Museums and cultural institutions in New York City

Art
American Museum of the Moving Image
American Folk Art Museum
The Dahesh Museum
The Drawing Center
Fisher Landau Center
Forbes Galleries
Frick Collection
International Center of Photography
Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art - commonly called “The Met”
The Cloisters - medieval art collection
Municipal Art Society (includes the Urban Center Gallery)
Museum for African Art
Museum of Biblical Art
Museum of Modern Art - MoMA,
Museum of Television and Radio
Neue Galerie
New Museum of Contemporary Art
Noguchi Museum (aka The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum)
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Queens Museum of Art
Rubin Museum of Art
Socrates Sculpture Park
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Studio Museum in Harlem
Williamsburg Art and Historical Center
Whitney Museum of American Art

Culture or History
American Numismatic Society Museum
Brooklyn Museum
Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum
Jewish Museum (New York)
Merchants House Museum
Museo del Barrio, El
Museum of the City of New York
Museum of Chinese in the Americas
Museum of Jewish Heritage
National Museum of the American Indian (New York branch)
National Museum of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History
New York City Fire Museum
New York City Police Museum
New York Historical Society
New York Transit Museum
Queens County Farm Museum
Skyscraper Museum
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences
Yeshiva University Museum

Design

Center for Architecture
Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design
National Academy of Design
Parsons The New School for Design

Natural History

The AMNH in 2000
American Museum of Natural History
Hayden Planetarium (the Rose Center for Earth and Space)
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
New York Botanical Garden
New York Hall of Science (more…)

Must See in New York

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty, the most enduring symbol of New York City - and indeed, the USA - can trace its unlikely origins to a pair of Parisian Republicans. In 1865, political activist Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye and sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi went to a dinner party and came away with the notion of building a monument honoring the American conception of political freedom, which they would then donate to the Land of Opportunity.

Twenty-one years later, on 28 October 1886, the 151ft (45m) Liberty Enlightening the World , modeled on the Colossus of Rhodes, was finally unveiled in New York Harbor before President Grover Cleveland and a harbor full of tooting ships. It’s a 354-step climb to the statue’s crown, the equivalent of climbing a 22-story building, and if you want to tackle it, start early to avoid the crowds - it’s hard to contemplate the American dream with your nose to the tail of the person in front.

Greenwich Village

The Village (as New Yorkers call it) is one of the city’s most popular neighborhoods, and a symbol throughout the world for all things outlandish and bohemian. The area’s reputation as a creative enclave can be traced back to at least the early 1900s, when artists and writers moved in, followed by jazz musicians who played at famous (still functioning) clubs like the Blue Note and Village Vanguard. By the ’40s the neighborhood was known as a gathering place for gays. The coffeehouses on Bleecker St hark back to New York’s beatnik ’50s and hippie ’60s. Bob Dylan reputedly smoked his first joint in the Village, Jimi Hendrix lived here and the Rolling Stones recorded here. Greenwich Village is still a vibrant and varied area, packed with historic sites, cafes, shops, gay bars, and Washington Square Park, purportedly the most crowded recreational space in the world.

Empire State Building

New York’s original skyline symbol, the Empire State Building, is a limestone classic built in just 410 days during the depths of the Depression. Standing 102-stories and 1454ft (436m) above 5th Ave and 34th St, it’s on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria. The famous antenna was originally to be a mooring mast for zeppelins, but the Hindenberg disaster put a stop to that plan. One airship accidentally met up with the building: a B25 crashing into the 79th floor on a foggy day in July 1945, killing 14 people. Taking the ear-popping lift to the 86th or 102nd floor observation desks can entail a bit of waiting around, but it’s worth it when you get there.

Central Park

It’s easy to see what a boon Central Park is when you’re standing up the top of the Empire State: the 843 acre (337 hectare) rectangle of bobble-topped green bits are a welcome contrast to the concrete and traffic mosh jostling in the rest of Manhattan. When Central Park was officially opened in 1873 it was intended to be an oasis from the city’s bustle. However the commotion which is New York seeps into the botanic calm in the form of joggers, skaters, musicians and tourists. Quieter areas are above 72nd St, where the crowds thin out and the well-planned landscaping becomes more apparent. There’s a small zoo in the park, organized and casual sport (predominantly baseball and Frisbee) to watch or play, a swimming pool and various free performances.

Times Square

Dubbed the ‘Great White Way’ after its bright lights, Times Square has long been celebrated as New York’s glittery crossroads. The Square went into deep decline during the 1960s when the movie palaces turned XXX-rated and the area became known as a hangout for every colorful, crazy or dangerous character in Midtown. A major ‘clean-up’ operation removed most of the sleaze and now the combination of color, zipping message boards and massive TV screens makes for quite a sight. Up to a million people gather here every New Year’s Eve to see a brightly lit ball descend from the roof of One Times Square at midnight, an event that lasts just 90 seconds and leaves most of the revelers wondering what to do with themselves for the rest of the night.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Upper East Side is home to New York’s greatest concentration of cultural centers: 5th Ave above 57th St is known as Museum Mile. The big daddy of these is the Metropolitan Museum of Art (’the Met’), New York’s most popular tourist site, which functions something like a self-contained cultural city-state with three million individual objects in its collection. It’s best to target exactly what you want to see and head there first, before culture and crowd fatigue sets in. Exhibitions range from Egyptian mummies through to baseball cards so even if (when?) you get lost, you’re sure to stumble upon some interesting stuff.

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Sightseeing in New York

Most tourists end up spending the majority of their trip on Manhattan and this is where most of the recognizable attractions are located. The remaining four boroughs are primarily residential (the Bronx to the north, Queens to the east, Brooklyn to the southeast and Staten Island to the southwest) although there is a sprinkling of worthwhile attractions located in them all, which will reward the visitor with time to explore.

Almost completely flat and, for the most part, arranged on an easily navigable grid system, Manhattan itself is very easy to walk around, with the excellent subway system handy for the longer hops between attractions. Avenues run north-south and streets run east-west just with a few neighborhood exceptions. Fifth Avenue is the city center and the starting point and zero for all addresses (i.e. addresses increase the farther they are from Fifth).

The city is packed with things to do and places to see - each street and neighborhood offers its own varied sights and flavors. The top attractions, like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, are renowned throughout the world, but there are enough less heralded places to fill weeks of sightseeing.

Manhattan has several distinct areas that are worth wandering around, from the ritzy shopping and residential districts uptown, to the financial district of downtown, taking in the villages in between. SoHo (which got its name because it is south of Houston Street) is famous for its art galleries and shopping opportunities. Greenwich Village traditionally contains a literary and gay community and has the quaint bookstores and cafes to go with it. The young-and-hip East Village retains its edgy atmosphere, which is reflected in its quirky shops, record stores, nightclubs and drinking spots. Historical Lower East Side, once an immigrant neighborhood, is now filled with boutiques and vintage shops, nightclubs and restaurants. Chelsea, with warehouse conversions mingling with more cutting-edge art galleries, is another gay-friendly neighborhood. Away from the city, Long Island and a number of city beaches provide an escape on hot and humid summer days.

Passes

The City Pass offers a combined ticket to selected New York attractions, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Empire State Building Observatory and NY Skyride, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (currently honored at MoMA QNS) and Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises. The pass costs US$48 (US$34 for children), is valid for nine days and is available for purchase at any of the attractions or online, at the above address.

Key Attractions:

The Statue of Liberty

The ultimate symbol of the American Dream, Lady Liberty, standing majestically over New York Harbour, is probably the most famous landmark in America. The people of France donated the statue to the United States in 1886, to commemorate the alliance of the two countries during the American Revolution. It was the first sight of the New World to be seen by the 12 million immigrants who passed through Ellis Island, the country’s principal immigration center in the early and mid 20th century. The site has just reopened after an extensive renovation and the crown and torch are no longer accessible to visitors. Instead there are ranger-guided Promenade Tours through the lobby and around the outside and guided Observatory Tours which includes the first tour and a visit to the pedestrian observation platform.

Admission: Free but there are only a limited number of tickets.

Ellis Island Immigration Museum

The relatives of over 40% of families living in the United States of America passed through this historical immigration station, which operated from 1892 to 1954. Now a national monument and museum, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum has over 30 galleries related to the American immigrant experience. Tours educate visitors about how ‘undesirables’ were weeded out and separated from their families in the Registry Room, after month-long ordeals on often over-crowded boats. For a US$5 fee, visitors can search the Ellis Island archives by computer in the popular American Family Immigration Center for information on their ancestors.

World Trade Center - Ground Zero

In early 2003, the city selected Memory Foundations as an architectural design, by Studio Daniel Libeskind, to replace the 110-story towers and surrounding buildings at the site of the former World Trade Center. The new structure will integrate portions of a remaining slurry wall (strong enough to hold back the Hudson River). A slightly recessed public space, known as the bathtub, will provide the setting for a memorial and a museum. North of this area, a 541-meter (1,776ft) spire, the ‘Gardens of the World’, will grace the skyline. Although the complex’s very existence will memorialise the tragedy that occurred here in 2001, each year on 11 September, the sun will shine without a shadow on the Wedge of Light piazza. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation - LMDC can provide more information on the decision and design.

The viewing platforms that once allowed visitors to pay tribute at the former World Trade at Liberty Street, Center site, dubbed Ground Zero, are no longer in place. Right now the fenced viewing area at Liberty Street and Broadway highlights a pictorial history of the site and allows observation during ongoing work.

Brooklyn Bridge

Dubbed the eighth wonder of the world when it was completed after 30-years of construction in 1883, John Augustus Roebling’s design remains a masterful feat of engineering. One of the world’s first steel wire suspension bridges (and at one time one of the world’s longest) links Manhattan to Brooklyn, over the East River. The bridge’s mile-long wooden promenade is open to pedestrians and cyclists and offers stunning views of the city.

Empire State Building

Immortalised by Hollywood cinema (from King Kong and Fay Wray to Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan) this stunning skyscraper is now once again the city’s tallest building. Completed in 1931, the 102-story Empire State Building is a wonderful example of Art Deco period architecture and the observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors offer magical and spectacular views of the city; the 86th floor deck is open air. Each night, the top 31 storys are illuminated with a color that reflects the season or holiday. The New York Skyride, on the second floor, features a video and a motion-simulator ride around and above NYC’s attractions.

Rockefeller Center

Built in 1932-40, the Rockefeller Center is a masterpiece of urban design. The best approach is from the Channel Gardens, opposite Saks on Fifth Avenue (a popular lunchtime haunt flanked with shops and services) to arrive at the focal point of the complex, the sunken plaza, used as an ice-skating rink in winter and an open-air restaurant in summer. Behind this, the sumptuous GE building dominates the scene with its Art Deco ambience both inside and out. The Rockefeller Center is home to NBC, Radio City Music Hall and Christie’s Auction House. NBC tours, lasting one-and-a-half-hour, are available and points of interest include the Today Show studio, the skating rink, the Prometheus and Atlas statues and the Channel Gardens.

Top of the Rock

Originally inspired by the slick designs of the grand ocean liners, the Rockefeller Center’s observation deck, which first opened in 1933, has been newly renovated and reopened following a 20-year closure. The deckchairs upon which New Yorkers once relaxed to escape the bustle below may be long gone, but the exceptional views remain. From the 70th floor, 260m (850ft) above street level, the unobstructed 360-degree vista takes in the best of the city’s landmarks, including the Brooklyn Bridge, the Chrysler Building and Central Park. A must for Art Deco lovers. Hands-on exhibits keep visitors busy on the mezzanine floor.

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 11 West 53rd Street, between Fifth Street and Sixth Street, houses the most important modern art collection in the USA, covering a variety of media from the late 19th and 20th centuries, with impressive touring exhibitions. The museum, which has been undergoing a massive regeneration project to add much needed extra exhibition space (now 125,000 sq feet), has just reopened. Some of the most prominent features of architect Taniguchi’s redesign include a lobby that connects 53rd and 54th streets; an atrium that soars 110 feet above street level; and innovative glass curtain walls that provide views of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and the vibrant midtown surroundings. The new MoMA also features a new gallery devoted to contemporary art and another for new media. Building materials such as glass, granite and aluminum add to the building’s elegance, and natural light plays a greater role than ever before in the visitor’s experience.

Solomon R Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim Museum, a seven-story conical building designed by US master architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is worth visiting if only for the building alone. Opened in 1959, its design represented a new way to view art and was a radical departure from other institutions of its kind. Visitors ascend to the top floor via escalator and descend at their own pace on a continuous, circular ramp. The open rotunda makes it possible to see many levels and exhibits simultaneously. The Guggenheim’s acclaimed collection consists of late 19th- and 20th-century art works, many of which came from the private collection of Solomon’s niece, Peggy Guggenheim.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

‘The Met,’ a most cherished New York institution, is home to more than two million works of art. It opened in 1870 with a modest collection of 174 European paintings and has grown to be the largest art museum in the western hemisphere. Now its collected works span 5,000 years of culture and the museum is home to some 2,500 of the finest paintings which include Vermeers, Rembrandts, Impressionists and Post-Impressionists as well as Renaissance, African, Asian, and Islamic art. It is believed that its 36,000 pieces of Egyptian art is the greatest outside of Cairo. It is impossible to see everything in the museum in one visit, and because of its popularity, the Met can get extremely crowded on weekends.
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Activities in New York City

From the bright lights of Broadway to the revered stages at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, from the high kicks of the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall to the cutting-edge works performed at BAM, New York City continues to be one of the most diverse and heavily textured urban cultural centers in the world. As author Tom Wolfe wrote: ‘Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.’

The principal entertainment districts are the Theater District in the Broadway/42nd Street/Times Square area and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side. Most Broadway theaters are located in the blocks just east or west of Broadway, between 41st Street and 53rd Street. Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theaters are sprinkled throughout Manhattan, with a concentration in the East and West Villages, Chelsea and several in the 40s and 50s west of the Broadway theater district. The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Columbus Avenue at 64th Street , is America’s first and largest performing arts complex, containing many venues. It is also the home of the Metropolitan Opera , the New York City Opera , the New York City Ballet, and the New York Philharmonic, among others.

New York continues to grow and, as well as these established attractions, offers something new each day. Times Square is one of the prominent areas to receive attention. Madame Tussaud’s wax museum, 234 West 42nd Street , which includes a movie complex, the New Amsterdam Theater, 214 West 42nd Street, owned by Disney, as well as a number of similar renovations of historic theaters - such as the New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street and the Academy/Apollo ( - have ensured that New York remains the cultural capital of the USA.

Tickets are available for purchase through Telecharge , which handles Broadway, Off-Broadway and some concerts. Ticketmaster , also offers Broadway and Off-Broadway, as well as tickets to Madison Square Garden and Radio City. Reduced-priced tickets of up to half-price plus a US$3 surcharge for same-day Broadway and Off-Broadway are available for purchase at the TKTS booth, 47th Street and Broadway (open hours: Mon-Sat 1500-2000, also Wed and Sat 1000-1400, Sun 1100-1930) and at the TKTS booth at South Street Seaport , open daily 1500-2000 for evening performances, 1000-1400 for Wednesday and Saturday matinees and 1200-1830 for all Sunday performances. Cash or travelers checks only.

Information on cultural events in the city is available online . Time Out New York also is a good source of information published weekly and sold at newsagents and kiosks for US$2.99.

Music: The Avery Fisher Hall, in the Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, Columbus Avenue at 64th Street , is the permanent home of the New York Philharmonic and a temporary one to visiting orchestras and soloists. Tickets for the New York Philharmonic cost approximately US$15-50. The new Time Warner Building is the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, 33 West 60th Street, 11th Floor . Though its 1,100-seat Fredrick P. Rose Hall, 600-seat performance atrium, and 140 seat jazz cafe has been designed specifically as a jazz venue, it can also accommodate other art forms.

Avery Fisher also hosts the very popular annual Mostly Mozart festival in August. The Alice Tully Hall, also in the Lincoln Center , is a smaller venue for chamber orchestras, string quartets and instrumentalists. The greatest names from all schools of music, from Tchaikovsky and Toscanini to Gershwin and Billie Holiday, have performed at Carnegie Hall, 154 West 57th Street, at Seventh Avenue , which boasts an astonishing and eclectic repertoire at moderate prices. Other leading venues that draw the world’s top performers include Kaufman Concert Hall, 129 East 67th Street , and Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx.

Known as the Met, the Metropolitan Opera House, in the Lincoln Center, is New York’s premiere opera venue and home to the Metropolitan Opera (website: www.metopera.org), from September to late April. The New York State Theater, also in Lincoln Center , is where the New York City Opera ( perform. Its wide and adventurous program varies wildly in quality (sometimes startlingly innovative, occasionally mediocre) but seats go for less than half the Met’s prices. Other venues include the Julliard School, 155 West 65th Street, at Broadway , where talented students perform with a famous conductor, usually for low prices.

Theater: Theater venues in the city are referred to as Broadway, Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway - groupings that represent a descending order of ticket price, production polish, elegance and comfort and an ascending order of innovation, experimentation, and theater for the sake of art rather than cash. Off-Broadway is still the place for theater punters to see the works of the world’s most innovative playwrights - social and political drama, satire, ethnic plays and repertory … in short, anything that Broadway would not consider a guaranteed money spinner. Lower operating costs also mean that Off-Broadway often serves as a forum to try out what sometimes ends up as a big Broadway production. Off-Off-Broadway is New York’s fringe. Unlike Off-Broadway, Off-Off doesn’t have to use professional actors and shows range from shoestring productions of the classics to outrageous and experimental performance art.

The National Actors Theater, at Pace University at Spruce Street , presents the classics on Broadway, while Manhattan Theater Club performs at the Biltmore Theater, 261 West 47th Street, and Stages I and II at City Center, 131 West 55th Street , produces some of the finest new plays in American theater. Other theater groups include Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, 1450 Broadway, Suite 300 , which brings the magic of Disney to life on the Broadway stage. For a more ethnic flavor, Harlem’s Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street , has celebrated the legacy and culture of African-American music and entertainment since 1934.

Dance: New York has five major ballet companies as well as dozens of contemporary troupes and the official dance season runs from September to January and April to June. Metropolitan Opera House, in the Lincoln Center , is the home of the renowned American Ballet Theater , which performs the classics from early May into July. New York State Theater, also in the Lincoln Center , is home to the revered New York City Ballet , which performs more contemporary ballet for a nine-week season each spring.

Universally known as BAM, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Street, between Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn , is America’s oldest performing arts academy and one of the busiest and most daring producers in New York. During autumn, BAM’s Next Wave Festival showcases the hottest international attractions in avant-garde dance and music. Winter brings visiting artists, while, each spring, BAM hosts the annual DanceAfrica Festival, America’s largest showcase for African and African-American dance and culture.

The most eminent and celebrated troupes in modern dance perform at City Center, 131 West 55th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue . Big-name companies include Merce Cunningham Dance Company , Paul Taylor Dance Company (website: www.ptdc.org), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (website: www.alvinailey.org), Joffrey Ballet and Dance Theater of Harlem . Merce Cunningham Studio, 55 Bethune St at Washington St , the home of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, stages performances by emerging modern choreographers.

Film: A movie center second only to Tinseltown itself, New York has hundreds of modern cinema complexes and arthouse cinemas. Cinemas worth visiting include Loews Lincoln Square, Broadway at 68th Street , which is more a theme park than a multiplex, and The Ziegfeld, 141 West 54th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue , which often holds glitzy premieres and is the grandest picture palace in town - once home to the Ziegfeld Follies. Arthouse movies are screened at Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston Street , Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, 1886 Broadway, and Quad Cinema, 34 West Street, between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. General information, show times and advanced tickets are available from Moviefone .

New York has been portrayed through celluloid in a number of ways, ranging from the ridiculous yet enduring images of King Kong, swinging from the Empire State Building, in the 1933 classic starring Fay Wray, to the psychological horrors of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). In the latter, Robert De Niro plays the part of a mentally isolated New York cabbie and Vietnam vet, driven to violence by the decadence of the city. It is New York decadence of a slightly different nature that Alan Rudolph explores in Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), which looks at New York literary life and society during the 1920s. More recently, films shot in NYC have included One Fine Day (1996), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), The Devil’s Advocate (1997), Gangs of New York (2002), Spiderman 1 and 2 (2002 and 2004 respectively) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004).

Cultural Events: New York’s biggest antiques event, Manhattan Antiques and Collectibles Triple Pier Expo, is held at three piers on the Hudson River, in February. The annual harbinger of spring, the New York Flower Show, is held on piers 90 and 93, 51st Street and 12th Avenue, in March. Meanwhile, Art Expo New York, the world’s largest show of popular art, features a wide range of works from paintings and sculpture to posters and decorative arts, at the Javits Convention Center, also in March. Ninth Avenue International Food Festival is a gastronomic feast of a street fair in May, with live bands and hundreds of food stalls selling a wide assortment of ethnic and junk food. Summerstage, a festival of free or low-cost concerts in Central Park, features world music, pop, folk and jazz artists throughout the summer.

Literary Notes: The vibrant city of New York has spawned some of America’s most celebrated writers and provided the backdrop and inspiration for countless best-selling novels and hit movies. Washington Square, at Fifth Avenue and Waverley Place, was home to the 19th-century aristocracy and provided the inspiration for the classic study of the American upper classes, Washington Square (1881), by New Yorker Henry James. Bohemian Greenwich Village has long been the favored haunt of America’s literati. The Chelsea Hotel, on West 23rd Street, is something of a writers’ emporium. Here Arthur Miller penned After the Fall (1964) and William Burroughs worked on Naked Lunch (1959). New Yorker Arthur Miller is celebrated as America’s greatest living playwright, whose numerous works have delighted Broadway and international audiences for decades. His knowledge of the Brooklyn waterfront helped to form his characters in his play A View From the Bridge (1955) and powerful reflections upon his home town are revealed in The Price (1968).

New York’s most famous contemporary novelist is Paul Auster, who won international acclaim for The New York Trilogy (1987), a book comprising three novellas (City of Glass, Ghosts and The Locked Room) all set in New York. Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace’s Gotham (2001) is one of the most illuminating and readable histories of New York. One of the most striking works from the flurry of post-11 September 2001 publications is September 11: A Testimony (2001), assembled by press agency Reuters, with some of the most dramatic World Trade Center photographic images.
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