MUSEUMS & POP-UPS
While we've appreciated virtual culture and online family museum programs, we have so missed NYC's magnificent museums. More are opening each week for indoor family fun.
Masks, social distancing and advance timed tickets required. Capacity is capped at 25% which means no crowds. More flexibility for members so considering supporting your favorite spots.
We'll keep updating as more places open; sign up for our email list and follow our insta for the latest.
MUSEUMS-Manhattan
American Museum of Natural History
Upper West Side-70sLovers of dinosaurs, sea creatures, outer space and more can get their animal & nature fix at this giant (45 fascinating halls) treasure trove of wonders. * Online advance timed ticket purchase required, even for members. * Coat check, drinking fountains, IMAX Theater, Planetarium, Discovery Room and touchscreen/interactive elements all currently closed. * Entrances at Central…
MoMA
Midtown-50sAlways exciting and decidedly kid-friendly, MoMA has spacious galleries and engaging exhibits.
* Feel the joy of the rainbow Sol Lewitt murals, relax in the lovely sculpture garden, see the very cool Donald Judd exhibit, explore the trippy world of Félix Fénéon in a new exhibit, see sparkly geometric sculptures from various angles and…
American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog
Manhattan: MidtownDog-lovers can explore canine-related artwork with cutting-edge technology and interpretation, plus items from the library, archives and collection of the American Kennel Club headquarters.
Current exhibit Hollywood Dogs exhibit features original movie posters of some of the biggest canine blockbusters, from Lassie to Babe and more, plus drawings and illustrations that highlight animated and cartoon…
The Jewish Museum
Upper West Side-90sExplore the global Jewish experience through works of fine art, Judaica, antiquities, folk art, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media intelligently organized in gorgeous galleries.
* The ongoing Scenes From the Collection features nearly 600 works from antiquities to contemporary art, a unique mix of artworks and ceremonial objects, including hundreds of stunning menorahs, presented…
Guggenheim
Upper East Side-80sSee exciting, well-designed exhibits in the striking Frank Lloyd Wright–designed landmark modern museum.
* Through March 18, the main rotunda space and iconic spiral ramp are closed for exhibition installation and admission is reduced.. Visitors may explore the exhibition galleries adjacent to the rotunda and see the changing of exhibitions at select vantage points
*…
Whitney Museum of American Art
MeatpackingSee bold modern and contemporary American art in a very cool building.
* Find works by American icons Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence, Edward Hopper and the charming Calder’s Circus in The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965.
* Crafty kids can get inspiration from striking oversized works using weaving, sewing, textiles, thread,…
The Met
Upper East Side-80sExplore a vast collection that spans millennia and continents. You might get lost searching for iconic favorites in the grand halls and you’ll definitely discover fascinating art that appeals all ages.
* Advance timed tickets required. On crowded days (or any day), enter through the accessible Uris Center for Education entrance on 81st Street to avoid longer lines.
* Walk like an Egyptian inside the Temple of Dendur…
New-York Historical Society
Upper West Side-70sLearn about the layered, diverse history of NYC at this fascinating museum.
* Although the interactive Children’s Museum is sadly closed, there are kid-friendly objects throughout. Look for a Noah’s Ark toy and historical fire fighting equipment, dragonflies in gorgeous Tiffany Lamps, and more discoveries. Free disposable stylus are available for touchscreens and in-gallery interactives…
Music at MAD
Midtown-50sEnjoy live music activating the galleries of the Museum of Arts & Design on Saturday afternoons. Casual and kid-friendly (and socially distanced).
Visit anytime Thursday – Sunday 11 am–7 pm to explore the gorgeous stained glass in Brian Clarke: The Art of Light (fun family guide available), creative accessories in 45 Stories in Jewelry: 1947…
Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM)
Upper West Side-80sExplore curated family experiences in one-hour-and-forty-five-minute session with limited capacity to allow increased space to safely explore, climb, move, and play.
* Book a Playful Explorers to learn and imagine in Playworks and Adventures with Dora and Diego exhibits. Enjoy educator-led experiences such as storytime, singing and music.
* Or book Superpowered Creators to explore…
Eye Spy from the Start of the Empire State Trail
FidiEye spy something tall and clad in glass Join Skyscraper Museum educators at the start of the Empire State Trail to discuss the new bicycle/walking path and learn about shapes and materials in Battery Park City.
MUSEUMS-BROOKLYN/QUEENS/BRONX
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn-Prospect Park/Park SlopeA hipper version of the Met features a huge, diverse permanent collection categorized by culture, as well as thoughtful visiting exhibitions from all over the world.
* Separate timed tickets ($9) required for for KAWS: WHAT PARTY , featuring the famous Brooklyn-based artist who modifies popular characters like Elmo to create inventive street art, sculptures …
Queens Museum
Queens-CoronaAn expansive open light-filled space (formerly home to two world fairs) on the edge of Flushing Meadows Corona Park hosts ambitious exhibitions, educational initiatives, and community-minded programming,
See the city in miniature at the famous Panorama of the City of New York created by urban mastermind and World’s Fair President Robert Moses and more than…
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Brooklyn-WilliamsburgThis beloved children’s museum re-opens with two options.
In 90-minute Play Sessions, explore BCM’s signature exhibits including World Brooklyn, Neighborhood Nature, Totally Tots, Collections Central and The (outdoor) Nest. Space is limited to ensure that families can distance. Explore world cultures, visual arts, nature, animals and more in well-designed, interactive exhibits.
In ColorLab Sessions (10:30…
WESTCHESTER/HUDSON VALLEY MUSEUMS
Stamford Museum & Nature Center
ConnecticutTry a variety of seasonal indoor and outdoor activities at this large museum & nature center.
* Walk over 80 acres of walking nature trails – including a universally accessible Wheels in the Woods Trail. Follow a brook with pretty waterfalls, look for abundant wildlife (including an otter pond), and learn with interpretive educational signs.…
Katonah Museum of Art
Upper WestchesterA distinctly modernist building in the scenic hamlet of Katonah hosts three to four exhibitions annually, covering a broad range of art and humanities topics. Explore the peaceful sculpture garden and surrounding Norway spruce trees.
Current exhibitions include Hands & Earth: Perspectives on Japanese Contemporary and Young Artists 2021 featuring works from local high school…
Liberty Science Center
New JerseyLots to explore throughout this large, interactive museum.
* Follow along with Daniel and his friends in Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: A Grr-ific Exhibit, based on the PBS Kids television series. Through immersive experiences, collaborate to solve problems, use their imaginations to transform their surroundings, and play along with Daniel’s singable strategies as they learn…
Dia Beacon
Hudson ValleySee site-specific art from the 1960s to the present as well as special exhibitions and new commissions in a former Nabisco box-printing factory on the banks of the Hudson River.
* Each gallery of the 300,000-square-foot. sunlit space was designed specifically for the installation of one artist’s work, making for striking, unique installations. like Dan…
POP-UPS
Museum of Illusions
ChelseaWalk on walls, put your head on a platter and play with size and perspective in over a dozen interactive illusions. A small museum that can be explored in less than an hour. Blows most young minds.
Special $62 family ticket covers 2 adults & 2 children. Free kids under 2.
Geometric Properties
ChelseaEnter an immersive audio-visual installation by artist Julius Horsthuis and embark upon a cinematic journey where the sheer beauty of mathematics, nature and architecture coincide to inspire introspection and awe. Explore our recent past and Horsthuis’s ideal future, one that returns to the intersection of nature and math as…
American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog
Manhattan: MidtownDog-lovers can explore canine-related artwork with cutting-edge technology and interpretation, plus items from the library, archives and collection of the American Kennel Club headquarters.
Current exhibit Hollywood Dogs exhibit features original movie posters of some of the biggest canine blockbusters, from Lassie to Babe and more, plus drawings and illustrations that highlight animated and cartoon…
Edge
Midtown-30sLook 100 stories down from the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere with with 360-degree views of the Statue of Liberty, Central Park and beyond. Lean out over the city on angled glass walls and relax in a large lounge with food and drinks available for purchase.
Sloomoo Institute
SohoExplore a sensory playground centered around slime.
* Walk through a vat of slime, enter a glow-in-the-dark cove, take photos with slime-inspired art, play with a slime catapult and more. You can move back and forth among the activities in your own time.
* Make custom slime at a 150-yard-long DIY bar. Choose from a…
Spyscape
Midtown-50sLearn a variety of spy skills in an interactive museum and experience for all ages. Test code-making and code-breaking skills in digital Encryption Challenge, lying and lie-detection skills in a Deception Challenge, observation skills in 360° degree Surveillance Challenge and strategy and agility in a cool laser tunnel Special Ops Challenge. Scores are recorded in…
Color Factory
SohoTruly interactive colorful pop-up with fun activities and sweet treats in twelve unique rooms designed by different artists and a giant blue ball pit. An all-ages adventure for babies to grown-ups. Well designed, thoughtful and less crowded than many other pop-ups with activities, not just photo-ops (though plenty of those, and we love the strategically placed…
PUBLIC ART
Reverberation
Brooklyn-DUMBO, Downtown & HeightsUse foot pedals to ring five cast bronze symphonic bell structures along the Brooklyn waterfront. Each bell has a unique pattern of drilled holes and distinct tones that match evocative titles: Reflector, Singer, Dreamer, Listener, and Mother.
Artist Davina Semo intends for these bright orange bells to sound an optimistic note. As we “ring out…
Electric Dandelions
SeaportGiant steel and acrylic dandelion flowers by artist Abram Santa Cruz and LA-based art collective Liquid PXL evoke an endless display of colorful fireworks.
The 10 elegant 28-foot structures are pretty flowers in the daytime, then LED animations to work their magic when the sun goes down. Perfect for Lunar New Year.
Tom Fruin’s Bombora House
MeatpackingWalk through a large, illuminated, stained glass-like house dubbed “Bombora House,” surrounded by smaller “satellite” house-shaped sculptures. Interact with it via text, prompting a unique programmed light reaction. The latest installment of Tom Fruin’s Icon series of everyday objects reimagined and reinterpreted in steel, colored acrylic glass, and specialized lighting.
Lots of great dining options…
King Nyani
Midtown-30sNestle in the hand of King Nyani, a 23 ft long bronze gorilla sculpture by world-renowned public artists Gillie and Marc Schattner. Nyani will lounge in Bella Abzug Park, already a colorful, engaging place to play, near Hudson Yards for 11 months to bring awareness and raise funds for the critically endangered gorilla species through…
Talking Heads & C/C
FidiFind some light this dark winter at two Downtown Alliance-sponsored public art projects on loan from Amsterdam’s Light Art Collection is at the public plaza adjacent to 85 Broad.
The sculpture “C/C”, designed by Singapore-based artist Angela Chong, doubles as a bench for seating, casting complex shadows by day and transforming into…
Tom Friedman’s “Looking Up”
Midtown-50sSee a 10-foot tall stainless steel sculpture by American artist Tom Friedman, depicts a quasi-human figure gazing up to the heavens. Created from the use of crushed aluminum foil pans through a process of molding and lost wax casting, the sculpture retains the imprint of the original materials.
Located at the entrance…
East Village/Lower East Side Street Art
Lower East SideLook for lots of cool murals around this hip neighborhood, on walls, sliding metal gates and on the sidewalk. Current favorite include a I ❤️ NY mural at The Jones NYC (Great Jones Street & Bowery), a swing you can sit on among tulips at Bloomeffects (Bowery & Bleecker), a heart door at
Love Letters
Midtown-40sRead and leave love letters inside a double heart sculpture made from repurposed and donated plywood from building façades across New York City. Explore the multiple seating arrangements and levels. Designed by Soft-Firm (from Lexi Tsien and Talitha Liu), curated by Reddymade. Winner of the 13th annual Valentine’s season Love in Times Square Design Competition.
…
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Mural
East VillageSee a colorful three-story-tall celebrating RBG’s life and achievements by New York-based street artist “Elle.” Look for the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge among symbols representing this born-in-Brooklyn hero.
Sam Moyer: Doors For Doris
Central ParkTry to open massive stone doors in a massive three-part sculpture on the southeastern edge of Central Park. Moyer’s hybrid sculpture unites imported stone with rock indigenous to the New York region with beautiful inlaid marble fragments. The title pays homage to Public Art Fund founder, Doris C. Freedman (1928-1981)
WTC Street Murals
FidiStreet artists from around the world vibrantly transformed the streets surrounding 3 World Trade Center with fun, colorful murals, bringing love and joy to a place of mourning.
Peace, Love & Happiness
SeaportCheerful sculptures by Scott Gerber, artist and founder of Tube Dude have been moved to the edge of the East River, framing dramatic views. The Heart is a perfect Valentine photo-op, accompanied by the giant Peace Sign and Smiley Face.
Nearby, climb on the geometric, rainbow colored Ziggy by Hou De Sousa and see…
Monuments Now
Queens-LICThis outdoor exhibition seeks to address the role of monuments in society and commemorate underrepresented narratives such as diasporic, Indigenous, and queer histories. Part I features Jeffrey Gibson’s massive technicolor ziggurat ‘Because Once You Enter My House It Becomes Our House‘ and works by Paul Ramírez Jonas and Xaviera Simmons.
The Peace Fountain & Children’s Sculpture Garden
HarlemSee charming small bronze animal sculptures created by K-12 students from NYC and tri-state area around a 40-foot high bronze sculpture by Cathedral Artist-in-Residence Greg Wyatt that weaves together several representations of the conflict between good and evil. Also look for peacocks roaming around the lovely grands of the grand Cathedral.
Joyce Pensato Fuggetabout It (Redux)
ChelseaExplore New York artist Joyce Pensato’s installation “Fuggetabout It” commemorating her move from her beloved studio on Olive Street in East Williamsburg after three decades of work. Look for stuffed animals; figurines; posters, books, invitation cards, and other paper ephemera; milk crates; furniture, both broken and intact; paint cans and paintbrushes – most of them…
OFF THE WALL
Midtown-30sSee and interact with site-specific large-scale art (including the Vessel, currently closed for safety) throughout the Hudson Yards mall and plaza. Activate pieces by 13 different artists that relate back to the site’s past, present or future.
Lots of great food options including Mercado Little Spain and a…
François Morellet In-Coherent
Upper East Side-60sSee innovative geometric abstraction (creative, cool shapes) by prolific self-taught painter, sculptor, and installation artist François Morellet. Paintings, giant installation and several neon works bring Dada- infused irreverence, irony, and joyful lightness to his aspiration of dismantling traditional hierarchies and embracing elements of randomness and chance within the framework of pre-established systems.
To visit,
Tara Donovan Intermediaries
ChelseaLook at and through perception-bending, large-scale sculptures made of commonplace transparent materials that refract light and distort their surrounding space. Continue exploring patterns and interruptions in Tara Donovan’s drawings and wall-bound pieces.
Online timed appointment required.
High Line Nine
ChelseaExplore a collection of sky-lit galleries with a rotating cross-section of culture. Watch resident artists create (behind glass) and see finished work in a variety of mediums. Through the end of February, play a Steinway & Sons Grand Piano vinyl wrapped in the gorgeous florals of artist Tricia Paoluccio of Modern Pressed Flower.
Take a…
Lazy Oaf at Galeria Melissa
SohoChill in a groovy pastel recreation of the Lazy Oaf studios in London with daisy pillows and checkered mirror at a friendly shoe store Galleria Melissa in celebration of the the return Melissa x LazyOaf sandal collabs, available in adult and kid sizes in a range of colors.
John Russell: Well
Noho/NolitaThe floor is lava – walk on an 87 x 22 foot depiction of Hell with accompanying audio. Look for cool/creepy details.
On the second floor; stair access only.
iLLUSiONAL
ChelseaChashama’s latest exhibit in unused real estate examines the role of the artist as magician/manipulator of reality. This group exhibition includes site-specific installations, video projections, assemblage, sculptures with projected light and 3-D photography.
Red Grooms
ChelseaSee over 30 of of Red Grooms’vibrant paintings and “sculpto-picto-ramas.” Look for interesting details in these vibrant, these inventive and witty depictions of New York.