By Erik Steel
New York stands out among other great world cities such as London and Paris with regard to its museum offerings. The museums considered here offer a different activity for each of several days in New York and are diverse in their focus and content, including art, gardening, history, space and entertainment.
MoMA
The Museum of Modern Art, popularly known as MoMA (say "moh-muh"), is perhaps the world's preeminent modern art museum. It has both frequent exhibitions of all forms of modern art (sculpture, painting, installation, music, film) as well as a large permanent collection that includes works by such artists as Tobias Putrih, Matthew Barney, Ken Price, Charles Ray, Jeff Koons and many more. MoMA is located at 11 West 53 Street, telephone (212) 708-9400, info@moma.org, website: moma.org.
Whitney Museum of American Art
In addition to its collection of works by American artists like Kiki Smith, David Wojnarowicz and Edward Hopper, the Whitney also holds exhibitions and hosts performance and film works. The Whitney has also joined with MoMA to archive all of Andy Warhol's films. The Whitney is located at Madison Avenue and 75th Street, telephone (212) 570-3600, website: whitney.org.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a nature museum with garden collections such as the Cranford Rose Garden, which you can take a panoramic tour of on their website, as well as science libraries, a rare book room and botanical art. The Botanic Garden is home to a blueball wooded area, a cherry orchard, lilac, iris and peony collections, and much more. The Botanic Garden is located at 1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, telephone (718) 623-7200, website: bbg.org.
Ellis Island
The Ellis Island Immigration Museum tells the story of America itself, being the site of major waves of American immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to its free genealogical help, the museum offers artifacts and displays, including an immigrant Wall of Honor, as well as the Ellis Island Living Theater. Email historycenter@ellisisland.org, telephone (212) 561-4588. See Resources below for more information, including ferry schedules to the island.
Hayden Planetarium
The Hayden Planetarium offers many events including lectures and the Tuesdays in the Dome series, which offers "tours" of different regions of space on the first and last Tuesdays of every month. The Hayden Planetarium is located at Central Park West at 79th Street, telephone (212) 769-5100, website: haydenplanetarium.org.
Paley Center for Media
The Paley Center for Media, formerly known as the Museum of Television and Radio, offers educational programming like radio workshops and classes on many different aspects of media. The Paley Center houses an extensive collection of television and radio shows as well as advertisements, and hosts a number of public events relating to popular media events. The Paley Center is located at 25 West 52nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Ave., telephone (212) 621-6800, website: paleycenter.org.
Resources
About the Author:
Erik Steel is a graduate of the University of Michigan, earning his bachelor's degree in Russian. Steel has worked as writer for more than four years and has contributed content to eHow and Pluck on Demand. His work recently appeared in the literary journal "Arsenic Lobster."
