Chicago Museums Host First-Ever Member Swap This Weekend

Participating institutions include MCA, Driehaus, and American Writers Museum.

Jan. 28, 2026 at 6:07pm

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A group of Chicago museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Driehaus Museum, and American Writers Museum, are hosting the city's first-ever museum member swap event this weekend. The swap allows members of any of the participating institutions to visit the other museums for free from January 29th through February 1st.

Why it matters

The museum member swap is an innovative way for smaller and lesser-known Chicago museums to pool resources, cross-promote, and introduce their collections and programming to new audiences. It also benefits museum members by giving them free access to explore a wider range of the city's cultural offerings.

The details

The idea for the museum member swap was spearheaded by Matthew Masino of the American Writers Museum, who reached out to other institutions in October 2025 to gauge interest. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with museums like the Glessner House seeing it as a great opportunity to raise awareness and share resources. During the four-day event, members can visit any of the 10 participating museums for free, in addition to still being able to access their home museum.

  • The museum member swap will take place from Thursday, January 29 through Sunday, February 1, 2026.
  • Matthew Masino first proposed the idea to other museums in October 2025.

The players

Matthew Masino

An employee at the American Writers Museum who initiated the idea for the first-ever Chicago museum member swap.

William Tyre

The director of the Glessner House museum, one of the institutions participating in the member swap.

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What they’re saying

“I was overjoyed by how much excitement there was,”

— Matthew Masino (cbsnews.com)

“One of the big issues is people don't know we exist, so one of the benefits is getting the word out. A lot of us are smaller with smaller budgets and this is a good way to pool our resources.”

— William Tyre, Director, Glessner House (cbsnews.com)

What’s next

The museums plan to evaluate the success of the first member swap event and determine if it could become an annual or recurring program.

The takeaway

This innovative museum member swap demonstrates how smaller cultural institutions can collaborate to cross-promote, share resources, and introduce their offerings to new audiences in a mutually beneficial way, potentially serving as a model for other cities to replicate.