In fact, it’s perfectly possible to visit one or more museums each day here without paying a cent - and it doesn’t require an enormous amount of planning. Of course, it does help if you consider crisscrossing the city to be an adventure, not a chore. If you’d rather stick to Museum Mile, expect to part with some cash.
SATURDAY
But not if you go to the Jewish Museum on a Saturday. Free all day, it’s just up Fifth Avenue from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (admission $18), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (suggested admission $25), and the Frick Collection (admission $18), among others. A museum of art and Jewish culture housed in a converted mansion, it has two floors of galleries showing pieces from the permanent collection and another two featuring special exhibitions. The children’s and interactive exhibitions are closed on Saturdays, as are the shop and cafe. But if you need to add some museum shopping and cafe-going to your day, you can always take a stroll down the avenue.
SUNDAY
One block east of the famed Apollo Theater and one block west of former President Bill Clinton’s office is the Studio Museum in Harlem. It’s so serious about offering free admission on Sundays that the information is emblazoned, huge, on its front windows. Inside, the staff is welcoming, and so is the vibe of this elegant, multilevel space, where the work of young artists shares the galleries with a permanent collection that includes pieces by Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Jacob Lawrence, James VanDerZee, and Carrie Mae Weems.
MONDAY
