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Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia Museum of Art – Price, Hours, Parking, Collections

Fun & Activities /

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is where culture and creativity meet; it’s a place where you may let your imagination run wild and discover something new at every turn. In 1876, at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the city’s charter for the Philadelphia Museum of Art was approved. On Fairmount, a hill near the far northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval, the museum’s main structure was finished in 1928.

Quick Overview

Address: 2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19130

Departments: The Hall

Phone: (215) 763-8100

Architects: Julian Abele, Howell Lewis Shay

Director: Timothy Rub

Founded: 1876, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, PA

Construction started: in 1919

Architectural style: Greek Revival architecture

Philadelphia Museum of Art Hours

Saturday10AM–5PM
Sunday10AM–5PM
Monday10AM–5PM
TuesdayClosed
WednesdayClosed
Thursday10AM–5PM
Friday10AM–8:45PM

Philadelphia Museum of Art Admission Rates

Adults$25
Seniors (65 & over)$23
Students with a valid ID$14
Youths (18 & under)Free
MembersFree
Member Guests$12
Buy Tickets

Special Rates

All year long, you may take advantage of our discounted public entry, which can be redeemed in person at any Visitor Services Desks. They do not include admission to exhibitions or programs that require tickets and cannot be combined with any other deals.

Admission by Suggested Donation

Pay what you want on the first Sunday of the month (10 am – 5 pm) and every Friday night (5 pm – 8:45 pm).

Visitors with a valid Pennsylvania ACCESS or EBT card gain free entry

With a valid PA ACCESS card or EBT card and a valid photo ID, you and up to 3 other adults get free general entry. All guests under the age of 18 get in for free.

During the summer, active-duty military members receive free admission

As part of Blue Star Museums, active-duty military people and their families are granted free entry from Armed Forces Day to Labor Day. This benefit is offered in conjunction with Blue Star Families.

Philadelphia Museum of Art Parking

The Main Building’s Carport

The parking garage is conveniently located next to the main structure. Turn onto Anne d’Harnoncourt Drive or Waterworks Drive from Kelly Drive, then keep following the signage in either direction. After turning into Anne d’Harnoncourt Drive from Spring Garden Street, go straight around the curve; the parking garage will be on your left. The Perelman Building is within walking distance of the garage, and the Rodin Museum can be reached on foot in around 20 minutes.

Parking that’s easy to access

You’ll discover parking spots that are accessible on each and every level of the garage, just next to the escalators.

Parking Rates

$15 for the first four hours, and $2 for each hour after that.
Parking is free for the first hour for members, then $10 for the next four hours, and $2 for each hour after that. To take advantage of these rates, you must first validate your parking ticket at a Visitor Services Desk located inside the museum. Credit cards are required for payment of the parking costs.

On Friday evenings, parking will cost $5.

When you come to see us on Friday evening after 5:00 p.m., you can park in the garage for just $5. Your parking ticket must be validated at a Visitor Services desk located inside the museum.

Bike Racks

You are more than welcome to leave your bike locked up in one of the safe racks located in either our parking garage or in front of the North Entrance.

Off-Site Parking

On the Parkway, between Eakins Oval and Logan Square, there are parking spots with meters, and just off Waterworks Drive, near the Italian Fountain, there is parking for two hours that is free of charge.

Philadelphia Museum of Art Collections

Over 12,000 works of art, including sculpture, furniture, pottery, glass, and metalwork, may be found in the American Art collection, which focuses mostly on pieces created in Philadelphia. The decorative arts, the works of Thomas Eakins, the Peale family, and the Pennsylvania Germans are all excellent ways to educate yourself about the history of our nation.

Explore the Museum’s American Art Collection, Which Is Famous All Over the World

Since its inception in 1876, the museum’s collection has been predominately comprised of works by American artists. The Department of American Art is in charge of paintings and sculptures that were created by artists who were either born in the United States or still reside there, as well as by artists who were born in the United States but worked elsewhere in the world between the years 1600 and 1960. In addition, our collection comprises ceramics, furniture, glass, metalwork, and craft objects manufactured in the United States, dating from colonial times all the way up to the current day.

In the galleries, visitors to the collection are given a chronological review of American art, and they are also given the opportunity to study works of art in the context of historical situations such as:

  • Müller House Kitchen from Millbach, Pennsylvania (1752)
  • The front parlour located on the second story of the house that belonged to Samuel and Elizabeth Powel, which was located on Third Street in Philadelphia (1769)
  • Items crafted out of wood and taken from the home of Ezekiel Hersey Derby in Salem, Massachusetts (1800)
  • The Shaker bedroom room located within the North Family Dwelling House in New Lebanon, New York (1818–40)
  • The library fireplace was designed by sculptor Wharton Esherick, as well as the entry to the music room of the Bok House (Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, 1936)

The Contemporary Art section features more than a thousand works by artists from throughout the world, most of which were created between 1950 and now. These works illustrate how artists develop fresh perspectives in reaction to shifting social, political, and cultural contexts.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has collected and shown modern art since 1876. The museum boasts one of the most vibrant and adventurous collections of modern art among encyclopedic art institutions in the country. The collection includes a cinema, installation, painting, sculpture, video, and more made between 1950 and the present. This collection is visually imaginative and experientially engaging, making it a destination for contemporary art lovers and a vital resource for students, educators, and Philadelphia-based artists.

Notables

Contemporary art collection highlights include:

  • Ellsworth Kelly’s Seine depicts light and water.
  • Alma Thomas’ Hydrangeas Spring Song shows her keen observations.
  • Cy Twombly’s Fifty Days at Iliam is a ten-part graphic story of the Trojan War.
  • Strange Fruit is powerful.
  • Pierre Huyghe’s Zoodram 5 (after Brancusi’s Sleeping Muse)
  • Bruce Nauman’s The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign).
  • Outsider painting from Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz.
  • Dietrich II’s collection, from Philadelphia.
  • Keith L. and Katherine Sachs’ collection contains 90 contemporary works.

The museum’s collection of costumes and textiles is one of the oldest and largest in the United States. It has a wide variety of notable pieces, ranging from archaeological textiles that are 2,000 years old to modern couture that is on the leading edge of fashion design.

It was in 1876 that the museum first started amassing textiles and costumes. In 1893, a dedicated design and technical center for textiles, lace, and embroidery were established. The collection of textiles was expanded to include works such as French printed textiles, Ottoman velvets, American quilts and coverlets, lace, and embroidered samplers.

Historical clothing and contemporary clothing inspired by 18th- and 19th-century American and French donations were added to the department after 1947. The museum’s collection includes textiles from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America. Art to Wear, Fiber Art, Haute Couture, and Progressive Design are among of the collection’s strongest points.

The division’s holdings are displayed in various exhibitions, installations, and galleries. The Hamilton Center for Costume and Textiles at the Perelman Building is home to over 30,000 pieces from all over time and space, many of which can be viewed and studied by appointment. The collection is motivating, academically sound, and accessible to readers of all ages.

Notables
The collection includes:

  • Sarah Mary Taylor’s Hands quilt was used in The Color Purple film.
  • Salvador Dal designed Elsa Schiaparelli’s Lobster Dress.
  • Zo of Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh weave exquisite fabrics.
  • Grace Kelly’s wedding outfit.
  • Bangladesh and India embroider Kanthas.
  • Victorian dolls with enormous wardrobes.
  • Late 1600s Persian tomb was cover with devotional calligraphy.
  • John Hewson printed this bedcover in Kensington, Philadelphia, around 1790–1810.
  • Patrick Kelly’s 1980s extravaganzas.

The Department of East Asian Art is home to one of the museum’s most comprehensive collections, boasting artifacts that date back more than three thousand years and hailing from a wide variety of locations across the Asian continent. It also provides visitors with the opportunity to travel through both time and space during their visit.

The East Asian Art Department oversees art from East, Southeast, Central, and West Asia. The earliest pieces date to 2500 BCE.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, the first U.S. World’s Fair, inspired interest in Asian art and material culture, leading to the museum’s initial purchases of lacquerware, furniture, pottery, and other works of art from Chinese, Japanese, Moroccan, and Persian exhibitors. Permanent galleries showcase Japanese and Korean art and Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Islamic paper and textile works.

The East Asian Art Department is introducing historical and current works by artists using historical techniques and contemporary craft arts. Museum invites conversation.

Notables

  • Chinese, Japanese, and Iranian architectural interiors, including Ogi Rodo’s “Evanescent Joys” teahouse.
  • The only reception hall in an American museum is a spectacular 17th-century Chinese Palace Hall.
  • The Zhihua temple in Beijing has one of only two imperial lacquered wood coffered ceilings outside of China.
  • The galleries showcase traditional and contemporary paintings, sculptures, pottery, textiles, furniture, and works on paper.
  • A celadon vase with kingfisher glaze from 12th-century Korea
  • 400-year-old Iranian ‘Marquand’ Medallion carpet
  • Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of limitless compassion, carved in Thai sandstone

The museum’s collection of applied arts, design, architecture, and sculpture features works for daily life. Explore objects from medieval Europe to today, from Renaissance masterworks to cutting-edge design.

Medieval to modern art

The Department of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture oversees more than 22,000 objects from the middle ages to the present.

This collection includes arms and armor, ceramics, glass, enamels, coins and medals, furniture, jewelry, lighting, metalwork, plastics, sculpture, stained glass, tapestries, textiles, wallpaper, architectural elements, and tools and utensils.

Gallery comprehension

The department’s primary galleries are on the third floor of the museum’s main building, with objects displayed in and around period rooms to show how objects from the same time period might have been used. Arms and armor are displayed between 1100 to 1500 and 1500 to 1800 galleries in the Great Stair Hall. On the second floor’s north side are galleries with 19th-century objects, and on the south side is the Collab Gallery 219.

Notable Objects

  • Edmond Foulc’s Renaissance treasures.
  • Eleanore Elkins Rice’s 18th-century French art.
  • George Grey Barnard’s mediaeval art collection.
  • Mrs. Widener and Fitz Eugene Dixon gave an armorial glass.
  • Samuel H. Kress Foundation tapestries depicting Constantine the Great’s life.
  • Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch’s armoury.
  • Anthony N.B. Garvan’s mother gave him Dutch tiles.
  • Henry P. McIhenny gave French 19th-century furniture and art.
  • Collab’s modern design.

Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Marcel Duchamp, and Auguste Rodin are just a few of the artists whose works are maintained by European Painting and Sculpture, which oversees 4,000 pieces from 1300-1950.

Seven Century Creativity

The 4,000 paintings in European Painting and Sculpture span the years 1300-1950. Particularly impressive are works by the early Dutch, Italian, Dutch, and British. There are also portrait miniatures and wax figures of famous people in addition to modern Mexican art. Longtime Philadelphia collectors have helped the museum amass a significant collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modern Art. Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Marcel Duchamp, and Auguste Rodin are just a few of the artists whose works are represented.

Moreover, half of the museum’s collection is housed in the department dedicated to prints, drawings, and photographs. Explore the depth of these collections, which include anything from old books to modern images.

The Prints, Drawings, and Photographs section display works on paper in the Korman Galleries (221–223), Honickman Galleries (156–57), the Keyes Gallery (256), and in temporary exhibitions and installations around the museum’s main structure. Scholars and students can study works on paper by appointment in the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Study Room on the first floor of the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building.

  • Early modern European prints, Japanese prints, and American and Mexican prints from the 1910s to 1950s are highlights of the collection. The department has the greatest collection of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi prints outside of Japan and major Marcel Duchamp and Dox Thrash pieces on paper.
  • The drawings collection includes works by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Wanda Gág, and Rockwell Kent.
  • The global photography collection focuses on art photography from the 1920s to the present. The museum has the largest collection of Paul Strand pictures and works by Alfred Stieglitz, Eugène Atget, Frederick Evans, Dorothy Norman, Robert Frank, and Robert Adams.
  • The Ars Medica Collection features medical prints, drawings, pictures, posters, ads, and ephemera.
  • The department gathers modern drawings. Emma Amos, Michelle Stuart, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jennie C. Jones, Rashid Johnson, and Susan Fenton have recent purchases.

The collection is representative of the richness and variety of South Asian culture and art, spanning four millennia and containing some truly remarkable pieces of art.

The museum’s South Asian Art collection is nationally renowned. It features 4,000 works in a variety of mediums and spans time and space. The majority of the works are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Tibet. Central Asia, Mongolia, and Myanmar also contribute.

The South Indian Temple Hall features architectural components contributed by Adeline Pepper Gibson’s family in 1919. Stella Kramrisch’s personal collection helped develop the museum’s South Asian holdings. Natacha Rambova, Alvin O. Bellak, and Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz contributed later. The museum continues to acquire ancient and modern South Asian art.

Through exhibitions, books, digital content, programs, and other museum activities, explore the beauty, strength, and sophistication of South Asian art.

Notables

South Asian Art collection highlights include:

  • The only 16th-century South Indian Temple Hall ensemble presented outside India.
  • Hindu and Jain temple sculptures (sixth to the sixteenth century).
  • Royal workshop-painted manuscripts and booklets (fourteenth to the nineteenth century).
  • Nepalese and Tibetan devotional paintings and sculptures (ninth to the nineteenth century).
  • Village and tribal community ceremonial art from the 18th to 20th centuries and contemporary tribal art.

Eat & Drink Places at Philadelphia Museum of Art

1. Stir Restaurant

Stir Restaurant at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Enjoy your lunch, brunch, or dinner in this stylish Frank Gehry-designed room. The chef-driven menu at Stir includes seasonal starters, main meals including frittatas and hand-torn pasta, and specialty drinks, wines, and local brews.

Hours
  • Monday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Closed
  • Wednesday, Closed
  • Thursday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
  • Friday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

2. Café

Cafe at Philadelphia Museum of Art

This colourful food hall, designed by Frank Gehry, can satisfy everyone in your group. Burgers, pizzas, salads, sandwiches, and soups are staples on our kid-friendly menu, and we also offer a rotating variety of Philly favourites like pierogies, tacos, noodles, and more. (Gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan choices are also accessible.) Pastries and espresso from the Parliament will round up your lunch well.

Hours
  • Monday, 10 am–4 pm (hot options 11 am–2 pm)
  • Tuesday, Closed
  • Wednesday, Closed
  • Thursday, 10 am–4 pm (hot options 11 am–2 pm)
  • Friday, 10 am–4 pm (hot options 11 am–2 pm)
  • Saturday, 10 am–4 pm (hot options 11 am–2 pm)
  • Sunday, 10 am–4 pm (hot options 11 am–2 pm)

3. Espresso Bar

Under the historic skylights of our Vaulted Walkway, you can relax with a drink and some light fare. Passero’s espresso products, bottled beverages, handmade pastries, snacks, and more can all be found at this typical coffee bar.

Hours
  • Monday, 10:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Closed
  • Wednesday, Closed
  • Thursday, 10:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
  • Friday, 10:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, 10:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

4. Balcony Café

Sample the local roasted beans used to make espresso drinks and a wide selection of beers and wines. Views of Lenfest Hall and the neighboring Fairmount Water Works will accompany your homemade bar snacks.

Hours
  • Monday, Closed
  • Tuesday, Closed
  • Wednesday, Closed
  • Thursday, Closed
  • Friday, 11:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
  • Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, 11:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

5. Members Lounge

Relax and unwind in the cozy atmosphere provided by the Member Lounge, which is open to members and their visitors. You are welcome to help yourself to a free cup of tea or coffee brewed using beans roasted in the area by Passero’s.

Hours
  • Monday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Closed
  • Wednesday, Closed
  • Thursday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
  • Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
  • Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
  • Sunday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

How To Reach Philadelphia Museum of Art

Near the intersection of Interstates 76 (Schuylkill Expressway) and 676, the Benjamin Franklin Museum may be found at the western terminus of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (Vine Street Expressway). We are a short drive away from Center City Philadelphia and the Philadelphia International Airport, which can be reached in about 20 minutes (depending on the amount of traffic).

Buses of the Public Transit System The museum district is serviced by bus routes 7, 32, 38, 43, 48, and 49. Visit the SEPTA website for further details and information.

Train

  • Take the SEPTA subway or a regional rail train to one of the adjacent stations, either 30th Street or Suburban, if you are traveling from the Philadelphia metropolitan area.
  • Take the PATCO Speedline to get to Center City Philadelphia if you are traveling from South Jersey. This line provides service in that direction.
  • If you are traveling in from out of town, the easiest way to get to the museum is to take an Amtrak train to the 30th Street Station, which is located only a few minutes away.

Frequently Ask Question

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is well-known for what?

The American collection of the museum spans three centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, with particular strengths in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture and silver, Pennsylvania German art, rural Pennsylvania furniture, and ceramics.

Can you tell me how much it costs to enter the Philadelphia Art Museum?

It costs #25 for adults to enter the Philadelphia Art Museum

Are tickets to the Philadelphia Museum of Art required?

The answer is yes, a ticket is necessary. Tickets reserved in advance online can be scanned automatically upon arrival. Every half hour, new entry times become available. Members are not required to make advanced reservations for admission.

How much does it cost to park at the Philadelphia Museum of Art?

Parking is free for the first hour for members, then $10 for the next four hours, and $2 for each hour after that. To take advantage of these rates, you must first validate your parking ticket at a Visitor Services Desk located inside the museum.

Where can I find out what day of the week the Philadelphia Art Museum is free to the public?

Currently, they’re not offering free admission. But you can enjoy Pay What You Wish. Each month’s first Sunday and each weeknight of Friday are “Pay What You Wish” nights (5:00–8:45 p.m.). Everyone in your immediate family who has a valid Pennsylvania ACCESS or EBT card gets in for free.
 

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