Seattle: Free SAM ticket at Starbucks today, 3 pm.

The Starbucks freebies continue for lucky Seattleites with this week's giveaway: a free ticket to the Seattle Art Museum. Stop by a Starbucks after 3:00 p.m. and get your free ticket! The next upcoming exhibit is "Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art," which I'm especially excited to see after having gone to Australia last fall and seeing some Aboriginal art there.

Get caffeinated and cultured in one stop!

Free museum admission this weekend with B of A debit/credit card.

I always forget about this one, but B of A is still quietly running its Museums on Us program, where you can get free admission to selected museums, zoos, botanical gardens, and parks on the first weekend of the month when you show a debit or credit card with a B of A logo.

Seattle's listings include the Seattle Art Museum, which might be a little less crowded for this than on First Thursday. Find a museum near you and make your weekend plans!

Sep. 24 is Smithsonian Magazine's Free Museum Day.

Want to enjoy a day at the museum for free this weekend? Lucky for you, it's Smithsonian Magazine's Free Museum Day, with over 1,400 participating museums nationwide. Just fill out the form and you'll receive an emailed ticket; take that to the museum and enjoy your $0 day of culture. That should leave you with plenty of spare change for a package of astronaut ice cream from the gift shop.

Seattle: Free Seattle Art Museum ticket at Starbucks, today at 3 pm.

Here's a special freebie that's just for Seattle... Starbucks is giving away free Seattle Art Museum tickets today at 3:00 pm, at participating Seattle locations (which basically means all of them). It doesn't say, but it's probably one per person, so play nice and share! 

No purchase is necessary, but it's always nice to buy a little something and/or tip your barista in exchange for the free ticket. Those things usually cost like $20, you know!

Free museum admission on the first weekend of the month w/ B of A cards.

I've posted this one a while back, but since it still seems to be going strong, it's time for a refresher! B of A's Museums on Us program gives free admission to participating museums, zoos, botanical gardens, and more on the first weekend of every month when you show your B of A (or Merrill Lynch) debit or credit card. (See the fine print at the bottom for all the details.)

In Seattle, that includes the Seattle Art Museum and the Northwest African American Museum; in Tacoma, that includes the Tacoma Art Museum. I think I might have a B of A card floating around somewhere, so I may have to give this freebie a try!

Seattle: Free admission to Seattle Art Museum for moms on Mothers' Day.

I wish I had a better link to prove it to you (scroll down and check out the May 3 posts till you find it), but you'll just have to take my word for it: moms get in free at the Seattle Art Museum on Mothers' Day, May 8! Doesn't have to be your mom, as long as she's someone's mom.

*Sorry, Seattleites, no word on whether "dog moms" count.

Sat. 9/25 is National Free Museum Day!

Yep, you read that right... hundreds of museums around the country will be offering FREE admission this Saturday, September 25.  And all you have to do is pre-print your admission ticket using this site right here.  It's brought to you by the Smithsonian, but there are plenty of museum options nationwide.

Seattleites can pick from many cool museums, including the EMP/Sci-Fi Museum, the Bellevue Arts Museum, the Henry Art Gallery at the UW, Tacoma's Museum of Glass, the Museum of Doll Art, and good ol' SAM.

To get your ticket (good for two people), fill out the form and your ticket will be emailed to you. You must have a pre-printed ticket to get in free, so don't just sashay into your favorite museum on Saturday or you'll get the Paris-Hilton-in-Tokyo treatment.

Seattle: Free SAM admission for dads on Father's Day.

SAM just announced on their Facebook page that dads get free admission to the Seattle Art Museum on Father's Day, June 20!

I doubt they'll insist that you whip out your Dad ID, so as long as you're a dude and you look old enough to have fathered offspring, you're probably good to go. It would certainly help if you could grab a kid off the street and hold their hand in the ticket line, though.

Seattle: Free SAM tix at Starbucks today, 2 pm.

Starbucks is back again with another Friday freebie for Seattle... this one is pretty good, too: a free Seattle Art Museum pass good through September 30, 2010.

Right now, the SAM has an Andy Warhol photography exhibit and a Kurt Cobain something something (wasn't paying attention), so you can go anytime this summer. You know, to get in out of the rain.

Reminder: Free SAM admission with Seattle Public Library card.

I'm sure you put this on your calendars long ago, but on February 28 (this Sunday), anyone with a Seattle Public Library card can get a free admission to the museum just by showing their card. Library card holders will also receive 25 percent off the purchase of a book at SAM SHOP and 10 percent off either Sunday Brunch or Sunday Urban Supper at TASTE Restaurant.

The Calder exhibit is still going on, if you haven't seen it already. And check out the full roster of current exhibitions here.

Seattle: Free SAM admission 2/28 with library card.

Hey Seattle, want to check out the SAM for free? On February 28, anyone with a Seattle Public Library card can get a free admission to the museum just by showing their card. Library card holders will also receive 25 percent off the purchase of a book at SAM SHOP and 10 percent off either Sunday Brunch or Sunday Urban Supper at TASTE Restaurant.

I know this is like a month early, but don't worry, I'll remind you closer to the actual date. There's no excuse for not getting your free dose of culture! And the Calder exhibit is pretty cool, if you haven't seen it already.

Seattle: Free wine, chocolate at SAM Shop today.

Truly sophisticated holiday shoppers enjoy artisanal jewelry, sophisticated Euro housewares, and... free wine and chocolate! The Seattle Art Museum will be offering at least one of those tonight, Thursday the 17th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Six local jewelry-makers will hold a trunk show in the museum store, and the store itself will be open till 9:00 pm for holiday shopping. Free wine and chocolate sweetens the deal and impairs your judgment, so watch out.

Actually, museum stores tend to have pretty cool stuff, and I've gotten some good gifts at the SAM store over the years. They have interesting jewelry, nice notecards and stationery, and a decent selection of children's books and educational toys (from what I can tell), so if you're in panic shopping mode, you could do worse than to hit this event tonight.

Seattle: Free snacks, cheap wine at BOKA, Dec. 2.

BOKA, the restaurant inside the Hotel 1000 in downtown Seattle, has a pretty great happy-hour menu: half off their deelish appetizers, or rather, "Urban Bites." But free is even better than cheap, and on Dec. 2, they're offering free snacks and a talk by contemporary art curator Michael Darling, who will speak on Seattle Art Museum's current special exhibition, "Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act."

Wine by the glass will be sold for $3, with proceeds going to Seattle Art Museum. HINT HINT.

SAM in the Studio takes place from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., Dec. 2, at 1000 First Ave., Seattle.

(This tip from the Seattle Times Freeloader!)

Smithsonian Free Museum Day is Sat., September 26.

Don't forget, Smithsonian Free Museum Day is this Saturday, September 26! Find a participating museum and get ready to party museum-style this weekend. Don't forget to download and print your free admission card before you go, too! The card is good for up to two admissions; one card per household.

Labor Day Weekend is Free Museum Weekend.

Bank of America wants to remind you that this coming holiday weekend is also their "Museums on Us" promotion, wherein admission to any of the participating museums is free if you can flash a credit card, debit card, whatever that shows a BofA logo on it.

You can locate a museum near you here - there's a pretty decent selection on there, including a few in Seattle I haven't been to yet. If the weather doesn't improve pronto, a museum may be the best place to spend the holiday weekend, which is a sad thought.

Free museums this weekend through B of A.

B of A customers, this weekend you can get into a bunch of museums for FREE. And, you know, museums usually have air-conditioning. I'm just saying. Present your ATM, credit, or check card, and get in free! That's it!

Seattleites, you may have free admission to these museums:

• MOHAI
• Wing Luke Asian Museum
• Northwest African American Museum
• Tacoma Art Museum

Seattleites: beat the heat at SAM.

Now that we've set an all-time temperature record here in Seattle, the Seattle Art Museum wants to do its part to shelter the tired, sweaty masses and give 'em a little culture while they're cooling down. Check out their "Beat the Heat" promo this week:

• Pay-what-you-can admission
• Open late Thursday and Friday
• Free iced tea with any purchase at TASTE Restaurant
• Crappy hour specials (I'm not that impressed with their happy hour "deals")

I wasn't aware that SAM was pay-what-you-can, so that's pretty cool, I guess. In more ways than one! HAW HAW HAW

....Ohhh, the heat is getting to me.

Smithsonian Museum Day is September 26!

OK, I know this is WAY advance notice, but I thought you should know that Sat., September 26, is Smithsonian Museum Day, where you can print a free admission card to hundreds of participating museums around the country. Looks like pretty much all of the museums in the Seattle area are part of this offer, so you'll have plenty to choose from.

The admission card isn't available for download yet, but I'll remind you again as we get closer to the actual day. Free culture, everyone!

Museum of Flight free on Father's Day.

Is your dad an aviation enthusiast? Give your father wings with a free admission coupon to Seattle's Museum of Flight on Father's Day, June 21.

The coupons are available at Bartell Drugs in the Seattle area; I saw them at the photo processing counter while picking up a 4GB flash drive for $10. The coupon doesn't appear to be a BOGO, either, so maybe dads flying solo can just head on down for a quiet afternoon at the museum. I went last year when they had the stewardess uniform exhibit and found it surprisingly awesome, though, so you might want to consider tagging along with your paw.

Massive list of free museums around the U.S.

Going somewhere this summer? Do a little advance planning and maybe you can snag some free deals, even on vacation! HeyIt'sFree.net has compiled a big list of museums that offer free admission around the country. They use a few simple abbreviations, which are explained up at the top.

But, you may notice, the list is incomplete! They need your help to make it even awesomer. So if you see that your state's listing is missing a museum, or has inaccurate information, do your part as a citizen of the free world and update it, won't you?