Boston Mayor Michelle Wu launches free museums for all city children after criticism

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says she always wanted to expand an initiative that provided BPS students free access to cultural institutions to all city schoolchildren, a plan that has turned into reality after nearly a year of backlash.

Boston Family Days will be just like BPS Sundays – free access to a nearly dozen museums and zoos the first two Sundays of each month – when it launches next month, but it won’t exclude any children and families in the city.

Wu’s BPS Sundays program, which she announced in her State of the City address last January, had drawn criticism over eligibility limits, particularly from Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn.

The two had argued the program left out thousands of low-income and minority families — such as those who have children attending charter and private schools or who take part in the METCO program — who may not be able to afford the cost of a museum visit.

Wu’s announcement that she’d be rebranding the initiative to Boston Family Days received mixed emotions from Murphy and praise from Flynn on Wednesday.

Murphy, in her morning newsletter, applauded the expansion while knocking Wu for a “lack of communication” behind the program and decision. She and Flynn had tried to schedule a hearing about the initiative with city officials for months, but those efforts failed.

“The announcement, which I discovered in her public schedule email, was the first indication that the Mayor had finalized updates to the program,” Murphy wrote. “This lack of communication is especially concerning given that the administration declined to participate in the Council Hearing we scheduled in October, where we had hoped to receive an update on her plans to expand the pilot program.”

“To date,” Murphy added, “I have not been briefed or officially notified by the administration about the specifics of this plan.”

Flynn called the expansion a “win for every Boston family.”

On Wednesday afternoon at the Museum of Science, one of the partaking venues, Wu highlighted how more than 44,000 students and families have participated in the program so far.

Thousands have visited the initial six participating museums and zoos for the first time ever, including nearly half of visitors at Boston Children’s Museum being first-timers, the mayor said.

“From the very beginning,” she said, “our goal here was to try to maximize access for everyone in the city, but we needed to start very carefully to see what was possible.”

Boston Family Days will increase the number of participating institutions to nine with the additions of the Museum of African American History, JFK Library and Museum and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

“Like many small museums across the country, we have struggled to return to our pre-COVID numbers,” said Noelle Trent, president and CEO of the Museum of African American History. “When we were approached about being included in the next phase of this visionary program we jumped at the opportunity.”

The Barr Foundation is contributing $1 million over the next two years to support the expansion, while Amazon has contributed $500,000 between the pilot and updated program. Funds will continue to be a mix of city, philanthropic, and corporate funds, in addition to in-kind or direct contributions from the participating institutions.

Wu said she and other officials “really struggled for a long time” forming a name for the expansion, but they “ended up keeping it simple” with Boston Family Days.

“In this moment in the world, sometimes certain terms can be made to sound more exclusive or sort of narrowly defined,” the mayor said. “What we want is for Boston to be a home for everyone and for each of our residents to see the entire community as their family.”

This month, a year ago, the Wu administration made international headlines for hosting an “electeds of color” holiday party.