sea Creatures in Glass, huge whale skeletons, hundreds of mammals, birds, and the world’s only mounted skeleton of the 42 foot-long Kronosaurus. Explore a timeline of Earth’s history, and see 3,000 rare minerals and gemstones. New and changing multi-media exhibitions showcase cutting-edge research. The museum is an easy 8-minute walk across Harvard’s historic campus from Harvard Square’s popular shops, restaurants and MBTA station. The museum is connected to Harvard’s Peabody Museum, and one admission fee covers both museums.

jfk presidential library -credit-Great Boston CVB

JFK Presidential Library and Museum

220 Morrissey Blvd. Boston, MA Phone: 617-514-1600

The Library and Museum are dedicated to the memory of President Kennedy. They portray the life, leadership, and legacy of President Kennedy through multi-media methods. The buildings are on a ten-acre park overlooking Boston harbor and the region where Kennedy grew up and began his legendary career.
Hours: Year-round, daily, except major holidays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Admission: Adults, $14; seniors over age 61 and college students, $12; youth age and U.S. armed forces veterans, 13-17 $10

USS Constitution Museum

24 Fifth Street at the Charlestown Navy Yard Charlestown, MA, 02129 Phone: 617-426-1812

The USS Constitution Museum serves as the memory and educational voice of USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides," the world's oldest commissioned warship afloat. The museum houses the ship's logs, weapons, charts, journals, arts, and more. Visitors fire a cannon, swing in a hammock, or command the USS Constitution in battle using a computer.
Hours: November 1-March 31, daily, Thursday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; April 1-October 31, daily, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Admission: Adults, $5; seniors, $3; children, $2.

Museum of Fine Arts

465 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA Phone: 617-267-9300

Opened on July 4, 1876, the date of the country’s nation's centennial, the Museum of Fine Arts has undergone significant changes. Today the museum’s collections include 500,000 works of art from ancient to contemporary times. The museum takes special pride in its Art of the Americas Wing. Take a preview of some of the galleries.

Museum of African American History, Boston campus

46 Joy Street, Beacon Hill Boston, MA, 02114 Phone: 617-725-0022

The African Meeting House and Abiel Smith School on Beacon Hill, both built in the early 1800s, are in what once was the heart of Boston's 19th-century African American community. The buildings remain a showcase of black community organization and black craftsmanship. Once a church, a school, and a meeting place, the African Meeting House is open to the public. The Abiel Smith School, the nation's first public school for African American children, houses a first-class exhibit space and the museum store.
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Admission: Adults, $5; children age 12 and younger, free; seniors and youth age 13-17, $3.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

25 Evans Way Boston, MA Phone: 617-566-1401

Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened in 1903, largely presenting the collections of Gardner, an avid traveler of the Victorian era and patron of the arts. The museum is located next to the Emerald Necklace of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. In fact, much of the museum is devoted to botanical imagery and gardens, including within the magnificent Courtyard. The collection includes 7500 paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, ceramics, rare books, and objects from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, and the Islamic world. The museum is unfortunately famous for a theft in 1990 – yet unsolved -- of several artworks. Virtual tour of the galleries.

Museum Of Science

1 Science Park Boston, MA Phone: 617-723-2500

The museum includes that fabulous Charles Hayden Planetarium, the most technologically advanced digital theater in New England, presenting a rotating series of shows about the cosmos. Permanent exhibits include A Bird’s World, Bradford Washburn: The Man Behind the Lens; butterfly Garden; Catching the Wind; Colossal Fossil; Triceratops Cliff; Cosmic Light, Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic; Discovery Center; Hall of Human Life; Math Moves!; Mathematica; Nanotechnology; Natural Mysteries; Science in the Park; Seeing is Deceiving; The Light House; the Rock Garden; To the Moon; Transportation, and more.

Arthur M. Sackler Museum

485 Broadway Street Cambridge, MA, 02138 Phone: 617-495-9400

Ancient, Asian, Islamic, and Later Indian art: Chinese jades, bronzes, and cave temple sculpture; Korean ceramics; Japanese wood block prints; and Greek and Roman sculptures, vases, and ancient coins.
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. ; Admission: Adults, $9; seniors 65 and older, $7; college students, $6; children under age 18, free.

United States Naval Shipbuilding Museum

This museum is home to the USS Salem, the world’s only preserved heavy cruiser and place for children and families to explore this unique fighting vessel. In addition to day trips, kids can camp overnight on the USS Salem and take part in hands-on activities like radar tracking, damage control, simulated fire fighting, scavenger hunts, cold water survival, and first aid lessons.

Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University

5 South Street Waltham, MA Phone: 781-736-3432

The Rose Art Museum specializes in modern and contemporary art. It has top-shelf works by, among others, Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Morris Louis, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ad Reinhardt. When you enter campus through the main entrance, take a left. You will pass the admissions building and the round Spingold Theatre building, both on your left. The Rose Art Museum will be on your left.
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. ; Admission: Free.

Longyear Museum and Historical Society

1125 Boylston Street (Route 9) Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467 Phone: 617-278-9000

Exhibits focus on the life of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church.
Hours: Monday, Thursday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Admission: Free.

Fogg Art Museum

32 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA, 02138 Phone: 617- 495-9400

Collections illustrate the history of Western art from Middle Ages to the present with major focus on Italian early Renaissance, British pre-Raphaelite, and 19th-century French art. Major collection of Impressionist and post-impressionist work and works by Picasso. Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission: Adults, $9; seniors age 6 and older, $7; college students, $6.

Busch-Reisinger Museum

32 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA, 02138 Phone: 617-495-9400

Collections of art from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and related cultures. Major holdings of Austrian Secession art, German expressionism, 1920s abstraction, and Bauhaus archives. Post-war and contemporary art from German-speaking Europe including work by Joseph Beuys. Of particular interest is the lovely sculpture garden.
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Admission: Admission: Adults, $9; seniors 65 and older, $7; college students, $6; children under age 18, free.

The Museum of the National Center of Afro American Artists

300 Walnut Avenue Boston, MA, 02119 Phone: 617-442-8614

A total focus the art of Afro-Americans, including exhibits, tours, lectures, films, and concerts.
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday,1-5 p.m. ; Admission: Adults, $4; seniors and students, $3.

Institute of Contemporary Art

100 Northern Ave. Boston, MA, 02210 Phone: 617-478-3101

The Institute of Contemporary Art unveiled its new home on Fan Pier on Boston's waterfront in December 2006. The building's dramatic cantilevered design integrates the city's HarborWalk into the museum and offers shifting views of the harbor. The design weaves together interior and exterior space, producing shifting perspectives of the waterfront throughout the museum's galleries and public spaces.
Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. with free admission on Thursdays from 5-9 p.m.
Admission: Adults, $15; seniors, $13; students, $10.

Larz Anderson Auto Museum

15 Newton Street Brookline, MA, 02445 Phone: 617-522-6547

The Larz Anderson Auto Museum is home to America’s oldest car collection. For over 75 years the Larz Anderson Auto Museum has been supporting the community through a variety of educational programs, exhibits, and lectures. Hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m
Admission: Adults, $10; military people, seniors, students, and children age 6-12, $5.

Charles River Museum of Industry

154 Moody Street Waltham, MA, 02453 Phone: 617-893-5410

Located in America's first factory, the history 1814 Boston Manufacturing Company textile mill, on the National Register of Historic Places. Exhibits include the American Industrial Revolution, steam power, Waltham Watch Company, plus the bicycle and automobile manufacturing industries along the Charles River. Explore the inventions that powered America into the modern age and the geniuses who perfected them.
Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. ; Admission: Adults, $7; students, $5; seniors, $5.

Commonwealth Museum

220 Morrissey Boulevard, Columbia Point Boston, MA, 02125 Phone: 617-727-9268

The entire state of Massachusetts is on display: Places around the state, famous people who were born or have resided in the state, in addition to its politics and special role in America's history.
Hours: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m. ; Admission: Free.

Milton Art Museum

900 Randolph Street Canton, MA Phone: 781-821-2222

The Asian Collection includes examples of original art and artifacts, prints, sculptures and craftsmanship from the Asian cultures. Thai Headdresses, Bhuddahs, Furniture, Sume-i painting, Chinese and Japanese Calligraphy are on permanent display. The Western collection includes Remington and Russell cast bronzes, and American and European etchings and lithographs spanning from 18th to the 20th century. On exhibit are Piranesi, Turner, Renoir, Picasso, Chagall, Manet, Cezanne, Kollwitz, Whistler, Signac and Baskin to name a few. The modern art collection of signed prints include Warhol, Dali, Margritte, Komjate, Miro, Motherwell, Hundertwasser, Lebadang, and Calder.
Hours: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-noon. ; Admission: Free.

Boston Children's Museum

The museum’s interactive exhibits focus on early childhood development and have three themes: arts, culture, and science. Exhibits that encourage children to have fun while they learn are extensive, including the New Balance Climb, a climbing maze made up of brightly painted towers and tubes; Science Playground, a series of sensational physical science exhibits; Hall of Toys, filled with intricate dollhouses, and much more.

Davis Museum at Wellesley College

Wellesley College, 106 Central Street Wellesley, MA Phone: 781-283-2051

The beautiful Rafael Moneo-designed Davis Museum offers innovative temporary exhibitions and spacious galleries for the museum’s permanent collection of nearly 10,000 works of art that spans the 3,000 years of art history. The permanent collection features American Art. This hidden gem on the Wellesley College campus is free and open to all.
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, noon–4 p.m. ; Admission: Free.

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