Best 10 Museums in New York

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If you fancy absorbing rare and historical artwork collection, Frick Collection should be on your visit list of the top 10 best museums in New York. The museum has a collection of artworks of industrialist Henry Clay Frick. It was opened to the public in December 1935. The museum has undergone expansion at different stages until now. Henry Frick was fond of small artwork collection, which he collected using his fortunes. The collection consists of high-quality old master paintings and premium furniture spread across 19 galleries of various sizes within the museum. Some of the paintings in the museum are still arranged as per Frick’s design. The museum hosts temporary exhibitions for artworks. They also lend artworks that were acquired post-Frick’s death. The Board of Trustees has contributed to more than half of the artwork since the death of Henry Clay Frick. Few of the selected artworks include

Timings- 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Location-1 East 70th Street Manhattan, New York City

Commemorating the 2977 people killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001, the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum is a modern-day architecture. Located at the site of twin towers of World Trade Center, New York. A non-profit organization operates it. The museum was planned on the aftermath of the incident. Architect Michael Arad of Handel Architects won the design competition for the memorial. The construction started in 2006, and the museum was opened to the public on the 10^th anniversary of September 11, 2011. The memorial has two 1-acre pools with the largest man-made waterfalls, which imprint the footprints of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. This empty pool is a symbol of the void left after the attacks, and the waterfall mute the sound of the city. There are more than 400 White Oak trees to enhance the reflective nature of the memorial. The names of all 2983 victims are inscribed using a special algorithm to create meaningful adjacencies.

The memorial also has a Survivor Tree (Callery Pear tree), which survived from the rubble. It was planted temporarily in a nursery and was returned in 2010 to the site symbolizing the continuity of life after the attacks.

The September 11 Museum was dedicated in May 2014 and was opened to the public on May 21, 2014. The Museum contains close to 40,000 images, 14,000 artifacts, and close to 4000 oral and video recordings. The Museum is 70 feet below the ground and is accessible through a pavilion. General admission is priced at 24$ in turn to raise more federal funding. You can feature this in your list of one of the 10 best museums in New York.

Timings- 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM

Location- 180 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10007 United States

If you have a taste for modern art and artifacts, head to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), it consists of a trail of modern and contemporary artworks comprising of drawings, paintings, works of design, prints, illustrations, books, and electronic media. Archives contain source material that helps the world understand the world and the origins of modern art. Since 1939 the museum has been involved at multiple stages for modern art events and conjunction. The first major drive to prominence came through Picasso retrospective. Between 1983 to 2014, the museum had already doubled up the gallery space and became 630,000 square feet of art space. Like all the other art museums, they indulge in temporary exhibits as well across their period, and you can add this in your list of 10 best museums in New York. An additional 47000 square feet of space will be added. More than 200,000 works will be on display. The motive is to add artworks from women artists, Asian artists, and minority communities. The total cost of expansion is estimated to be around $450 million. General admission is priced at $25.

Few of the highlighted artworks include-

At present, the museum has 300,000 books in the library, 28,000 works on design and architecture department, 14 video games including Pac Man and Minecraft, 25,000 titles archived in international film art. The yearly footfall is close to 3 million.

Timings- 10 AM to 6:00 PM

Location- 11 West 53rd Street New York, N.Y. 10019

New York Hall of Science or popularly known as NYSCI is a museum dedicated to science exhibits focusing on education for children aged 1-17 years. Being one of the first science museums in the modern era, it has drawn crowds exponentially over the years. This has led to massive expansion schemes. The Hall has earned the status of a New York City cultural institution granted to a few numbers of organizations. To see this Hall, add this museum to your list of 10 best museums in New York. NYSCI has more than 400 exhibits focusing on chemistry, biology, and physics. It has several permanent and temporary exhibits. General admission is priced at $20. There are a 30,000 square ft of science playground, which serves as an interactive area for students to engage in multiple hands-on activities and understand the contribution of science to the modern world.

Every Friday (2 PM to 5 PM) and Sunday (10 AM to 11 AM) is free entry to all customers for general admission. However, general admission does not include the science playground.

Some of the exhibits include-

Location- 47-01 111th Street Corona, New York

The American Museum of Natural History is the largest museum in the world, and you can tick this off as 10 best museums in New York. It focuses on natural history and evolution. The complex has 28 interconnected building complexes with a planetarium and library. The total area is a massive 2 million square feet and holds close to 33 million specimens. The primary focus of the museum is to discover, interpret knowledge of human cultures, the natural world, and the universe. If you fancy a trip across the evolution of life on earth, multi-storied halls are focusing on exhibits and panoramas of world cultures. The museum has number of traveling exhibitions around the year, details of which can be seen on the museum website.

The museum consists of the below halls and exhibits-

Each one of the halls has old artifacts from each culture, old fossils, collection of minerals, geological specimens. A team of 220 science staff is available on the field every day at the museum. Remember Night at the Museum franchise? The movie was shot partially in the museum across the three parts. A large part of Wonderstruck was also shot at the AMNH.

Timings- 10 AM to 5:45 PM

Location- Central Park West at 100th Street, New York City, U.S. 12560

The Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space museum focus on American military and maritime history and consists of a collection of ships in New York. The primary showcase includes the USS Intrepid Aircraft carrier, USS Growler submarine, a Concorde SST, and a Lockheed A 12 Supersonic plane with a Space Shuttle Enterprise. The museum is one of the few modern-day museums started in the year 1982. The Space Shuttle Enterprise was shifted in the year 2011. Several selected exhibits include planes like F16, MiG 21, British Airways Concorde, MiG 17, US Navy exhibits used since World War II. The museum also serves as a place for annual Fleet Week events, and space is used for various community and national events, including the 2014 Super Bowl. Add this museum in your list of 10 best museums in New York to visit the collection of ships and to know more about maritime history.

Timings- 10 AM to 5:00 PM

Location- 12th Avenue and 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.

Early 19th-century art movement started a painting style called Impressionism, which involves relatively small, visible brushstrokes with emphasis on showing the accurate depiction of lights. A group of Paris artists introduced the style.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum focuses on the continuously expanding collection from Impressionist and early Modern and contemporary art. Nearly 1.5 million people visit the museum every year. It is known for hosting the most popular exhibitions in New York City. The museum has been declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2019. The design and architecture of the complex have always drawn massive polarity of opinion. And multiple renovations have been made to the building. The museum continues to expand year on year its permanent exhibits. Add this museum in your list of one of the 10 best museums in New York to visit this designated New York Landmarks.

Timings- 10 AM to 5:30 PM

Location- 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street Manhattan, New York City.

With close to 7 million visitors a year and one of the 10 best museums in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) is the largest museum in the United States. The collection at the museum is endless and consists of 17 departments with specialized scholars for each. The permanent collection has artworks, paintings, sculptors, and antiques from ancient Egypt, Europe, and American culture. It holds a special holding for Asian, African, and Islamic art as well. A massive collection of musical instruments, costumes, weapons, and armors gives a total insight of cultures across the world and how they progressed over the years. The museum does a lot of traveling around the year. Each department has a library, and a total of 900,000 volumes are maintained. The shows focused on a particular art form or artist are organized to hold educational events and witness the transformation and impact art has on the world cultures. General admission for adults is priced $25 with free entry for children under 12. The ticket is valid for 3 days for all three locations. Group bookings are available at a discounted price. This, as a, one of the 10 best museums in New York is already marked as U.S National Historic Landmark. With over 5000 years of art heritage, this a must-visit in New York.

Timings- Sun - Thu 10:00 AM - 5:30 PM, Fri - Sat 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM

Location- 1000 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10028

12 million immigrants came to America through the Ellis Island corridor in early 1900, descendants of whom now constitute 50 percent of the American population. A 12 language audio tour across the museum is available to the visitors detailing era of immigrants walking into America. It holds artifacts, videos, oral exhibits, prints, and photographs, and to see these things, and you should mark this Island as one of the 10 best museums in New York. There are few exhibits which provide details about immigrants, immigration pattern across the globes. List of exhibits include-

You can also watch the award-winning documentary, “Island of Hope, Island of Tears.” The entry to the museum is free; however, you need to buy tickets to ferry to Ellis Island. The same ticket provides access to the Island and the museum.

Timings- 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM

Location- Upper New York Bay

Ripley’s Believe It or Not is not just a single museum, but a worldwide franchise and museums all over the world’s major cities. Robert Ripley founded it. The entire collection includes bizarre events, strange items, and unusual and questionable claims. The details have been adapted in various formats like book series, videos, radios, and comic books — the total artifacts around 100,000 include photos and cartoon panels. The annual attendance across the globe is 12 million.

A series of books have been published since 1931. It features unusual events, facts, news stories, and photographs.

The Times Square museum facility is a one of a kind attraction where you can even witness thrilling and interactive exhibits apart from the historical artifacts. It is the largest Ripley’s in all of North America.

Don’t miss the famous Black Hole interactive exhibit while you are at Ripley’s. You can feature this museum in your 10 best museums in New York to see strange items and bizarre items.

Timings- Mon-Wed 10 AM to 11 PM, Thu-Sun 10 AM to 1 AM. (Open 365 days)

Location- 234 West 42nd Street New York, NY 10036

So, here in this article, we tried to look at the top 10 best museums in New York City. You will get to see the museum’s dedication to history, art, military, science, natural history, immigration, and cinema. Based on these choices, we have narrowed down our search of 10 best museums in New York. So, pack your bags for New York and visit recommended museums. Don’t wait for too long to take this trip.

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