List Of Art Museums In Nyc

New York Transit Museum

The New York Transit Museum is one of the best museums in NYC for kids. Take a walk down memory lane and explore vintage subway cars parked in a decommissioned subway station.

The museum covers a century of subway history and each car displays era-appropriate ads, which makes for some fun age-appropriate humor.

Visitors are able to explore the inside of cars, some dating back to 1903, explore old-school walk signs and transit furniture.

Swing by the gift shop before heading out, its well curated and has tons of fun transit inspired souvenirs.

Fun fact: Have you heard of the Pizza Principle? Its an economic concept that argues the price of subway ride and a slice of pizza should always remain relatively equal. The price of both subway rides and pizza has been rising in tandem in NYC for more than 50 years!

Address: 99 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Image courtesy: New York Transit Museum

New Museum Of Contemporary Art

Lower East Side

The New Museum of Contemporary Art gets its illustrious name from The New School, where it opened in 1977. As an iconic museum in Soho in the 80s and 90s, it enjoyed the trappings of local fame until 2007 when it took over a seven-story building, designed by the modern Tokyo architectural firm Sejima + Nishizawa/SANAA. With three main gallery levels, a theater, a café and roof terraces, this museum focuses on showcasing emerging but under-recognized artists.

Address: 235 Bowery, New York, NY, 10002Cross Street: at Prince StHours: Wed, FriSun 11am6pm Thu 11am9pmGetting There: Subway: J, Z to Bowery 6 to Spring StCost: $16, seniors $14, students $10, children under 18 free. Thu 79pm pay as you wish with a suggested minimum of $2.

Museum Of Reclaimed Urban Space

Located in a former squat in Alphabet City, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, also known as MoRUS, celebrates the local activists who transformed abandoned spaces and vacant lots into vibrant community spaces and gardens.

In addition to permanent exhibits about the history of squats, the museum has special offerings, such as the current Politics of Punk: Radical Action in Radical Times exhibit, as well as guided tours of the East Village and Lower East Side and workshops and workdays in the neighborhoods 39 community gardens.

• Admission is a suggested donation of $5.

Read Also: Nc Museum Of Art Exhibits

The American Museum Of Natural History

Natural History Museum

The American Museum of Natural History, also referred to as the “Natural History Museum” or AMNH, is one of the best museums in NYC and the biggest natural history museum in the world. Come check out the Planetarium and the iconic Great Blue Whale hanging from the ceiling. The AMNH has more than 33 million specimens ranging from animals to dinosaurs to meteorites to minerals to humans.

Highlights

Here are some of the “must see” items at The American Museum of Natural History.

• Lucy

The New York City Fire Museum

Found at a former firehouse in SoHo, this unique museum contains a vast collection of historic firefighting memorabilia dating back to the 1600s, with highlights including vintage FDNY uniforms, ornate hand pumpers, a horse-drawn ladder wagon, and a 1921 American La France engine.

During your visit here, dont forget to pay a quick visit to the citys first permanent memorial dedicated to the 343 FDNY members who died in the attacks on September 11.

• Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students, seniors, and children over two. Buy your tickets here.

Don’t Miss: Ann Arbor African American Museum

The Alice Austen House

Many museums in NYC are transformed from the residency of the famed, and the Alice Austen House is no exception. It was the home of Alice Austen, one of the earliest female photographers and opened by the New York Parks Department as a museum to educate the public.

Here, you can enjoy Austens work and gain inspiration from her life. This museum is a great place to sit by the water and debate whether you should quit your job and pursue your dream as Austen did.

• Admission is $5 per person.

The Alice Austen House on a beautiful summer afternoon.

Museum Of The Moving Image

Housed in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios, Museum of the Moving Image is the only museum in the U.S. that is devoted exclusively to the history, art, and technology of movies, television, and video. In addition to many significant artifacts, there are panels held frequently to discuss current movies.

If you are a Muppets fan, there is also an ongoing exhibition about Jim Henson, featuring historic puppets, cool old TV footage, drawings, and even some interactive projects where you can try your hands at being a puppeteer.

Overall, its not a huge museum, so you wont feel overwhelmed. Plus, there is a modern cafe and gift shop, where you can take a quick break and bring home one or two gifts.

Recommended Reading: How Much Is The Science Museum

The International Center Of Photography

The International Center of Photography, as its name suggests, is the perfect option for photography buffs. It has presented over 500 exhibitions, displaying the work of over 3,000 photographers. It also contains a photography school that provides classes and workshops for students, which is something you might want to look into if youll be in the area for more than just a few days.

The New York Historical Society

Library

The New York Historical Society was the first museum ever established in NYC it opened in 1804. The NYHS has a collection rooted in American history and art, with exhibits on display focusing on Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, the U.S. Constitution, and Abraham Lincoln. The New York Historical Society also dives deeply into New York’s role in American history with a close look at how slavery impacted NYC and the surrounding state.

Highlights

Here are some of the “must see” items at The New York Historical Society.

• We Rise
• Mayor George B. McClellan at the controls of the first subway train
• The Wooden Leg of Gouverneur Morris

You May Like: Museums In New Haven Ct

The New York Transit Museum

If you enjoy riding the Holiday Nostalgia Train every year around Christmas, you will love the NY Transit Museums extensive collection of vintage subway cars, which sit inside a real subway station in Downtown Brooklyn.

Here, you can walk among cars built in 1903, peruse vintage ads from the 1940s, and try to spot celebrity cars that have been featured in films or TV shows.

The museum also boasts a vast collection of vintage train tokens, photos of historic trains, trolleys, and buses, and interactive street furniture, which includes a 12-seat bus cab and walk/dont walk signs you can play with.

• Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and children ages two to 12.

A vintage train car at the New York Transit Museum. New York Transit Museum

Paul Pretzer And Antonio Santn At Marc Straus Gallery

The Marc Straus Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in New York City. It was founded in 2011 by Marc Straus in the Lower East Side inside of a four story building that has been reconstructed. The gallery is committed to showing art that has not been seen in decades by older artists. This element of discovery and re-discovery will make you feel like an explorer as soon as your eyes land upon one of these forgotten pieces by a famous artist.

Also Check: Chicago Art Museum Gift Shop

The American Numismatic Society

Coins document the beautiful and historically significant past, which makes them appealing for many people to collect. If you are one of them, you will love the American Numismatic Society, which is dedicated to the study and collection of coins and currency.

However, unlike the coin collection you had growing up with, the museum strives to include all civilizations based on a tangible monetary system. Here, you can peruse over 800,000 objects dating back to 650 BCE and stop by the numismatic library, which houses approximately 100,000 books, documents, and artifacts.

• Admission is $50 per person, and free for members and students with valid ID. If you are visiting in a group, mail curatorial@numismatics.org for reservation. Also, don’t forget to bring your government-issued photo ID.

Museum Of Modern Art / Moma

Address: 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, United States

MoMA is the dream of every lover of contemporary and modern art. MoMA currently has 200 000 works of nearly 10 000 modern artists, starting from sculptures, paintings, photographs, to films, installations and performance arts.

Some of the highlights of the MoMA are artists like Marcel Duchamp, Van Gogh, Matisse and Chagall, Salvador Dali and Kandinsky, Frida Kahlo Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, the minimalists Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Donald Judd and much, much more.

In MoMA you can see examples of each and every art movement from the 20thcentury. The current exhibitions show fresh and new contemporary artists from all over the world or curators looks towards some of the most memorable artists and movements from the previous century. You can watch performance acts, watch films or participate in workshops. You should never miss MoMA, its great experience!

Tickets: Standard tickets are $25, and student tickets cost $14. Every Friday evening admission is fee from 4pm to 8pm

Opening Hours: Every Day from 10am to 5:30pm and Friday until 8pm

Getting There: Subway E or M train to 53rd Street or with Bus M1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 to the same street.

You May Like: Hollywood Wax Museum Branson Tickets

The Museum Of Modern Art

Art Museum

The Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan is one of the city’s famous art museums. Considered one of the largest modern art museums in the world, MoMA is home to close to 200,000 works that cover the last 150 years of art history. MoMA’s collection includes famed pieces like Paul Cézanne’s The Bather, Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair, and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans.

Highlights

Here are some of the “must see” items at The Museum of Modern Art .

• Water Lillies

The Best Art Exhibitions In Nyc

With all of these museums in mind , theres a constant calendar of exhibitions that you wont want to miss in NYC. Some of these temporary displays last for long periods, while others are more fleeting events.

With rare opportunities to see artist retrospectives and loans from institutions worldwide, its always worth checking whats on before deciding on which New York art museum to spend your money on. Check out the list below for an up-to-date collection of New Yorks best exhibitions.

Don’t Miss: Museum Of Science Boston Jobs

Museum Of The Modern Art

This famous Museum of Modern Art was conceived and opened in 1929, and its initial board of trustees had some very famous personalities associated with it. This museum, MOMA as it is known, is one of the most influential museums of modern art and plays a major role in developing and collecting modern contemporary art. Its large variety of collections in art, paintings, sculpture, design, drawings, architecture, photography, art books, film, and even electronic media offers a broad overview of modern and contemporary art.

The admission here is completely free on Friday evenings between 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM. This includes admission to all galleries, exhibitions, and film. All visitors 18 years and below are allowed free. The archives here primarily hold source material related to the history of modern and contemporary art. Its library has a massive collection of books, catalogs, periodicals and the like to make it a major source for reference for artists, students, teachers, and art-lovers alike.

Bronx Museum Of The Arts

Founded during a period of social and economic crisis for the Bronx borough in the early 1970s, the Bronx Museum of the Arts was started by a group of dedicated activists and community leaders, to share and celebrate local culture through the creativity of its people.

The museum really is the champion of contemporary art in the South Bronx area, and aims to reflect the huge cultural diversity of its parishioners. Over 50% of the museums annual visitors are from Latino or African American backgrounds. More than 2,000 artworks represent the heritage of these communities, with much of the permanent collection coming from artists who list the Bronx as crucial in their inspiration and development.

Paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and installations are on show in what was once a neighborhood synagogue, with a line-up of exhibitions from local and international artists. The museum is home to work from recognized New York names and outsiders drawn to the city, the likes of Alvin Baltrop, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Vito Acconci, and Martin Wong.

The museums place at the heart of its community is nurtured by its extensive education initiatives, and the museum is free to visit.

Recommended Reading: The Tech Museum Of Innovation

American Museum Of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History is one of the more popular museums in NYC. If the name sounds recognizable its because the museum was the center of attention in the movie, Night at the Museum featuring Ben Stiller. Regardless of its Hollywood fame, the Natural History Museum is a huge institution that features numerous exhibits. This is a great place for families with kids so they can learn about the worlds geography, plants, different animal species and many other things.

The American Museum of Natural History is located in the Upper West Side in Manhattan and is the largest natural history museum in the world.

The Rubin Museum Of Art

Art Museum

The Rubin Museum of Art is a neat art museum in NYC with a focus on works that celebrate the cultures from the Himalayas, India, and Tibet. The on-site museum cafe, Cafe Serai, offers top notch dining, making it easy to decide where to eat after visiting the collection. On K2 Friday nights, the Rubin offers free admission.

Highlights

Here are some of the “must see” items at The Rubin Museum of Art.

• The Wish Fulfilling Tree

Don’t Miss: How Much Is The Art Museum

The American Folk Art Museum

For those who were born in the 1990s, you must have memories of china dinnerware of vintage patterns, colorful blankets knitted by grandma, etc. If you miss them, you can find them at the American Folk Art Museum, an institution that honors the creative expression of self-taught artists.

Here, you can peruse more than eight thousand works of art from four centuries and nearly every continent, from compelling portraits and dazzling quilts to powerful works by living artists in a variety of mediums.

Despite folk art was more of a documentation of the past culture, the field gets expanded to include artists working in the present. Also, the museum is free to visit.

The American Folk Art Museum.

List Of Museums In New York City

This is a list of museums in New York City, which is home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites, many of which are internationally known. Also included are non-profit art galleries, arts centers, and cultural centers with galleries.

• See also List of museums in New York for museums in the rest of New York state.

Recommended Reading: Washington Dc Museums For Kids

Museum Of Arts And Design

This is a museum that has a pay-what-you-wish admission policy on all Thursdays in the evening hours between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM.

This Museum of Arts and Design based in the upmarket Manhattan area of New York, collects, displays and interprets objects that document historica or contemporary innovation in art, design, and craft. You might be interested to learn that 95% of the collection in the museum is available online as high-resolution images which you can access by registering onsite. Regular educational programs for various groups like internships, summer camps, teens, and even teacher development programs to enrich their knowledge of art, craft, and design to promote the art are held here. Apart from this, exhibitions on various themes are regularly held here, but an entry for such events are normally charged.

Art Museums In New York

Say New York City and the first thing that comes to mind is, simply, art. Where else will you find so many famous art museums? The Metropolitan Museum of Art, established in 1870, is the largest art museum in the US and one of the three largest in the world, with the most significant art collections. MoMA. The Guggenheim. The Whitney Museum of American Art. Rubin Museum of Art is devoted to art of the Himalayas, and The American Folk Art Museum focuses on traditional folk art and the works of contemporary self-taught artists from all over the globe. And, outside Manhattan, New York visitors quickly discover the tradition of exciting and significant art collections continues statewide.

Brooklyn Museum is among the largest and most famous art museums in the US and its collections range from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art representing almost every world culture. The Parrish Art Museum, founded in 1898 and now in a vastly expanded new building, showcases the works and story of Americas most enduring and influential artists colony, Eastern Long Island.

Albany Institute of History and Art is also among the oldest museums in the country. Its famous for its significant Hudson River school paintings and is a major repository for the regions heritage.

Read Also: Museum Studies Undergraduate Programs Online