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): Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses (May 16 – December 6, 2026), Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room (June 11, 2025 – April 11, 2031), Michael Richards: Free F’All (September 11, 2026 – June 6, 2027), Hopi Kachina Dolls: Blessings for a Balanced World (October 2, 2026 – April 18, 2027), Cézanne to Modigliani: Gifts of Modern Art from the Pearlman Collection (October 2, 2026 – April 18, 2027), Art of Manga (October 3, 2026 – January 31, 2027), Manga Before Manga: Japanese Art from the Collection (October 3, 2026 – January 31, 2027),
Guggenheim Museum (1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street): Taryn Simon | Father Country I Do Love You (September 18, 2026 – March 14, 2027), Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now (until January 10, 2027)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue at 81st Street): The American Wing at 100 (opens November 8, 2024), Costume Art (May 10, 2026 – January 10, 2027), Musical Bodies (June 7 – September 27, 2026), Independence and Identity: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints (now until October 6, 2026), Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy (June 12, 2026 – February 28, 2027), Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur (June 12 – September 8, 2026), A King’s Carpet: Louis XIV and the Savonnerie (September 8, 2026 – March 5, 2027), Chasing Clouds (September 14, 2026 – February 28, 2027), The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei (September 17, 2026 – June 8, 2027), David Hartt: Peripheries (September 25, 2026 – February 7, 2027), Rediscovering Della Robbia at The Met (until January 17, 2027), Cottage Industry: The Val-Kill Furniture Shop (until May 9, 2027), There Are No Words: Si Lewen’s Parade (October 1, 2026 – January 5, 2027), Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous (October 4, 2026 – January 31, 2027), Designing the Gilded Age: Drawings from the Studios of Louis C. Tiffany (October 22, 2026 – February 7, 2027), Across Wine-Dark Seas: Art and Identity beyond Ancient Greece (December 20, 2026 – April 11, 2027) and at The Cloisters location (99 Margaret Corbin Drive): Creatures of Myth and Imagination: Europe and the Americas (May 18 – October 18, 2026)
MoMA (11 West 53rd Street): Marcel Duchamp (April 12 – August 22, 2026), Frida and Diego: The Last Dream (until September 12, 2026), Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa (until January 2, 2027), Sarah Michelson: nowhere (September 15 – October 11, 2026), Taking Back Our Space: Photographic Perspectives (September 20, 2026 – May 2, 2027), Full Disclosure: The Edge of Information Design (September 27, 2026 – June 13, 2027), The Surrealist Book: Tomorrow Lives in Mirrors (October 4, 2026 – January 23, 2027), Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio (October 25, 2026 – February 27, 2027), Na Mira: NO SMOKING (November 14, 2026 – February 15, 2027), Mondrian Boogie Woogie (March 21 – July 31, 2027)
MoMA PS1 (22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens): Homeroom: Artists Against the Bomb (September 10, 2026 – February 8, 2027), Courtyard Commission: Precious Okoyomon (July 31, 2026 – Summer 2028), Teresa Margolles: En el lugar de los hechos (At the Scene) (September 24, 2026 – January 2027), Masao Gozu: Windows and Bars (November 5, 2026 – March 15, 2027), New York Fashion at PS1, 1980-1984 (November 5, 2026 – March 15, 2027), Hard Art (November 5, 2026 – March 2027)
Whitney Museum of American Art (99 Gansevoort Street): Whitney Biennial 2026 (March 8 – August 23, 2026), The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans (August 22, 2026 – January 10, 2027), Andy Warhol: Family Album (until October 19, 2026), Roy Lichtenstein: 1997 (opens September 5, 2026), Roy Lichtenstein: Like New (opens October 11, 2026), Coumba Samba: Stars and Stripes (September 19, 2026 – January 18, 2027)
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): The Seventh AIM Biennial: Forms of Connection (January 23 – September 6, 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): Siena: The Art of Bronze, 1450–1500 (October 15, 2026 – January 18, 2027), Painting with Fire: Susanne de Court and the Art of Enamel (April 8 – July 12, 2027)
International Center of Photography (79 Essex Street): Haruka Sakaguchi: The Camps America Built (March 26 – June 21, 2026), Yves Saint Laurent and Photography and Photobooks USA 2000-25 (both exhibitions June 11 – September 28, 2026)
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) Friends Who Came to See Me: Drawing from John Ashbery’s Collection (May 1 – October 25, 2026), Hujar: Contact (May 22 – October 25, 2026), The Declaration of Independence: Rare Americana from the Collection (May 5 – September 13, 2026), Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions (JUne 26 – October 4, 2026)
New Museum (235 Bowery): New Humans: Memories of the Future (opening March 21, 2026)
Queens Museum (Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens): Glori Tuitt: Black, Trans, & Alive (Qweens Song) (ongoing), About Us: The American Imaginary Curated by the Terra Foundation Fellows: Christina Chan, Annette Parkins, and Carlos David Trujillo (February 28 – December 6, 2026)
Studio Museum in Harlem (144 West 125th Street): at an arm’s length: Expanding the Walls 2025 (July 29, 2025 – June 21, 2026), From Now: A Collection in Context (November 15, 2025 – August 16, 2026), To Be a Place (until August 30, 2026), Fade (May 1 – September 6, 2026)
Small Museums
American Folk Art Museum (2 Lincoln Square at Columbus Avenue and 68th Street: Self -Made: A Century of Inventing Artists (April 10 – September 13, 2026), Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States (April 10 – September 13, 2026)
Asia Society (725 Park Avenue at 70th Street): Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Celebrating 70 Years of Asia Society and the Rockefeller Legacy (March 18, 2026 – January 3, 2027)
Hispanic Society Museum and Library (613 West 155th Street): Goya and the Age of Revolution (December 11, 2025 – June 28, 2026)
The Jewish Museum (1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street) Identity, Culture, and Community: Stories from the Collection of the Jewish Museum and the Pruzan Family Center for Learning (ongoing), Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds (March 20 – July 26, 2026), Women of the Wiener Werkstätte (July 17 – November 15, 2026), Fragments of Memory (September 18, 2026 – February 7, 2027)
The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (26 Wooster Street): Soft Spaces: groana melendez and Anna Parisi (May 6 – June 21, 2026), Rocío García: The Object of Power is Power (May 6 – September 20, 2026), Shu Lea Cheang: LOVER LOVE (April 3, 3036 – January 3, 2027)
Museo del Barrio (1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street): Jangueando: Recent Acquisitions, 2021-2025 (August 28, 2025 – Summer 2026), Sophie Rivera: Double Exposures (April 23 – August 2, 2026)
Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street): The Occupied City: New York and the American Revolution (ongoing), Timescapes (ongoing), Songs of New York (until July 19, 2026), Activist New York (until July 19, 2026), Raise Your Voice (until July 19, 2026), Another Wonderland: Abram Champanier’s Alice Mural (until September 27, 2026), Halumii Ktapihna: Lenape Legacies and Futures (September 25, 2026 – New York Now: After Dark (November 20, 2026 – April 25, 2027)
Museum of Arts and Design (2 Columbus Circle): Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley (until August 16, 2026), Alice Riehl’s Porcelain Florilegium (until October 12, 2026), 2025 Burke Prize: Hai-Wen Lin (until October 12, 2026), Dana Barnes: Untamed Gestures (until October 11, 2026), Jessica Lichtenstein: Rewilding (until April 18, 2027), Nike: Form Follows Motion (September 12, 2026 – March 7, 2027)
National Museum of the American Indian (1 Bowling Green): 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): CLOSED UNTIL AUTUMN 2026, Reopening with 25th Anniversary Exhibition: Masterworks from the Neue Galerie
New-York Historical Society (Central Park West and 78th Street): New York, New York: The Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Collection (September 5, 2025 – August 6, 2026), Democracy Matters (June 19, 2026 – January 10, 2027), Old Masters and New Amsterdam (May 1 – August 30, 2026), Betye Saar’s Black Dolls (May 8 – October 4, 2026), Revolutionary Women (May 29 – October 25, 2026), House Made of Dawn: Art by Native Americans 1880 to Now, Selections from the Hsu-Tang Collection (April 22 – August 16, 2026), You Should Be Dancing: New York, 1976 (October 2, 2026 – March 7, 2027)
Noguchi Museum (9-01 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Queens): Noguchi’s New York (February 4 – July 5, 2026)
Poster House (119 West 23rd Street): 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)
ArtsGazing 