Best Museums in Maine

Maine’s museums are unusually good for a state this size, and unusually cheap. Three of the best cost nothing at all, most of the rest charge less than a chain cinema ticket, and almost every one runs at least one published free-admission window. What follows is what each museum charges in 2026, which day it closes, and when you can get in for nothing, checked against each operator rather than against a listings site.

World-Class Art Museums

Portland Museum of Art (Portland)

Founded in 1882, the Portland Museum of Art sits at 7 Congress Square, a few blocks from Portland’s working waterfront. The collection spans American, European and contemporary art, with real depth in artists connected to Maine: Winslow Homer, who spent his working summers at Prouts Neck, alongside Marsden Hartley, Andrew Wyeth, John Marin and Lois Dodd. The museum also owns Homer’s studio at Prouts Neck, restored to how it looked in his lifetime and open by separate guided tour.

Admission: $20 adults, $18 seniors and students aged 22 and over, and free for everyone aged 21 and under, always, through a gift from Susie Konkel. Members free.

Hours: open seven days. Monday to Thursday 10am to 6pm, Friday 10am to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 6pm. Closed New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Free windows: admission is free to all every Friday from 4 to 8pm, and free all day on the third Thursday of every month, when the museum stays open until 8pm. The PMA also participates in Museums for All, so an EBT card gets you in free; in Blue Star Museums, free for active-duty military and their families from Armed Forces Day to Labor Day; and in Museums on Us, free for Bank of America and Merrill card holders on the first full weekend of each month. Students at USM, MECA&D, UNE and SMCC get in free. Members of NARM, MARP and ROAM are covered by reciprocity.

Visiting tips: the cafe serves beverages, pastries and snacks rather than a full lunch, and neither the cafe nor the store needs an admission ticket. Parking is the expensive part. The museum’s own lot at 120 Free Street is $8 an hour or $45 a day unvalidated; get your ticket validated inside and a non-member pays $7 for an hour and $23 for three. Street meters are monitored until 6pm Monday to Saturday.

Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland)

The Farnsworth opened in 1948 on a bequest from Lucy Copeland Farnsworth and now holds almost 16,000 works by some 1,300 artists. It is best known as the keeper of the Wyeth legacy, and the Wyeth Center on the campus shows N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth. Beyond the Wyeths it is one of the strongest collections of Maine-related American art anywhere, and it is the reason Rockland reads as an art town rather than a working harbour that happens to have galleries.

Admission: $20 adults, $18 seniors 65 and over, $10 students 17 and over, free for children 16 and under, and free for Rockland residents. Members free. Groups of ten or more pay $18 a head. Tickets are not date-specific and can be redeemed within a year, and your admission sticker is good for the whole day.

Hours: closed Tuesdays year round. From 1 January to 24 May, Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 4pm, so Mondays are out as well in that stretch, though the museum opens on Memorial Day. From 25 May to 30 September, Wednesday to Monday 10am to 5pm. From 1 October to 31 December, Wednesday to Monday 10am to 4pm. Closed 26 November and 25 December, and closing at 2pm on 25 November, 24 December and 31 December.

Before you plan around it: the Farnsworth Homestead and the Olson House are closed for the season while critical restoration work goes on at both. The Olson House, at 384 Hathorne Point Road in Cushing, about half an hour south of Rockland, is the National Historic Landmark behind Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World and some 300 other paintings and drawings. Its interior is shut, but the grounds are open for a self-guided walk and the museum publishes a 3D virtual tour of the rooms. There is no combination ticket: one admission covers the main museum and the Wyeth Center.

Visiting tips: free parking in the museum’s Museum Street lot and behind the Wyeth Center off Grace Street. Docent-led highlight tours run Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 11am and 2pm, last about 45 minutes and are included with admission, but places are limited, so ask at the desk when you arrive.

Colby College Museum of Art (Waterville)

Do not let the small-town location fool you. The Colby College Museum of Art holds more than ten thousand artworks representing the full breadth of American art plus international work from antiquity to the present, and it is free and open to all. Named holdings include the Lunder Collection, the Alex Katz Collection and the separate Alex Katz Foundation Collection, the Marin Family Collection, the Bernard Langlais Collection, a Richard Serra collection and the Tsiaras Family Photography Collection. The building is worth the drive on its own, all soaring galleries and daylight.

Admission: free, always, at both sites.

Hours: closed Mondays. Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday noon to 5pm, with late Thursdays until 9pm during the academic year, from 10 September 2026 to 6 May 2027. Closed New Year’s Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

Visiting tips: free parking in the Roberts Lot behind the museum and the Alumni Lot across Mayflower Hill Drive. There is a cafe in the lobby, Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 4pm, closed Sundays and closed for the whole of January. The museum has a second venue downtown, the Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art inside the Paul J. Schupf Art Center on Waterville’s Main Street, showing rotating contemporary work.

If you are chasing Marsden Hartley specifically, the place to go is not Colby but the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, which holds the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection.

Maritime Heritage Museums

Maine Maritime Museum (Bath)

Founded in 1962 and spread over a 20-acre campus on the banks of the Kennebec, the Maine Maritime Museum occupies the historic Percy & Small Shipyard, which the museum describes as America’s only surviving shipyard site where large wooden sailing vessels were built. Among the giant schooners launched here was the six-masted Wyoming, the largest wooden vessel built in the country, and the grounds now carry a full-scale evocation of her, 444 feet long, which the museum calls the largest sculpture in New England. Its bow and stern went up in 2006 and the six metal masts in 2013. Note that the benches at each mast and the updated audio tour appear on the museum’s site as part of a planned refresh rather than as installed, so do not count on them yet.

Indoor galleries cover lobstering, lighthouses, the age of sail, and Bath Iron Works, where Navy destroyers are still built a short way up the river. In season, cruises on the Kennebec run past the yard.

Admission: $22 adults, $20 seniors, and children 17 and under free through 2026, underwritten by Central Maine Power. Members free. Admission is good for two days within a week, and it is included with the purchase of a cruise ticket.

Hours: open daily 9:30am to 5pm. Closed for the museum’s annual gala, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and occasionally for weather. The shipyard starts closing at least 30 minutes before the main building, so do the outdoor half first.

Free and reduced windows: Blue Star Museums for active military and families, and Museums for All, which admits up to four adults free on a SNAP card. Council of American Maritime Museums and NARM memberships are honoured. Maine residents can borrow a day pass from their local library, which is the single best-value trick on this page.

Visiting tips: allow half a day. Docent-guided shipyard tours run daily from Memorial Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day at 11am and 1pm. Parking is free and takes RVs. Flight Deck Pizza & Beer Garden runs Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 8pm, weather permitting, and you are welcome to bring a picnic otherwise.

Penobscot Marine Museum (Searsport)

The Penobscot Marine Museum is one of the oldest maritime museums in the country and one of only 17 institutions in Maine accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It occupies a campus of historic buildings in downtown Searsport, including sea captains’ houses furnished in period style, and its collection of marine paintings, ship portraits and port paintings is exceptional. The photo archive alone runs to some 300,000 historical images.

Admission: $18 adults, $15 seniors, $10 children aged 8 to 18, free for children under 8, and a $45 family ticket covering two adults and children 18 and under.

Free and reduced windows: free for members, residents of Searsport and Stockton Springs, Blue Star Families, and NARM, CAMM and AAM members. A reduced $15 rate applies with a US military veteran ID, a Tribal ID, a commercial fisherman’s licence, an AAA card or a student ID. Half price with a Maine Public MemberCard or an Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine card.

Hours: seasonal. The exhibits and store are open from late May to early October; offices, the research library and the photo archives run year round by appointment. The museum’s own site gives two different sets of opening days. The banner across every page says Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, while the daily schedule and the site footer both say Tuesday to Saturday. Both were live in September 2026, so call 207-548-2529 before making a Sunday of it.

Visiting tips: much of this is outdoors, so dress for the weather. The daily schedule is worth timing your arrival around: Fowler-True-Ross House tours run hourly on the half hour from 10:30am to 3:30pm, tours of the First Congregational Church at 11am, 1pm and 3pm, children’s activities at 11:30am and 2:30pm, and a Set Sail demonstration at noon and 2pm. The Merithew House closes at 4:30pm. Free parking in the middle of the campus between Church Street and Knox Brothers Avenue.

Specialized & Unique Museums

Abbe Museum (Bar Harbor)

The Abbe Museum is Maine’s leading institution devoted to Wabanaki culture and history. It was founded in 1926 by Dr Robert Abbe, a New York physician and Bar Harbor summer resident, opened at Sieur de Monts Spring in 1928, and opened its downtown museum at 26 Mt Desert Street in 2001. Its strength is its collaborative method, working directly with Wabanaki communities on exhibitions covering traditional crafts, contemporary art, historical trauma and cultural continuity. The basketry holdings are world-class.

Admission: $18 adults, $14 seniors and anyone with a valid college ID, $10 adolescents aged 5 to 17, free for children 4 and under. Free with a Tribal ID or a Military ID, and free for members. A visitor with cognitive, intellectual, physical or developmental disabilities gets free admission for one carer. Under Museums for All, an EBT or SUN Bucks card with photo ID admits a party of one to four free.

Hours: 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday. This is the rare Maine museum that closes Sundays rather than Mondays. Closed on all federal holidays except Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Note on the Acadia site: the Sieur de Monts Spring location inside Acadia National Park is temporarily closed for maintenance, with no reopening date announced. Do not plan a park day around it. If you are going into Acadia anyway, the entrance fee is $35 per vehicle for seven days or $20 per person on foot or bike, and Acadia charges non-US residents aged 16 and over an extra $100 per person on top, waived only on an Annual or America the Beautiful pass.

Visiting tips: the downtown museum has no public parking beyond a single ADA space, so use the town lots. The museum’s summer festival is now the Dawnland Festival of Arts & Ideas, held on the second weekend of July on the College of the Atlantic campus rather than at the museum itself; it ran 11 to 12 July in 2026. The museum store sells authentic Wabanaki work with proceeds going to the artists.

Owls Head Transportation Museum (Owls Head)

The Owls Head Transportation Museum sits at 117 Museum Street in Owls Head, directly across the runway from Knox County Regional Airport, and collects the pioneer era of transportation: aircraft, automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles and engines. The distinguishing feature is that most of it still runs. Event weekends put vintage aircraft in the air and antique cars on the grounds, and the restoration shops let you watch the work.

Admission: $17 adults aged 18 to 64, $14 seniors 65 and over, $11 youth aged 11 to 17, $7 children aged 3 to 10, free for under-3s and for members. Groups of 15 or more pay $12 a head with advance booking. Event-day admission is higher: $20 for both adults and seniors, with youth and child rates unchanged.

Free and reduced windows: free admission for all active US military members and their dependants, and for all veterans plus one guest. Museums for All gives $5 per person for up to four people on a SNAP EBT or WIC card with photo ID. The museum is also an ASTC Travel Passport participant.

Hours: open year round, daily, 10am to 4pm. Closed only on New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, plus occasional closures for private events and auction days that are posted to the museum’s Facebook page.

Visiting tips: check the events calendar first, because event weekends are both the best time to visit and the more expensive ticket. Twenty-minute biplane rides are sold at the gazebo on event days only, weather permitting: a Boeing Stearman is $200 per person for members and $300 for non-members, the two-seat 1932 WACO is $250 per flight for members and $350 for non-members, and museum admission is required on top. Parking is free.

What Makes Maine Museums Unique

Maine museums reflect the state’s character: independent, creative and deeply attached to place. Rather than trying to cover everything, they dig into specific stories, the relationship with the sea, the artistic tradition the landscape produced, the continuity of Wabanaki culture.

Many occupy historic buildings that are attractions in their own right. Funding tends to come from local families and communities rather than large endowments, which makes for intimate, personal institutions where staff know the collection and are usually glad to talk about it.

The experience tends to be unhurried. You will not fight crowds at most of these, which leaves time to actually look at objects and read labels. Several integrate outdoor components, sculpture grounds, historic houses, waterfront, that extend the visit past the gallery walls.

Planning Your Museum Visits

Seasonal considerations: the Portland Museum of Art, the Farnsworth, Maine Maritime Museum, Colby, the Abbe, Owls Head and the Brick Store Museum all run year round. Penobscot Marine Museum, the Wilson Museum, the Seashore Trolley Museum and Victoria Mansion are seasonal and shut for the winter. The Telephone Museum in Ellsworth is open regular hours for only three months of the year.

Admission strategies: the cheapest way into a paid Maine museum is often your library card. Maine residents can borrow a day pass to Maine Maritime Museum from their local library, and Penobscot Marine Museum runs a library pass programme too. Museums for All covers most of the museums on this page for EBT and SNAP holders. Blue Star Museums covers active-duty military at the PMA, Maine Maritime and Penobscot; Owls Head goes further and admits all veterans free year round. NARM reciprocity is honoured at the PMA, Maine Maritime, Penobscot and Victoria Mansion, so an out-of-state membership may already have you covered.

Timing your visit: mornings are quieter almost everywhere. Summer weekends are busiest at the Farnsworth and the Abbe, and rainy days push people indoors. Check the closing day before you drive: Tuesday closes the Farnsworth, Monday closes Colby, the Brick Store, Peary-MacMillan and Penobscot, and Sunday closes the Abbe.

Combining museums with other activities: in Portland, the PMA at 7 Congress Square and Victoria Mansion at 109 Danforth Street are about a ten-minute walk apart, which makes a comfortable double bill. Rockland puts the Farnsworth at the centre of a town full of galleries and good food. Bath pairs the Maritime Museum with a walkable downtown and the beaches at Popham and Reid.

Beyond the big names: the smaller institutions below are often the more memorable visit, precisely because someone will show you round personally.

More Worth Discovering

• Seashore Trolley Museum (Kennebunkport): the world’s first and largest electric railway museum, founded in 1939, with operating vintage trolleys you can ride. $15 adults aged 17 to 59, $13 seniors 60 and over, $13 youth aged 6 to 16, $7 for ages 3 to 5, free for 2 and under. Open 1 June to 25 October, Wednesday to Sunday, 9:30am to 4:30pm, last tickets 3:45pm.
• Maine State Museum (Augusta): four floors covering 12,000 years of Maine’s natural and cultural history. Closed for renovation and reopening on 24 October 2026 with more than 19,000 square feet of new exhibits. Admission is free for everyone from 24 October to 31 December 2026. After that: $3 adults, $2 seniors 62 and over, $2 youth aged 6 to 18, free for children 6 and under and for veterans, with a $10 family maximum, and always free for teachers, students and homeschoolers visiting in groups. The site’s Visit page gives hours as Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, closed Sunday, Monday and state holidays, while its footer lists Sunday as open; confirm before travelling.
• Brick Store Museum (Kennebunk): seven galleries across five historic buildings at 117 Main Street, plus walking tours of Main Street, the Historic District and the beach. $5 adults, $2 children aged 10 to 16, free under 10. Open year round, Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday noon to 4pm, closed Mondays, closed 4 July and from 21 December to New Year’s Day. Free to all on the second Friday of each month, and free year round for active duty, reserve and veteran military and for SNAP recipients showing an EBT card. From June to August it stays open 5 to 7pm on that second Friday for the Downtown Kennebunk Art Walk.
• Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum (Brunswick): at Bowdoin College, named for Arctic explorers and Bowdoin graduates Robert E. Peary and Donald B. MacMillan, and now installed in the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies. Always free and open to the public. Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 1 to 5pm, closed Mondays and holidays.
• Wilson Museum (Castine): founded in 1921 by geologist and Castine summer resident Dr J. Howard Wilson, an eclectic collection running from a 460-million-year-old trilobite through Neanderthal stone tools to Castine’s own history. Free, including the Perkins Gallery, Hands-On History and the guided Perkins House tours. Season runs 27 May to 30 September, weekdays 10am to 5pm and weekends 2 to 5pm, closed Tuesdays in September. Perkins House tours and Hands-On History run Wednesdays and Sundays 2 to 5pm in July and August only.
• The Telephone Museum (Ellsworth): a hands-on collection of working telephones, switchboards and switching systems at 166 Winkumpaugh Road, run by the New England Museum of Telephony. You are encouraged to crank the magneto phones and work the manual boards. $10 per adult, $5 per child, with senior and group rates available on request. Open July through September on Saturdays only, 10am to 4pm, and otherwise by appointment or chance, so call 207-667-9491 first.
• Victoria Mansion (Portland): an intact 1860 Italianate villa at 109 Danforth Street with its original interiors largely in place. $19.25 adults, $17.25 seniors 62 and over, $8 college students, $6 youth aged 6 to 17, free under 5, $8 military, $2 under Museums for All, free for members and NARM cardholders. Open daily 1 May to 31 October, 10am to 4pm with last admission at 3:50pm, closed Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.
• Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine (Portland): at 250 Thompsons Point Road, home to Maddy’s Theatre. $20 for adults and for children aged 1 to 17, free for babies under a year, $2 per person under Museums for All. Theatre tickets are $25 separately. The museum publishes a limited weekly schedule, so check its open days before you drive over.

The Museum Trail Approach

Rather than trying to see everything in one trip, build an itinerary around a theme.

Art Trail: Portland Museum of Art → Farnsworth Art Museum → Colby College Museum of Art. Two of the three close on different days, so start with Colby’s Monday closure and the Farnsworth’s Tuesday closure and work backwards.

Maritime Heritage: Maine Maritime Museum → Penobscot Marine Museum → any of the coast’s lighthouse museums. Both maritime museums honour NARM and CAMM cards.

History Deep Dive: Maine State Museum, once it reopens on 24 October 2026 → a local historical society → the Brick Store Museum or the Wilson Museum.

Family Adventure: Owls Head Transportation Museum → Seashore Trolley Museum → Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine. Children are free at Maine Maritime Museum through 2026 and free at the Farnsworth up to age 16, so a Midcoast day can cost very little.

Free Trail: Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum in Brunswick and the Wilson Museum in Castine cost nothing at any time. Add a Friday evening at the Portland Museum of Art and you have four serious collections for the price of the petrol.