A number of the US’s top museums and galleries are offering special events and some alternatives to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on 20 January, with many institutions offering free or pay what you wish entry for the landmark day in American history.

New York’s Whitney Museum is hosting 'Speak Out On Inauguration Day,' a free event allowing artists, writers, and activists the chance to “affirm their values to resist and reimagine the current political climate.”

On the same day, the Whitney will host 'Open Discussions: America 2017' – an event where artists, writers, and Whitney curators and educators lead conversations about art and American identity, covering topics including immigration, race and ethnicity, and inclusive democracy.

The Brooklyn Museum will host a marathon reading of Let America Be America Again, with Langston Hughes’s 1935 poem to be read every 30 minutes by the likes of writer Christopher Myers, poet Nkosi Nkululeko and film director A.K. Burns.

“Where do we draw our strength in the wake of great change?” said a museum statement. “We invite you to use the Brooklyn Museum today, and always, as a source of inspiration, reflection, community building, wonder, and magic.”

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles will offer free admission on 20 January “in celebration of the First Amendment, and our ongoing commitment to honouring the multiplicity of voices and perspectives that make The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the United States so deeply rich.”

In Minneapolis, the Walker Art Center is offering free admission, promising a space of “gathering and respite where all ideas and perspectives are always welcome.”

Following a similar vein, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston will offer pay-as-you-wish entry, with a statement adding the institute “believes strongly in the role of museums to advance discourse and engagement in a pluralistic society,” inviting its community to “join us in reflection and conversation on January 20 and in the weeks, months, and years to come.”

In Maryland, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), is planning to host a day of free activities in conjunction with the inauguration, with visitors able to participate in gallery talks about key works of art and join in readings of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and other founding documents. Additionally, the BMA will also offer mobile-device self-guided meditations with artworks and provide information on how visitors can contact their political representatives.

“We want everyone to know the BMA is a safe haven for the city during a time of change and that art offers many opportunities for contemplation,” said museum director Christopher Bedford.

Firmly in the Trump opposition camp, protest group Occupy Museums will be participating at a number of events with its Debtfair event at Art League Houston inviting Texas-based artists to reframe and exhibit their artwork to illustrate the economic realities for Texas artists and their relationships to the cultural economy at large.

In the US capitol of Washington DC, The Smithsonian’s collection of museums will remain open bar the National Museum of the American Indians, which will be closed due to its proximity to the event. Of special events held, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is hosting a Peace Ball tonight (19 January), which will honour the progress made in the four years before Trump’s election. A photo of Trump, taken in 1989 for an American business edition of Fortune magazine, has also been added to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in recognition of his inauguration.