Big Museums
Visiting the big museums of NYC can be a daunting experience for locals and visitors alike. It’s mostly due to their size: miles of corridors and rooms to pass through before you get to the exhibition (or restaurant, or restroom…), only to be faced with a crowd of people who want to see the same things you do. So why go? Because despite all that, it’s worth your time to make the effort. These museums spend years creating exhibitions by building relationships with collectors, institutions, experts, and scholars to present material that educates and informs the public. Sometimes you might disagree with an interpretation, an object on display, or yes, even the merchandising in the gift shop, but that’s fine, because it means you’ll always remember your trip to the museum – and there’s no greater compliment to New York’s cultural scene than that.
Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn): Monet and Venice (October 11, 2025 – February 1, 2026), Oliver Jeffers: Life at Sea (September 18, 2025 – April 26, 2026), Everyday Rebellions: Collection Conversations (October 10, 2025 – July 5, 2026), Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens (October 10, 2025 – March 8, 2026), Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room (June 11, 2025 – April 11, 2031)
Guggenheim Museum (1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street): Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers (April 18, 2025 – January 18, 2026), Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World (November 7, 2025 – April 26, 2026)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue at 81st Street): The American Wing at 100 (opens November 8, 2024), Lorna Simpson: Source Notes (May 19 – November 2, 2025), Casa Susanna (until January 25, 2026), The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York (until May 31, 2026), The Genesis Facade Commission: Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am (September 12, 2025 – June 9, 2026), Man Ray: When Objects Dream (September 14, 2025 – February 1, 2026), Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson (September 20, 2025 – February 8, 2026), Divine Egypt (October 12, 2025 – January 18, 2026), Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck (December 5, 2025 – April 5, 2026), and at The Cloisters location (99 Margaret Corbin Drive): Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages (October 17, 2025 – March 29, 2026), Raphael: Sublime Poetry (March 29 – June 28, 2026)
Milton Glaser. I ♥ NY concept sketch. 1976. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2024 NYS Dept. of Economic Development 
Saraswati Rai Collection / Nepal Picture Library. A mass meeting of former kamlaris (women bonded labourers) in Kanchanpur, Nepal (2010) from The Public Life of Women: A Feminist Memory Project. 2023. Digital Image. Courtesy GEFONT Collection / Nepal Picture Library 
Installation view of Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, from June 28, 2025, through June 21, 2026. Photo: Jonathan Dorado 
Ruth Asawa at Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective View, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1973. Photograph by Laurence Cuneo. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner. 
Helen Frankenthaler. Toward Dark, 1988. Acrylic on canvas. 9′ 10 1/4″ x 7′ 4 1/2″ (300.4 x 224.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. © 2025 Helen Frankenthaler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital Image © 2025 The Museum of Modern Art, New York 
Cover of Time Travelers: Photographs from the Gayle Greenhill Collection, published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2025. 
Wifredo Lam. Les Invités, 1966. Oil and charcoal on canvas, 82 ⅝ x 98 ½ “ (210 x 250.2 cm). Collection Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York. © Wifredo Lam Estate, Adagp, Paris / ARS, New York 2025 
© Arthur Jafa, Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery and Sprüth Magers 
Sanlé Sory. Traveller (Le Voyageur). 1970–85. Gelatin silver print. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Photography Fund, 1102.2018. © 2024 Sanlé Sory, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
MoMA (11 West 53rd Street): Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography (until June 21, 2026), Sasha Stiles: A LIVING POEM (September 10, 2025 – Spring 2026), New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging (September 14, 2025 – January 17, 2026), Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective (October 19, 2025 – February 7, 2026), Helen Frankenthaler: A Grand Sweep (October 25, 2025 – February 8, 2026), Time Travelers: Photographs from the Gayle Greenhill Collection (October 31, 2025 – February 16, 2026), Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream (November 10, 2025 – April 11, 2026), Artist’s Choice: Arthur Jaffa – Less is Morbid (November 19, 2025 – July 5, 2026), Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination (December 14, 2025 – July 25, 2026), Marcel Duchamp (April 12 – August 22, 2026)
Barbara Hammer, Schizy, 1968. Super 8mm film transferred to video, color, silent; 3:59 min. Courtesy of The Estate of Barbara Hammer, Company gallery and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York. © Estate of Barbara Hammer 
Robert Crumb, Head #1, 1967. Ink on paper, 10 × 7 in. (25.4 × 17.8 cm). Collection of Rubén Blades, New York, NY. © Robert Crumb, 1967. Courtesy the artist, Paul Morris, and David Zwirner and Heritage Auctions/HA.com 
Fritz Scholder, Indian and Rhinoceros, 1968. Oil on canvas, 68 × 120 in. (172.7 × 304.8 cm). National Museum of the American Indian, New York; Smithsonian Institution; purchase 26/8066 
David Hammons, Untitled, 1969. Grease and pigment on paper, cut out, within two sheets of plexiglass cut to the same shape, 32 3/8 × 9 1/4 × 1/4 in. (82.2 × 48.9 × 0.6 cm). Tilton Gallery, New York. Courtesy Tilton Gallery, New York. © 2025 David Hammons / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 
Shigeko Kubota, Self-Portrait, c. 1970–71. Standard-definition video, color, silent; 5:28 min. Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation. © 2025 Estate of Shigeko Kubota / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY 
Oscar Howe, Retreat, 1968. Casein on paper: sheet, 26 1/8 × 20 1/4 in. (66.4 × 51.4 cm); image, 24 × 18 1/4 in. (60.96 × 46.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Director’s Discretionary Fund 2023.86. © Oscar Howe Family
Whitney Museum of American Art (99 Gansevoort Street): Marina Zurkow: Parting Worlds (April 9, 2025 – January 11, 2026), Mary Heilmann: Long Line (April 9, 2025 – January 19, 2026), Sixties Surreal (September 24, 2025 – January 19, 2026), Ken Ohara: CONTACTS (October 10, 2025 – February 8, 2026), Grace Rosario Perkins: Circles, Spokes, Zigzags, Rivers (October 18, 2025 – February 8, 2026), High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100 (October 18, 2025 – March 2026)
Medium & Small Museums
Although we started our arts gazing career with the big institutions, it’s the medium and small museums of NYC that are truly our favorites. Where else can you do a deep dive into local history, often set against the backdrop of national/international events, discover an interest in an esoteric subject, or learn to see the world in a new way? In addition, these organizations are more flexible in their programming despite small budgets, meaning that they’re already exhibiting/explaining works that reflect the concerns of our time, moving forward with an inclusive cultural mindset that has yet to become the norm. The result is an informative, entertaining, and memorable experience for everyone who visits.
Medium Museums
Bronx Museum (1040 Grand Concourse, The Bronx): Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald (September 5, 2025 – January 11, 2026)
Cooper Hewitt (2 East 91st Street): Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne (December 12, 2025 – Fall 2026), Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 (December 12, 2025 – July 19, 2026), and later on Art of Noise (February 2026 – July 19, 2026).
Frick Collection (1 East 70th Street): Flora Yukhnovich’s Four Seasons (September 3, 2025 – March 9, 2026), To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum (October 2, 2025 – January 5, 2026)
International Center of Photography (79 Essex Street): Graciela Iturbide: Serious Play, Naima Green: Instead, I spin fantasies, Sergio Larrain: Wanderings (all exhibitions October 16, 2026 – January 12, 2026)
Chanting Clerics, from the Windmill Psalter, England, London, late thirteenth century. The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.102, fol. 100r (detail). Photography by Carmen González Fraile. 
Jean Poyer, St. Anne Instructing the Virgin, Hours of Henry VIII France, Tours, ca. 1500 Morgan MS H.8, fol. 186v Codex 256 x 180 mm The Morgan Library & Museum, Photography by Graham S. Haber 
Attavante degli Attavanti Pope Leo X Vesting; Leo X Praying Praeparatio ad missam of Leo X Italy, Rome, 1520 Morgan MS H.6, fols. 1v-2r Codex 396 x 266 mm The Morgan Library & Museum, MS H.6 fols. 1v-2r. Photography by Janny Chiu 
Child with a Cat or Julie Manet, 1887 Oil on canvas Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 1999 13 Musée d’Orsay, dist. GrandPalaisRmn. Photography by Patrice Schmidt 
Auguste Rodin, 1914 Red and white chalk Private collection, United Kingdom, courtesy Daniel Katz Gallery, London Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates, London. 
View of a Park, ca. 1885–90 Watercolor with white opaque watercolor on paper Thaw Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum. Photography by Graham S. Haber, 2017.
The Morgan Library and Museum (225 Madison Avenue at 35th Street): Lisa Yuskavage: Drawings (June 27, 2025 – January 4, 2026), Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life (September 12, 2025 – January 4, 2026), Renoir Drawings (October 17, 2025 – February 8, 2026), Caravaggio’s ‘Boy with a Basket of Fruit’ in Focus (January 16 – April 19, 2026), Come Together: 3,000 Years of Stories and Storytelling (January 30 – May 3, 2026), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Treasures from the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg (March 13 – May 31, 2026), Friends Who Came to See Me: Drawing from John Ashbery’s Collection (May 1 – October 25, 2026), Hujar: Contact (May 22 – October 25, 2026),
New Museum (235 Bowery): New Humans: Memories of the Future (Winter 2026)
Queens Museum (Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens): Abang-guard: Makibaka (March 16, 2025 – January 18, 2026), Umber Mageed: JOY TECH (March 16, 2025 – January 18, 2026), Glori Tuitt: Black, Trans, & Alive (Qweens Song) (ongoing), Fia Backström: The Great Society (opens September 13, 2025)
Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street): Tom Lloyd (November 15, 2025 – Spring 2026)
Small Museums
American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square at Columbus Avenue and 68th Street): An Ecology of Quilts: The Natural History of American Textiles (September 26, 2025 – March 1, 2026)
Asia Society (725 Park Avenue at 70th Street): Imperial Treasures: Chinese Ceramics of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties from the Mr. and Mrs, John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (February 18, 2025 – January 4, 2026, (Re)Generations: Rina Banerjee, Byron Kim, and Howardena Pindell amid the Mr. and Mrs, John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection (March 4, 2025 – January 4, 2026), Hiraki Sawa: Journeys in Place (March 4, 2025 – January 4, 2026
Hispanic Society Museum and Library (613 West 155th Street): Spanish Style: Fashion Illuminated, 1550-1700 (November 6, 2025 – February 8, 2026)
The Jewish Museum (1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street) Anish Kapoor: Early Works (October 24, 2025 – February 1, 2026), Identity, Culture, and Community: Stories from the Collection of the Jewish Museum and the Pruzan Family Center for Learning (opens October 24, 2025)
The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (26 Wooster Street): Athi-Patra Ruga: Lord, I gotta keep on (movin’) (September 11, 2025 – January 18, 2026), Soft Spaces (September 11, 2025 – January 18, 2026), David Wojnarowicz: Arthur Rimbaud in New York (October 1, 2025 – January 18, 2026)
Museo del Barrio (1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street): Jangueando: Recent Acquisitions, 2021-2025 (August 28, 2025 – Summer 2026), Coco Fusco: Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island (September 18, 2025 – January 11, 2026)
Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street): Urban Stomp (April 11, 2025 – February 22, 2026), Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World (September 12, 2025 – March 22, 2026), The Occupied City: New York and the American Revolution (opening May 1, 2026), New York Now: After Dark (November 20, 2026 – April 25, 2027)
Museum of Arts and Design (2 Columbus Circle): Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break Our Births (October 4, 2025 – March 15, 2026), Douriean Fletcher: Jewelry of the Afrofuture (October 4, 2025 – March 15, 2026), The Mad MAD World of Jonathan Adler (until April 19, 2026), Dana Barnes: Untamed Gestures (until October 11, 2026)
National Museum of the American Indian (1 Bowling Green): Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass (November 2025 – May 29, 2026) Native New York, Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes, and Ancestral Connections (all ongoing exhibitions)
Neue Galerie (Fifth Avenue at 86th Street): German Masterworks from the Neue Galerie (June 26, 2025 – May 4, 2026), Dagobert Peche: Ornamental Genius (October 9, 2025 – May 4, 2026), Erich Heckel (October 9, 2025 – January 12, 2026)
New-York Historical Society (Central Park West and 78th Street): New York, New York: The Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Collection (September 5 – 205 – August 6, 2026), The New York Sari (September 12, 2025 – April 26, 2026), The Gay Harlem Renaissance (October 10, 2025 – March 8, 2026), Declaring the Revolution: America’s Printed Path to Independence (November 14, 2025- April 12, 2026), Stirring the Melting Pot: Photographs from The New York Historical Collection (November 28, 2025 – March 29, 2026), Democracy Matters (June 19, 2026 – January 10, 2027), Old Masters and New Amsterdam (May 1 – August 30, 2026), You Should Be Dancing: New York, 1976 (October 2, 2026 – March 7, 2027)
Noguchi Museum (9-01 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Queens): Against Time: The Noguchi Museum 40th Anniversary Reinstallation (August 28, 2024 – January 11, 2026), Noguchi’s New York (February 4 – July 5, 2026)
Poster House (119 West 23rd Street): The Future Was Then: The Changing Face of Fascist Italy (September 27, 2025 – February 22, 2026), Blazing a Trail: Dorothy Waugh’s National Parks Posters (September 27, 2025 – February 22, 2026), Utopia in Our Time: The Posters of Molly Crabapple (November 13, 2025 – April 12, 2026), Art for Art House: The Posters of Peter Strausfeld (November 13, 2025 – April 12, 2026), Love & Fury: New York’s Fight Against AIDS (March 12 – September 6, 2026), Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen (March 12 – September 6, 2026), Reading Under Fire: Arming Minds & Hearts During Wartime (April 23 – November 1, 2026)
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