LEWISTON — On Saturday, Sept. 29, Museum L-A will open its doors free of charge, along with more than 1,400 other participating venues, for the eighth annual Museum Day Live! This immensely successful program, in which Museum L-A will emulate the free admission policy of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington, D.C.-based facilities, encourages learning and the spread of knowledge nationwide.

Inclusive by design, Museum Day Live! fulfills Smithsonian Media’s mission to make cultural education accessible to everyone. For one day only, Museum L-A will grant free access to visitors who download a ticket at Smithsonian.com. Last year’s event drew more than 350,000 museum-goers nationwide, and this year’s is expected to attract close to 400,000 participants.

“Museum Day throws open the doors to culture and history and shouts, ‘Welcome, come on in,’” said Rachel Desgrosseilliers, Museum L-A’s executive director. “Museum L-A is pleased to be part of an event that makes our common heritage accessible to more people.”

This summer, Museum L-A’s launched its special-exhibit series, “The Power of Music,” celebrating the role music plays in the lives of people and its influence on the people, culture and industry of Lewiston-Auburn. The first exhibit showcases the diversity of music enjoyed by Americans from 1860-1915 through photographic portraits of people of all ages and their instruments. A timeline follows developments in the music industry with highlights of people and places prominent in local music of that time period.

A beautiful upright piano, a pump organ, an early banjo and an antique mandolin are only a few of the instruments that are on display. Museum L-A’s second floor galleries focus on the people, machinery and workplaces in Lewiston-Auburn’s textile, shoe and brick industries.

The Museum Day Live! ticket is available to download at Smithsonian.com/museumday. Visitors who present the Museum Day Live! Ticket will gain free entrance for two at participating venues for one day only. One ticket is permitted per household, per email address. For more information and a list of participating museums and cultural institutions, visit Smithsonian.com/museumday.

Museum L-A is at 35 Canal St. in the Bates Mill Complex and open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 207-333-3881 or email info@museumla.org.

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