Rock Art Center offers free admission Sept. 24


Sept. 24 is Museum Day, as decreed by the Smithsonian Institution. And that means that visitors to Arizona State University’s Deer Valley Rock Art Center will be admitted free on Sept. 24. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day.

Museum Day is a celebration of the dissemination of knowledge to anyone and everyone interested, without a price tag, emulating the free admission policy of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington, D.C.-based facilities.

With support from CITGO, Museum Day 2011, the seventh annual event, is poised to be the largest to date, outdoing last year’s record-breaking event. In 2010, museum-goers downloaded 227,747 tickets resulting in more than 500,000 people visiting more than 1,300 venues in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

To receive free admission, patrons must download a Museum Day ticket at www.smithsonian.com/museumday. A list of participating museums is available at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/venues/. Visitors who present the official pass will gain free admission for two people to participating museums and cultural venues.

One ticket is permitted per household, per e-mail address. For more information about Smithsonian magazine Museum Day 2011 and links to participating museums’ and supporters’ sites, go to smithsonian.com/museumday.

The Deer Valley Rock Art Center has the largest concentration of Native American petroglyphs in the Phoenix Valley. Visitors hike a quarter-mile trail to view more than 1,500 petroglyphs made between 500 and 7,000 years ago. The museum aims to promote preservation, connection and respect for the site and is are a destination for families to learn about archaeology in their own backyard. The Center is managed by one of the top archaeology programs in the country – the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.

For more information about the center call (623) 582-8007, or go to http://dvrac.asu.edu.