Museum Day Live, free entry to LI museums

It can cost a pretty penny to see the pretty pictures in Long Island's museums. But during Saturday's Museum Day Live event, sponsored by Smithsonian magazine, you can roam the halls and galleries of Long Island's art and history museums without paying a cent for admission. You also can catch up on recent changes at a number of the Island's best-known cultural institutions. Many New York City museums also are free that day.

"It's a great opportunity, especially if you are someone who hasn't been here in a while and are wondering how the place has changed," says Joshua Ruff, director of collections and interpretation for the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook, one of those with new exhibitions.

Important to know: To get a free ticket good for two admissions, you'll need to go to smithsonianmag.com and follow the downloading directions. The offer is limited to one museum per household.

Here's a snippet of what's new at some participating museums:

The Parrish Art Museum

Water Mill,

INFO 631-283-2118, parrishart.orgWHAT'S NEW The Parrish's year-old 34,400-square-foot home with seven skylit galleries, some of which display a lesser-known side of famed East End artist Jackson Pollock. "Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet," a current exhibition, "contains mostly black drawings made in the early 1950s, a departure from his [Pollock's] famous drip paintings," says museum spokesman Mark Segal.

DON'T MISS The permanent collection, which includes works by East End artists Fairfield Porter, Willem deKooning and William Merritt Chase.

YOU SAVE $10 a person

The Whaling Museum and Education Center

Cold Spring Harbor

INFO631-367-3418, cshwhalingmuseum.org

WHAT'S NEW The "Waves & Watercolors" exhibition includes 19 original watercolors by Claus Hoie, an East End artist who specialized in nautical works, as well as 19 other works by contemporary Long Island artists. "It's quite colorful," says Trish Rongo, the museum's marketing and development manager.

DON'T MISS The permanent exhibit, with an extensive collection of scrimshaw, a sailor's art form involving ink on whale teeth and bones, and New York State's only fully equipped 19th century whaleboat.

YOU SAVE $6 ($5 younger than 18 and over 64)

Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages

Stony Brook

INFO 631-751-0066,

longislandmuseum.orgWHAT'S NEW Two new galleries in the carriage building feature 26 antique vehicles, including early firefighting equipment displayed in front of a photo mural of an 1890s blaze in NYC.

DON'T MISS The wool bathing suits in the "Coney Island and Jones Beach: Empires by the Sea" exhibition. "There's a nice stripy number," Ruff says.

YOU SAVE $9 ($4 ages 6-17)

Nassau County Museum of Art

Roslyn Harbor

INFO516-484-9337,

nassaumuseum.org ($2 parking applies)WHAT'S NEW Art work by Alex Katz. "It's a good opportunity to see an important American artist who's still working today," says Noemi Fletcher, the museum's education and public programs coordinator. Born in 1927, Katz is known for his large, brilliantly colored portraits of family and friends. Some of the works are on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan.

DON'T MISS Stroll through the sculpture garden, with 50 works on 145 acres.