New York has an inexhaustible list of art galleries with big pulls including The Museum of Modern Art, the Met and the Guggenheim.

On Tuesday 14 June all the museums along the Museum Mile are FREE! From 6-9pm 9 of New York’s finest museums will welcome you without a ticket and the museum mile will be closed to cars for 23 blocks.

The temporarily pedestrianised 5th Avenue will have live bands, entertainment and art-in-the-street activities for kids between 82nd and 105th. Check out the performance listings here. The Museum Mile Festival is 32 years old this year and over 50,000 visitors are expected to attend.

It all starts at Neue Galerie New York on 86th street at 5:45pm. Street muralist De La Vega will be there, showing you how he chalks up the sidewalks, and letting the kids in on some of the action.

Museums taking part

The Museum for African Art, El Museo del Barrio, Museum of the City of New York, The Jewish Museum, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Neue Galerie New York, Goethe-Institut New York/German Cultural Center and the The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Museum daily planner

For the other 364 days a year there are still free and discounted visits to be had. Tailor your trip around our weekly planner and get your New York gallery and museum visit for free.

We also suggest ways to keep your eyes peeled for some of the city’s best street art. Remember, this is New York, where hip hop inspired an entire graffiti obsessed youth culture. Oh, and that’s free too.

Free gallery planner

Monday

Quite a few galleries are closed on Mondays, so for your cultural hit, take to the pavements. Street art in New York goes well beyond traditional graffiti. Sculptures on stop signs, stencils, drawings wheat-pasted onto walls and tile arrangements. Look at doors, street signs, traffic lights; it is everywhere. You really have to be on the look out to catch some of the best pieces. Keep your eyes peeled and be rewarded with flashes of creativity, political snubs and snide pop culture poster defamations on your walks through Chelsea, SoHo, Williamsburg, Dumbo (especially near the waterfront) and in Brooklyn.

Previous knowledge of art history is not required, but it’s useful to be in touch with events in the media since artists often have little digs at current political issues.

Poster Boy is a popular street artist. Armed with only a razor, he slices into subway posters to cut, paste and create messages such as ‘Iran=Nam’ on an advertisement for the Iron Man film.

Free

Tuesday

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre

An affiliate of MoMA since 1999, P.S.1 continues to host cutting-edge exhibitions. Check out their summer warm-up parties.

Past exhibitions: Robert Bergman, Jonathan Horowitz and they also host The Museum of Modern Art’s Young Architects Program

Donation



Wednesday

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Occupying a fantastic location in Central Park, the museum is best visited early on a weekday to avoid the crowds. The Engelhard Court acts as both a sculpture court and interior garden with a fountain by Tiffany.

Move through the wonderful Egyptian collection into the Temple of Dendur, housed in a fabulous glass-walled atrium, relocated from its beside the Nile. Bellini’s prized Madonna and Child, can be found in the Robert Lehman Wing.

Past exhibitions: Raphael, Robert Frank and major craft orientated displays

Donation

Thursday

This is the day openings usually fall on. No invitation needed but dressing up a bit never hurts. Exhibitions at Gagosian Uptown are always very well received, often competing with major gallery displays whilst events at the PaceWildenstein gallery host work by established artists.

While people really let their hair down at the Chinatown venue Canada Gallery, you can’t beat hanging out at the warm up sessions at P.S.1 on a summer’s evening. A Thursday night can easily turn from art, to drinking, to mingling and to music without costing you a penny. Gallery hopping around the Chelsea district is also fun.

Free



Friday

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

The trick is to start at the top and work your way down. This conveniently takes you on a chronological trip through the collection, beginning with the best bits. The 5th floor starts at 1890s post-impressionism and ends with the 1940s. Here you will find early Picasso, Boccioni, Mondrian, Cézannes and Matisse.

The 4th floor covers abstract expressionism with Rothko and Warhol. The six photography galleries are particularly impressive starting with the birth of the medium in the early 20th century. Pioneers such as Rodchenko and Robert Frank’s black and white reportage, Cartier-Bresson and Gursky all feature here.

Past exhibitions: Monet, Gabriel Orozco, Marlene Dumas and Joan Miró

Free on Fridays 4pm-8pm



Saturday

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim was founded on a collection of early modern masterpieces and houses its famous collection inside its equally famous and impressive structure. Inside the It holds the largest collection of Kandinskys in the US along with an important array of works by Manet, Chagall, Bourgeois and Picasso. The addition of a ten-storey tower has created space for a sculpture gallery with lovely views of the park. Expect Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist themes.



Past exhibitions: Anish Kapoor, Roni Horn and Catherine Opie.

Donation

Sunday

The Frick Collection

The great masters from the 14th and through to the 19th centuries deserve no less than this beautiful building. The collection belonged to the industrialist Henry Clay Frick and is now housed in the family’s former 5th Avenue mansion and the picturesque inner courtyard adds the finishing touches to what one should expect of an art connoisseur’s home.

Works on display: Rembrandt, Vermeer and Renoir.

Pay-what-you-can on Sundays 11-1pm

Like this? Read our 10 free things to do in New York.

Address Book

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

1 West 53 St

NY 10019

(212) 708-9400

Subway: 47–50th Sts–Rockefeller Ctr (B, D, F, V); Fifth Ave–53rd St (E, V)

Open: Wed-Mon, 10:30am-5:30pm; closed Tuesdays; Fri, 10:30am-8pm; Thursdays throughout July and August 10:30-8:45pm

Admission: Adults $20, students $12, Fridays free 4pm-8pm

The Frick Collection

1 E 70th St (at Fifth Ave)

Upper East Side

212-288-0700

Subway: 68th St–Hunter College (6)

Open: Tue-Sat, 10am-6pm; Sun, 11am-5pm

Admission: Adults $18, students $5, Sundays pay what you can 11am-1pm

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Ave (at 89th St)

Upper East Side

212-423-3500

Subway: 86th St (4, 5, 6)

Open: Fri, Sun-Wed, 10am-5:45pm; Sat, 10am-7:45pm; closed Thurs

Admission: Adults $18, students $15, Saturdays free 5:45-7:45pm

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre

22-25 Jackson Ave (at 46th Ave)

Long Island City, Queens

718-784-2084

Subway: 23rd St–Ely Av (E, V); 21st St–Jackson Av (G)

Open: Thur-Mon, 12-6pm; closed Tues & Wed

Donation: Adults $5, students $2 (free for MoMA ticket holders)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Ave (at 82nd St)

Upper East Side

212-535-7710

Subway: 86th St (4,5,6)

Open: Sun, Tues-Thur, 9:30am-5:30pm; Fri-Sat, 9:30am-9pm; Mon closed except for holidays

Donation: Adult $20, student $10

Gagosian Uptown

980 Madison Avenue

NY 10075

212.744.2313

Subway: 77th Street (6)

Open: Tue-Sat, 10-6pm; Thursday openings until 8pm

Admission: Free

PaceWildenstein

32 East 57th Street

2nd Floor

NY 10022

212-421-3292

Subway: 59th St-Lexington Av (4,5,6)

Open: Tues-Fri, 9:30am-6pm; Sat, 10am-6pm; Thursday openings until 8pm

Admission: Free

Canada Gallery

55–59 Chrystie St between Canal and Hester Sts

NY 10002

212-925-4631

NY 10002

Subway: Grand (B,D) or Canal (6, N,R, Q)

Open: Wed-Sun, 12-6pm; Thursday openings until 9pm

Admission: Free

Brooklynite Gallery – street art

334 Malcolm X Blvd at Bainbridge St, Bedford-Stuyvesant

Brooklyn

347-405-5976

Subway: Utica Av (A,C)

Open: Thur-Sat, 1pm-7pm

Admission: Free

Jonathan LeVine Gallery – street art

529 West 20th Street

9th Floor

NY 10011

212-243-3822

Subway: 23rd St (C,E)

Open: Tue-Sat, 11am-6pm

Admission: Free

Thanks to MichelinStar, Zestbienbeautouza, loop_oh, mishmoshimoshi, baxterclaus and Ernst Moeksis for the images off Flickr!

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