New York Metropolis is the place to go to for a museum vacation within the US. It’s no secret that the town is full of historical past and tradition. And this cultured atmosphere makes it extremely well-suited to museums due to all of the subjects and tales it will possibly cowl. Its vary of museums are among the metropolis’s most superior issues to do.
New York has all the things from a Jewish Museum to the Tenement Museum and New York Transit Museum. New York Metropolis is iconic, and its museum scene is just too. So, earlier than you get any additional, our first recommendation is to dedicate as a lot time as potential to seeing the most effective museums in NYC.
High Museums in NYC
You might need a love for up to date artists. You could wish to glimpse New York’s maritime historical past or a time machine-like transportation again to the Center Ages. On this information, we’ll provide the lowdown on the place to go to to get your museum repair. These prime 18 museums are the most effective in New York Metropolis.
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Beneath are among the prime excursions in NYC. Don’t overlook to plan forward when visiting New York Metropolis!
High Museum Tickets And Excursions in NYC:
1. 9/11 Memorial & Museum
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is probably the most well-known of all of the museums in New York and, arguably, probably the most somber too. The museum stands subsequent to the place the Twin Towers fell, with two huge swimming pools marking their foundations. Undoubtedly, the 2001 (and earlier 1993) terrorist assault is one among historical past’s most catastrophic occasions. The complicated story is already acquainted to many. After the hijacking of two planes in a nationwide assault, the Twin Towers of the World Commerce Heart had been focused in a terrorist assault.
Flying the planes immediately by the towers, the 2001 attackers brought about an estimated loss of life toll of two,977 folks. A large group of firefighters, paramedics, and workplace employees misplaced their lives, and mid-way by the rescue proceedings, the towers tragically collapsed, inflicting unprecedented additional lack of life.
The museum is a harrowing however stunning ode to the people who misplaced their lives and survived the ordeal. Some extremely impactful accounts of the tragedy embody Michael Hingson, who was led from the tower and saved by his information canine, Roselle. It additionally covers the opposite assaults orchestrated throughout the US on the identical day. United Flight 93 famously crashed in a discipline in Pennsylvania after passengers sabotaged the hijacker’s efforts – saving the lives of these within the proposed goal space of Washington, DC.
Stroll amongst the displays and permit no less than 3 hours to course of and completely discover the museum. There’s such nice consideration to element, so anticipate a number of little displays, particular person tales, and a few movies.
2. Metropolitan Museum of Artwork
- Opening instances: Closed Wednesdays, open 10 am till 5 pm Sunday to Thursday, and 10 am till 9 pm Fridays and Saturdays
- Value: $30. Get Your Tickets Right here.
Prepare for a giant assertion; the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork is a giant deal. It’s one of many grandest artwork galleries on this planet – of all of the artwork museums in New York, the Metropolitan Museum is probably the most revered. To be sincere, its mixture of historical trendy, and up to date artwork is astounding. The museum covers over 5,000 years of art work and artwork historical past. You’ll discover all the things from previous grasp work to Egyptian statues. ‘The Met,’ as it’s affectionally referred to as by native New Yorkers, is the most important artwork museum within the metropolis and the third largest museum.
Alongside its substantial everlasting assortment, the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork has a variety of short-term displays. These embody displays just like the fabulous Van Gogh’s Cypresses and the African Origin of Civilization. The Met is someplace you may go to to browse extra typically or look forward and decide short-term displays to deal with as particular occasions. This makes the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork extraordinarily thrilling for critical artists. Whereas for individuals who aren’t regular artwork fanatics, it may be useful to cherry-pick what to see.
3. American Museum of Pure Historical past
- Opening instances: 10 am till 5:30 pm
- Value: Urged $25.
Each main metropolis has a museum devoted to the pure world. And the American Museum of Pure Historical past is a museum positioned in New York Metropolis devoted to doing exactly that. The museum options all the things from dinosaurs to house historical past. If you would like a full time out, it’s the excellent answer.
Simply to stroll the displays takes round 3 hours. However then the museum has particular exhibits and exhibitions, every taking upwards of an hour. And there’s a present store on the finish. It’s greatest to go to with the restriction of a time restrict looming over your head, so go away a day for this museum. The American Museum of Pure Historical past hit the bottom working in 1869 and has continued accumulating displays and the newest analysis data since. David Attenborough could be proud; let’s simply put it that means.
The American Museum of Pure Historical past is a part of the Smithsonian Museums’ establishment. It’s conveniently positioned simply off of Central Park. It is a wonderful museum to mix with an early morning Central Park stroll.
4. Intrepid Sea, Air & House Museum
Intrepid Sea, Air & House Museum is without doubt one of the most enjoyable museums in New York Metropolis. The museum covers three main subjects: sea, air, and house. So naturally, it options well-known displays from every three, together with an plane service referred to as Intrepid and an area shuttle referred to as Enterprise. It offers an actual ‘present and inform’ method to sea, air, and house training. And younger youngsters particularly will discover this thrilling method extra participating.
You possibly can see an actual submarine and study the way it observes ocean life and performs a army position as a missile submarine. And you may rise up near the world’s quickest jets.
This museum is fascinating, and that is the one museum prefer it in New York Metropolis. Closely military-focused but additionally only a nice common perception into sea, air, and house historical past, Intrepid Sea, Air & House Museum is a good go to.
5. Ellis Island Nationwide Museum
- Opening instances: 9:45 am till 4:45 pm
- Value: $25
It’s no secret; Ellis Island Nationwide Museum is one among New York Metropolis’s most well-known museums and for glorious cause. Discover the Statue of Liberty and also you received’t be removed from Ellis Island. Ellis Island Nationwide Museum is within the Higher Bay area of the Hudson River. The museum was as soon as the primary port of name for immigrants arriving in New York and was a former processing station. These days, you may retread these footsteps. Passenger information and artifacts provide you with a transparent perception into the people and their lives earlier than stepping onto New York soil and beginning afresh.
Extremely individual-focused and a very good museum for social historical past, Ellis Island Nationwide Museum is without doubt one of the greatest museums in NYC. We’d additionally advocate visiting as a technique to move by the Statue of Liberty totally free, and it is without doubt one of the greatest points of interest to mix with admiring Woman Liberty herself.
6. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Opening instances: 11 am till 6 pm Sunday to Monday, 11 am till 8 pm on Saturdays
- Value: $25. Get your Tickets Right here.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a haven for up to date artists. The huge assortment can also be displayed in one of many metropolis’s most stunning exhibition areas – making Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum among the best museums in NYC for an aesthetic inside. The well-known ramp format is rife on social media, particularly Instagram. And the brilliant white museum spirals up from the ground to the skylight in a ramp across the outdoors wall, leaving a dizzying drop within the center. The format is elegant. And it completely matches the post-impressionist, impressionist, modernist, and up to date artwork it showcases.
Visiting Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is non-negotiable in case you are after iconic and various structure in New York Metropolis. As an artwork gallery, it additionally matches an ideal area of interest extra anybody wanting up to date and impressionist art work. It undoubtedly ticks a extremely sought-after field, and it appears to be like gorgeous whereas doing it.
7. Brooklyn Museum
- Opening instances: 11 am till 6 pm Wednesday to Sunday
- Value: $16 common admission, $25 ticketed exhibition, and free entry on the primary Saturdays of the month between February and August
Brooklyn Museum is undoubtedly one of many greatest issues to do in Brooklyn. The imposing Beaux Artwork landmark is the second-largest museum within the metropolis and is an attraction simply due to its structure. Its displays are simply as spectacular, although, and Brooklyn Museum incorporates a rotating exhibition of round 500,000 objects.
The museum makes a speciality of world cultures and confronting colonial legacies. So, in fact, you’ll see art work from everywhere in the world, together with African artwork and Egyptian treasures. There’s a large vary in art work intervals, too, with displays from the period of Egyptian pharaohs but additionally trendy artwork items on subjects like environmental justice.
Brooklyn Museum is without doubt one of the hottest museums in New York. The combo of a considerable everlasting assortment and the fixed refreshing of short-term exhibitions make Brooklyn Museum an thrilling spot to go to. And if you wish to see a museum that challenges you and your worldview, that is the artwork gallery to take action.
8. New York Transit Museum
- Opening instances: 10 am till 4 pm Thursday to Sunday
- Value: $10
New York Transit Museum is suitably positioned in a 1936 subway station, so that you enter by heading down steps from road stage. The museum options many immersive displays, together with classic subway vehicles you may sit on. Transit historical past is (admittedly) fairly a distinct segment topic of curiosity. However you don’t want a large curiosity in New York’s transit historical past to take pleasure in this museum, due to its immersive design and format. NYC historical past has by no means been extra aesthetic, and the recreated classic transit scenes are a successful contact.
The New York Transit Museum is good for a half-day exercise. It solely actually requires two hours or so, so it’s simple to squeeze into what’s going to undoubtedly be a busy New York itinerary. The subway system is probably the most prized and influential achievement in New York’s engineering historical past. This makes it probably the most essential issues to study and have a good time when visiting – particularly as you’ll possible be catching a number of subways to get round.
9. Rubin Museum of Artwork
- Opening instances: 11 am till 5 pm from Thursday to Sunday, with 11 am till 10 pm on Fridays.
- Value: $20
Rubin Museum of Artwork is far more area of interest than the opposite giant artwork galleries in New York Metropolis. The museum has an in depth assortment of art work from Himalayan Asia, together with displays from Tibet and Bhutan. The exhibition house incorporates all the things from work to statues – famend for its various method to showcasing artwork. Rubin Museum of Artwork is an exquisite ode to Himalayan Asia’s creative historical past.
It’s price looking ahead to the applications and occasions that the Rubin Museum of Artwork additionally runs. Prior to now, this has included mindfulness and meditation lessons. And there are many Buddhist-angled exhibitions to study extra in regards to the practices driving Himalayan art work. Maintain a two-hour block in your schedule for this museum.
10. Tenement Museum
- Opening instances: 10 am till 6 pm
- Value: $30
Tenement Museum is an exquisite idea of a museum on the Decrease East Aspect. The museum captures the tales of working-class historical past by a collection of Nineteenth-century to Twentieth-century recreated tenement residences. Tenement Museum is people-focused, uncooked, and genuine.
The 1863-built constructing is filled with character and, in case you like social historical past, is well one of many prime museums in New York Metropolis. Stepping from tenement to tenement is exceptional. And the museum has accomplished a superb job of expressing every household’s distinct character and story in every condominium. Every exhibition house has a singular character – resembling Mrs. Wang from China and Natalie from Prussia.
Except for its displays, Tenement Museum has digital and precise strolling excursions all through the Decrease East Aspect. It is a distinctive contact amongst the museums in New York, and you’ll escape from the confinements of museum partitions and see historical past in the neighborhood.
11. Whitney Museum of American Artwork
Whitney Museum of American Artwork is without doubt one of the hottest New York Metropolis museums. We aren’t exaggerating after we say that New York Metropolis is 90% artwork galleries. Nonetheless, the Whitney Museum actually stands out inside its area of interest. Whitney Museum solely options American art work slightly than historical art work from totally different nations.
You’ll solely discover artwork from the Twentieth century and the twenty first century. In reality, the Whitney Museum is so trendy that the majority of its artists are nonetheless residing. Most artwork museums in New York take a posthumous take a look at artists and their work, a defining marker of individuality.
The museum is in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, an space you’ll possible spend sightseeing in any means. The combo of everlasting and rotating exhibitions can also be good, as there’s all the time one thing recent to see and the everlasting displays. The Whitney Museum appears to be like company and weird from the surface, with an oddly-designed stacking format. It isn’t removed from the Museum of Illusions (not featured on this information however a notable point out) and Carrie Bradshaw’s Residence. So visiting is sensible.
12. Jewish Museum
- Opening instances: 11 am till 8 pm on Thursdays, 11 am till 6 pm Friday to Monday
- Value: $18 however free on Saturdays
The Jewish Museum is without doubt one of the greatest museums in New York Metropolis if you’d like an expertise totally devoted to Jewish tradition. This area of interest museum maintains an exquisite documentation of Jewish historical past and traditions. You’ll discover displays on conventional marriage contracts and choose Jewish experiences just like the Holocaust by the eyes of artists – as an example, housing art work on Anne Frank and combined media sculptures.
Not like the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Jewish Museum has an actual artwork focus. The historical past, group, and particular person sentiments are channeled creatively to create a elegant assortment of art work that represents lived expertise.
Whereas each the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Jewish Museum are glorious museums in New York to go to. We really feel just like the Jewish Museum is probably the most wrongly neglected. The inventive lens it makes use of to doc the Jewish expertise all through historical past is far more summary. The Museum of Jewish Heritage is extra fact-based, with over 40,000 artifacts devoted to memorializing the Holocaust.
13. American Folks Artwork Museum
- Opening instances: 11:30 am till 6 pm
- Value: Free
Prepared for a healthful perception into American artwork historical past and past? It is a museum devoted to self-taught artists and American folks artwork. Overlook your run-of-the-mill trendy artwork and up to date American artwork; these highly effective items could be something from watercolors to tapestries. The American Folks Artwork Museum is deliberately candid and goals to highlight real, uncooked creative processes. It is a area of interest of an artwork gallery that ticks a specific field. And in case you fancy a extra ‘natural’ artwork expertise in New York Metropolis, that is your prime contender.
The American Folks Artwork Museum is free to enter (and ‘all the time might be’). It’s a profound, non-stuffy perception into an on a regular basis relationship with artwork. And a wonderful celebration of self-taught and folk-style items.
14. Museum of Broadway
- Opening instances: 9:30 am till 18:30 pm from Sunday to Friday and 9:30 am till 8 pm on Saturdays
- Value: $25. Get Your Tickets right here.
The Museum of Broadway is an experiential darling on the New York museum entrance. The museum covers all the things Broadway associated, from previous to current and future. You stroll from room to room, gazing at costumes, listening to throwback music and Broadway backing tracks, and studying written exhibit after exhibit. The exhibited Broadway exhibits vary from The Lion King to West Aspect Story and all the things in between.
For anybody with a ardour for theater, the Museum of Broadway is a dream. It gives a passionate and thorough perception into New York’s most famed performances, and also you’ll completely adore it.
15. Morgan Library & Museum
- Opening instances: 11 am to five pm Wednesday to Sunday
- Value: $22
Bibliophiles alert; welcome to Morgan Library & Museum, among the best museums in NYC. Morgan Library is gorgeous, with walnut bookshelves and whole extravagance all through the premises. Wandering its studying rooms and displays is without doubt one of the most serene methods to spend a number of hours in New York.
It isn’t simply its books that make Morgan Library so particular both. The museum has that ‘previous cash’ enchantment and, fairly frankly, seems like getting into a movie set. Its grandeur is so intense that many individuals liken coming into Morgan Library to a Harry Potter scene. Regardless of its comparatively small dimension, it is without doubt one of the grandest locations within the metropolis and carries some critical oopmh. We expect (in addition to many of the metropolis’s inhabitants) that it’s probably the most stunning library in New York Metropolis – so get it in your itinerary, bibliophile or not.
16. New York Historic Society
- Opening instances: 9am till 5 pm Monday to Friday
- Value: $22
New York Historic Society is without doubt one of the most superb museums New York has to supply from a historic perspective. The museum extensively paperwork American historical past. And New York Historic Society boasts a proper museum with displays, a analysis middle, and a library open to guests.
It was based means again in 1804 and, momentously, is New York’s very first museum.After we speak about beginning at first, the New York Historic Society is the definition of it. If you’re even barely traditionally inclined, this museum might be up your road. The New York Historic Society is an exquisite place to understand tons of archives – every representing hundreds upon hundreds of hours of devoted analysis into American historical past.
The New York Historic Society is positioned in Higher West Manhattan, simply outdoors the boundaries of Central Park. The 400 years of historical past is brilliantly mixed with a stroll in Central Park, the place you may course of all of the data you’ve simply obtained and calm down amongst nature and the most effective mountain climbing trails.
17. New Museum
- Opening instances: Closed Mondays, 11 am till 6 pm Friday till Wednesday, and 11 am till 9 pm on Thursdays
- Value: $20
New Museum will not be, in actual fact, only a new museum. The museum is a surprising up to date artwork gallery and additional proof that New York is heaven for the artwork obsessed. The brilliant white constructing is designed like higgledy-piggledy constructing blocks, oddly stacked on one another with overlaps in random locations.
The final consensus is that the most effective plan of assault is to discover the three ranges of displays first, head to the cafe after, after which benefit from the roof terrace views. New Museum is suited to artwork fanatics and is a pleasant place to hang around. It has a lowkey vibe that makes it probably the most relaxed museums in New York to go to.
18. The Skyscraper Museum
- Opening instances: 12 pm till 6 pm Wednesday to Saturday
- Value: Free timed entry
The Skyscraper Museum is without doubt one of the solely of its sort worldwide. The museum is totally targeted on the historical past of the skyscraper, particularly concentrating on documenting New York’s journey to changing into the ‘world’s firstly vertical metropolis.’ As of 2023, admission is free till the top of the 12 months, though this might change after this level -s o get your go to in ASAP. It’s a sensible technique to familiarize your self with New York’s well-known skyline and a very good area of interest focus for a museum.
The Skyscraper Museum is within the stunning Battery Park in Decrease Manhattan, the place you may take ferries previous the Statue of Liberty. This attraction is most undoubtedly already in your checklist. So take into account combining the 2 and profiting from the free 2023 entry. Whether or not you take pleasure in structure or not, it’s a enjoyable, budget-friendly technique to get a style and perception into the skyscrapers that make New York iconic.
To Conclude
These greatest museums in NYC ought to maintain you ticking over for no less than 4 days or so. New York Metropolis is a metropolis of museums. You most undoubtedly don’t wish to skip over exhibitions throughout your keep. And with extra data on New York, you’ll be empowered to attach with the town on a deeper stage. Via its museum scene, you principally get to know precisely what makes New York tick. And who wouldn’t wish to join extra deeply with the one-and-only New York Metropolis?
Whether or not you go to the Smithsonian museums or the Morgan Library, these greatest museums will maintain you entertained and problem and stimulate you mentally. On the lookout for extra adventures on your keep in New York Metropolis? Right here is our final five-day itinerary. Don’t overlook our information on the place to remain, which features a rundown of the most effective neighborhoods relying in your New York itinerary.
