“I wanted to show that an African-American artist could make it in this country on a national level in the graphic arts,” says Jerry Pinkney. After creating dozens of children’s books, two lifetime achievement awards and a Martin Luther King Jr. stamp for the post office, Pinkney’s done just that. Now 76, the Westchester-based father of four tells Barbara Hoffman where he goes on the weekends.

There have been so many times I’ve spent at Riverside Church. Martin Luther King Jr. has spoken there, and it’s rooted in activism. There’s another side of it, for a visual person: It’s beautiful in a spiritual, uplifting way … I usually visit there with my wife, Gloria Jean, my daughter, Troy, and my great-granddaughter Zion, 8. We steer our visits to the city with her in mind, so we go to the American Museum of Natural History. She loves the skeletons. She’s gone there with her school, so she knows where everything is. We love to have her guide us.

Every year on my birthday [Dec. 22], we see the Alvin Ailey dance company (above). In the last 20 years, we’ve missed maybe two birthdays, so we went some other time. We come in by train, and pass through Grand Central’s market, with its magnificent smells and sights. On our last visit, we went over to MoMA — I wanted to see the Picasso sculptures. From there, we went to the Warwick hotel for a glass of wine and calamari, and then to Milos, where the fish is wonderful.

For years, we’ve gone to the Studio Museum in Harlem. While we’re there, we go to the Red Rooster (below) at happy hour. I love sitting at the bar because there’s the opportunity to strike up a conversation … I was just at the Whitney and I sat at the bar in their eighth-floor cafe. It never fails — you sit there and there’s a conversation started with the person next to you. They don’t know you, you don’t know them — but somehow the space you’re in and the exhibit you’ve seen brings you together.