ALBANY — The State Museum will once again be a refuge for Capital Region parents on both days of the weekend.

The museum will return to being open on Sundays beginning Sept. 16. I

"The museum is a great public resource and a great public treasure," state Education Commissioner John King said in a statement. "Our goal is to make that resource as available as possible."

The museum was closed Sundays at the start of 2011 as a result of state budget cuts. Before that, Sundays were the second busiest day, after Saturday, and accounted for 20 percent of attendance. The museum had been open seven days a week from the 1970s through 2010.

The museum building also is the home of the State Archives and State Library.

Under the new schedule, the museum will be closed Mondays, which have the lowest daily attendance. The archives and library reading rooms will remain open to the public on Mondays.

An old statute mandating that the library remain open Monday through Friday had forced the Education Department to choose between one of the weekend days for closure. The law was changed about a year ago to make it possible to reopen on Sundays. Under the new provision, the library must be open eight hours a day, five days a week.

Education Department officials said they chose to maximize cost savings by closing the entire building, which in addition to the museum houses the State Archives and State Library. The archives already had no weekend hours, so the only days available for total shutdown were Saturday or Sunday.

Parents of young children view the museum as a lifeline in the long winter months when there are few indoor learning activities that allow kids room to explore.

The new hours for the museum will be 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free.

The reopening on Sundays comes as the museum introduces a new exhibit. "New York in the Civil War" opens Sept. 19.

swaldman@timesunion.com • 518-454-5080 • @518Schools