Exploring the building alone is worth the trip. Grace Nicholson commissioned it in 1924 as a curio shop and treasure house, and had it built in the style of a Chinese imperial palace courtyard, with materials imported from China and a garden at its center. It is one of the few buildings in Pasadena that stops pedestrians mid-stride.
Today, that building and everything inside it is free.
Admission to the USC Pacific Asia Museum is free to all visitors on the second Sunday of each month. Aug. 9 is the second Sunday of August, and the museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
What waits inside is a collection built across decades. The museum’s holdings have grown to more than 15,000 objects, including rare and representative works of art and ethnographic material from Asia and the Pacific Islands, spanning more than five thousand years.
The free Sunday is not simply a discount day. The museum describes it as an intergenerational community program built around the cultures and themes in its collection and special exhibitions, with programming that has included artmaking workshops, storytime, tours, performances and screenings.
Practical details ease the visit considerably. Parking is free in the museum lot at the corner of Los Robles Avenue and Union Street. All public spaces of the building and garden are wheelchair accessible, and the Metro station at Memorial Park sits about half a mile away.
On a regular day there is an admission charge, with reduced rates for students and seniors. Today it costs nothing — which makes this the easiest possible introduction to a museum many Pasadena residents have driven past for years without going in.
Free admission at the USC Pacific Asia Museum runs Sunday, Aug. 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 46 N. Los Robles Ave., in Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 787-2680 or visit pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu. Admission is free. Free parking is available in the museum lot.
