On Saturday, Sept. 26 Wilmington’s Cameron Art Museum and the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science will offer free admission to Smithsonian magazine subscribers and visitors who download a free Museum Day Admission Card at www.smithsonian.com/museumday. Museum Day Admission Cards are limited to one per household and will admit two individuals to one of the selected museums.

“Museums around the world enrich our lives through their dedication to collecting, preserving and exhibiting our cultural treasures,” Cameron Art Museum director Deborah Velders said in a press release. “We are pleased and honored to follow the lead of our colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution in recognizing Museum Day.” Current exhibits at the Cameron Art Museum are Gwathmey Siegel: Inspiration and Transformation, Kaleidoscope: Changing Views of the Permanent Collection and Winning IDEAs: Selected Product Designs 2008.

Saturday’s free admission is part of a nationwide day initiated by the Smithsonian to honor museums. More than 1,000 museums nationwide will take part. This will be the first year for the Cape Fear Museum. “It’s particularly salient to us because we have a special event this weekend,” said Jacob Rudolph, spokesman for the Cape Fear Museum. It coincides with the 2009 North Carolina shell show, which the museum will host for the third consecutive year. The show organized by the North Carolina Shell Club will feature about twenty exhibitors and vendors presenting shells from around the world in two of the museum’s galleries. Last year, the show received 354 visitors, Rudolph said.

Participating in Museum Day gives institutions the opportunity to increase their exposure. All of the participating museums have a page on the Smithsonian magazine Web site. For the Cape Fear Museum, the extra publicity can’t hurt although the museum has seen a steady increase in visitors over the years. As of this year, they have had 33,269 visitors.