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Merchant's House Museum
Get a glimpse of how wealthy businessmen lived in the 1800s. Drug importer Seabury Tredwell lived in this house (built in 1831), and his family preserved original furnishings, clothing and even his kitchen sink. It's a remarkable glimpse into the past.
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Metropolitan Museum of Art
What can you say about this gorgeous behemoth? Its size, and the depth and breadth of its collection, simply overwhelms. More than five million come a year for special exhibits, or just to see the cavernous Great Hall entrance, the Temple of Dendur, the Tiffany windows in the American Wing, the collection of African, Oceania and other works.
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Mitchell-Innes & Nash
The married couple behind these galleries started their careers at Sotheby's, and their appreciation of the past infuses their spaces - while they feature the best of cutting-edge artists, they also mount lovingly researched retrospectives.
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Moma
Its grand reopening in 2004, following the most extensive renovation project in its 75-year history, created a veritable art universe of more than 100,000 pieces. You could easily hole up for a couple of days and still not properly see it all. Most of the big hitters - Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Rothko, Pollock - are housed in the central five-story atrium. The sculpture garden - returned to its original, larger vision - is a joy to sit in.
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Museum at FIT
The Fashion Institute of Technology is a fashion, design and fine arts school located on the edge of Manhattan's Fashion District . The best way for a visitor to access its unique riches is to visit its museum, which showcases rotating exhibits on fashion and style, including works by students.
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Museum of Modern Art
MOMA, a veritable art universe of more than 100,000 pieces, is hailed for its physical design and the soul of its exhibits. Big hitters like Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Rothko and Pollock are housed in the central five-story atrium. The museum's sculpture garden - returned to its original, larger vision of the early 50s by Philip Johnson - is a joy to sit in.
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Museum of Sex
Not as racy as you might think, this house of culture, which opened in 2002, intellectually traces the history of NYC and sex, from tittie bars and porn to street hustling and burlesque shows. Don't expect any sex parties or naked go-go dancers here; the collection consists of films, magazines and odd artifacts from vintage blow-up dolls to sex-house coins.
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Museum Of Television And Radio
This couch potato's smorgasbord contains a collection of more than 50,000 American TV and radio programmes, all available from the museum's catalogue at the click of a mouse. It's a great place to hang out when you're simply fed up with the real world. Everybody checks out their favourite TV programmes and watches them on the museum's consoles.
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Museum of the City of New York
For a look behind the intriguing facade of NYC, head here, where exhibitions focus on the city's past, present and future, and cast a clever eye over the city, with previous subjects ranging from Harlem lost and found and the Roaring '20s to moving toward sustainable architecture in the 21st century.
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National Arts Club
This exclusive club boasts a beautiful, vaulted, stained-glass ceiling above its wooden bar. Calvert Vaux, who was one of the creators of Central Park, designed the building. The space does hold art exhibitions, ranging from sculpture to photography, that sometimes open to the public from to .
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National Museum of the American Indian
This museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is housed in the spectacular former US Customs House - an ironically grand space for a leading museum on Native American art. Established by oil heir George Gustav Heye in 1916, it does little to explain the history of Native Americans, yet boasts a huge collection of crafts and everyday objects.
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Neue Galerie
This showcase for German and Austrian art is a relative newcomer to the museum strip (it opened in 2000), but it stood out as a star right away. The intimate but well-hung collection, housed in a former Rockefeller mansion, features impressive works by Gustav Klimt, Paul Klee and Egon Schiele. It boasts a lovely street-level eatery, Café Sabarsky, serving Viennese meals, pastries and drinks. A No-children policy means no noisy stroller blockades.
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New Museum of Contemporary Art
This brand-new addition to the neighborhood is a sight to behold: a seven-story stack of off-kilter, white, ethereal boxes, designed by Tokyo-based architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA and the New York-based firm Gensler. It's a long-awaited breath of fresh air along this gritty Bowery strip, and the thrills don't stop when you step inside.
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New York Fire Museum
The Fire Museum has hand pumps and a mock apartment blaze that kids can try to put out. Informative but exciting tours offered.
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New York Public Library
Wave hello to Patience and Fortitude, the two great lions who greet you as you walk up the steps of the white marble beaux-art New York Public Library. Filled with books, it also has architectural delights such as curved bay windows, molded ceilings, ancient staircases and more. The NYPL has frequent exhibits of rare or out-of-print books that attract bibliophiles from around the world.
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New York Transit Museum
Occupying an old subway station built in 1936 (and out of service since 1946), this museum takes on 100-plus years of getting around the Big Apple. Kids love the models of old subway cars, bus drivers' seats, and the chronological display of turnstiles from the late 19th century. Best is the downstairs area, on the platform, where everyone can climb aboard 13 original subway and elevated-train cars dating from the 1904.
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New-York Historical Society
As the antiquated, hyphenated name implies, the New-York Historical Society is the city's oldest museum, founded in 1804 to preserve the city's historical and cultural artifacts. It was New York's only public art museum until the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in the late 1800s. Though it's often overlooked, it shouldn't be, as its collection is as quirky and fascinating as NYC itself. It often hosts unique special exhibits
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Participant Inc
Part gallery, part performance art space, Participant Inc uses its second floor for all sorts of innovative fun. Opened in 2002 by founder Lia Gangitano, it's stayed afloat even as many other galleries disappear. It has a rotating roster of international artists, but also makes a point of showcasing LES-based work.
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Paul Kasmin
Expect the unexpected at Paul Kasmin. After all, the gallery does represent the legendary Frank Stella. All media are accepted here - collages, paintings, photography, sculptures and more. Shows at this gallery are wide-ranging, expansive, and thought-provoking.
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Peter Blum Gallery
Peter Blum has three galleries spread around town, but his flagship location is at Wooster St, where he's shown Korean artist Kim Sooja and her inspired bedspreads, as well as woodcuts, paintings and photography.
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Pierogi 2000
An early arrival to Williamsburg, Pierogi 2000 has made a name for itself by handling a rotating roster of 800 artists in its front room, as well as letting people don white gloves and flip through drawings and other artist renderings. The back room is a community center/meeting space for cultural gatherings.
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Pierpont Morgan Library
This library, recently reopened after beautiful, extensive renovations, is part of the 45-room mansion owned by steel magnate JP Morgan. His collection features a phenomenal array of manuscripts, tapestries and books (with no fewer than three Gutenberg Bibles), a study filled with Italian Renaissance artwork, a marble rotunda and the three-tiered East Room main library. The rotating art exhibitions here are really topnotch.
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Roebling Hall
It's been around for seven years and done a lot to advance Brooklyn's art world in that time through installation, photography, painting, video and film. Roebling makes a point of bringing foreign artists here (and vice versa); it's presently hosting 19 artists from 10 countries.
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Rubin Museum of Art
One of the newest museums in the city, the Rubin, opened in 2004. It's the first museum in the Western world dedicating itself to art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions. Impressive collections include embroidered textiles from China, metal sculptures from Tibet, Pakistani stone sculptures, intricate Bhutanese paintings and ritual objects and dance masks from various Tibetan regions, spanning from the 2nd to 19th centuries.
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Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture
The nation's largest collection of documents, rare books, recordings and photographs relating to the African American experience resides at this center near W 135th St. Arthur Schomburg, born in Puerto Rico, started gathering works on black history during the early 20th century while becoming active in the movements for civil rights and Puerto Rican independence. Lectures and concerts are regularly held in the theater here.
Read more about Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture
