It is more than a hundred years after famous New York´s Armory Show, the International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913 which was mileage in American art history. Progressive European artists on the lead with Marcel Duchamp became overnight sensation there and very conservative American culture experienced the greatest change. After this event which caused shock followed by positive influence in visual arts, culture, and science, the massive development started and New York very quickly became world´s art center.
Nowadays, there is no city in the world with more galleries, art shows, and art institutions than New York. New York is a well-known center of music and home of famous Broadway´s musical theater. New York served as an important center for many different musical genres from folk, blues to disco, punk, hip-hop and underground art music. The city is one of the major centers of dance, theater and film industry as well. You can feel all these exciting cultural phenomena from every corner of Manhattan along with consuming culture of fast food stands and advertising campaigns.
We came to NY for the first time from Iceland and it was like a shock. Iceland was a relaxed place where you can spend your time connected to nature all day without meeting any people. The quiet night-watching of Aurora borealis surrounded by volcanos changed into aurora industrialis, shinning neon lights with 170 000 people per square mile. Anyway, we like this kind of cultural shocks the same way as we like new experiences. Although the first impression was very contradictory, after all, I admitted that New York is a special place to where I always wanna return. All the dark sides of this large metropolis are fully compensated by amazing cultural events, festivals, museums, galleries, clubs, restaurants, parks, and other unique attractions. This list will show you top NY places which we loved the most and make you a basic guide. We recommend these places as the best things you have to see during every visit to NY, especially if you’re into culture and arts.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Who could visit New York without visiting the largest museum in the United States and one of the most visited museums in the world? This second most visited art museum on the earth attracted more than 7 millions of people last year. Awesome, isn’t it? High numbers of visitor are absolutely legitimate because the collection of world’s art gives to you valuable and diverse cultural, scientific and artistic experience in the attractive, educational and entertaining way. You will discover the world of European art from Ancient times to modern art, all history of American art, an extensive collection of Asian, Indian, Byzantine and Islamic art. We were totally amazed by African and Oceanian expositions. The amount you pay for tickets is up to you, Metropolitan Museum of Art suggested admission is $25 for adults; $17 for seniors; $12 for students.
Central Park
Is there someone who doesn’t know one of the most filmed locations in the world? Yes, Central Park is another must see with 40 million visitors annually, attractive all year round. This peaceful place situated in the heart of hectic Manhattan was established in half of 19.century and inspired by Parisian Bois de Boulogne and London’s Hyde Park. There are many attractions including open-air Delacorte Theater, Carrousel, swimming pool, skating rink, gardens, ZOO, playgrounds, exhibitions and much more. You can just walk around, take exercise or read a book laying on the grass. You will visit this place anyway because it connects Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum next door to American Museum of Natural History and Museum of New York.
American Museum of Natural History
After morning run in Central Park or breakfast in one of the famous Manhattan’s breakfast restaurants with a large cup of rich coffee, take a trip to one of the largest museums in the world. With five floors of interactive, innovative and educational expositions, Museum of Natural History guarantees to you the outstanding experience. Your interactive adventure will include the hall of human origins and cultures, the center of earth and space, planetarium, biodiversity and environmental halls, mammals, birds, reptiles and other halls. Beside this, we have been amazed by the greatest collection of dinosaur fossils with the first discovered Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil and the largest dinosaur announced just in 2016 known as The Titanosaurus with body length above 37 meters with Patagonian origin.
Museum of Modern Art MOMA
Fascinating temple of modern and contemporary art situated in the middle of Manhattan has the best collection of modern Western masterpieces in the world. Most important and influencing masterpiece of 20. century Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, is here in all its noble pomposity and always makes me cry. Your eyes, your soul, all your existential hunger for the meaning of life and all of you will experience such iconic and notoriously famous artworks as Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, Salvador Dalí’s “The Persistence of Memory”, Henry Matisse’s “The Dance”, or Umberto Boccioni’s “The City Rises” and much more. Don’t be surprised if you find old-fashioned 19. century-style paintings of the progressive avant-garde. As you read before, American art was very conservative in the first half of 20. century, while modern art revolution in Europe already proceeded. The funny is that The Museums of Modern Art is trying to merge old-fashioned American- born artists from the first half of 20. the century between modern European Avantgardist. So don’t be surprised if you find paintings which look like 19. century classicism style next to progressive and innovative masters. The unique collection of architecture, design, painting, sculpture, photography, films and electronic media, with many events, exhibitions and library of approximately 300 000 books makes this museum exceptional (except annoying museum guards).
Watch the Sunset with New York’s panorama and walk through the historic bridges
New York is an ideal city to watch the sunset and you can get every evening different spot to see the sunset from a completely different angle. Take a subway from Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge Park and you can spend an enjoyable afternoon with different activities in the background of the amazing view of Manhattan Skyscrapers. Later you can watch the sunset with the reflection of the Financial District’s glassy buildings and later take a night walk through Brooklyn Bridge or Manhattan Bridge above East River. Another day visit Astoria Park and your sunset experience will include views of Triborough and Hell Gate bridges. Other spots include Gantry Park at Long Island City or take Staten Island Ferry on Hudson River.
Visit the park where Jean Michael Basquiat slept in the box
Washington square park in lower Manhattan with the tradition of celebrating nonconformity is the place for artists, intellectuals, students, performers, entertainment, protests, demonstrations, and ceremonies. It is not only a historic landmark with New York University around but the center for cultural activities, a good place to meet, talk and relax. The square reminds Paris, especially with the Washington Square Arch inspired by the Parisian triumphal arc. Washington Square Arch was built in 1892 and it celebrates the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration as a President of USA (1789).
Times Square
You don’t need to be Jeff Koons or Andy Warhol to understand and accept that ultra-commercial and popular culture is the reflection of our age and inherent part of the present culture. It’s just a fact. I am nature lover but I know that we never should have prejudice to anything and should always be open to trying the new experiences, positive, neutral or negative. So let’s try Times Square, immediately recognizable location busy all day and all night! Approximately 330,000 people daily pass cross this major commercial intersection. All that blinking lights, giant advertisements, and billboards, world’s busiest pedestrian areas, every kind of weirdos, fast foods, litter, sounds, signs, iconic symbols of popular culture, modern and postmodern society etc. Well, Times Square is not the place where I would want to build my outdoor tent and get the yoga class. It’s too wild. It’s crazy. It’s awesome. It’s exciting. Honestly, I was disgusted, but I loved it.
Statue of Liberty trip from Battery Park
The Battery park is located next door of Staten Island Ferry and its the southern tip of Manhattan. The park includes historic castle Clinton and a couple of memorials with World War II. memorial. You can sit and drink a coffee with iconic views of Upper Bay and famous landmark The Statue of Liberty. The ticket on the Ferry to Statue of Liberty cost 25,5 USD and the trip takes about 3 hours. The statue dedicated in 1886 as a gift of France to people of United States was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel.
Take a walk over Manhattan
You will leave your car in the garage. Manhattan is not a place where you want to “drive” and park. You can get perfect transport by traditional yellow NY taxi or subway across all Manhattan, but this place is amazing for the walk. It’s nice to take a walk without any destination and discover the streets of Manhattan. You will find amazing restaurants, galleries, clubs, shops and absorb the atmosphere of the city. Maybe you will visit New York’s China Town and Little Italy or suddenly appear at 9/11 Memorial Plaza, the suggestive contemplative sanctuary located at the World Trade Center site.
American cultural icon and the symbol of New York City – Empire State Building
Empire State Building was the world’s tallest building for 40 years and this giant 381 meter tall Art Deco icon was completely built just in 13 months! The observatories are on the 86th and 102nd floors and on a clear day give you breathtaking view of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The view is worth in the evening as well. Don’t forget to take an amount of patience to deal with the queue, all that security procedures, rules, and commands.
This was The Best 10 Things To See In New York For Creative Person. We were honored to be guided by New York-born friend Peter Coyle, and we are very thankful for his stories about old New York too.
If you have more time for galleries and museums, don’t forget to visit Solomon N. Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum and Museum of New York as well. What were your favorite spots, attractions, and symbols of culture which you highly recommend seeing in New York?
© Independent Couple
All pictures in this post were taken by Radoslav Cajkovic www.radocation.com and are subject to copyright.
Some other interesting art sites not usually visited by tourists. The New York Historical Society – New York’s oldest museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, etchings and photographs from the 1700s to the present. Among the best know works in its collection, the complete set of all 435 surviving water color sketches for John James Audubon’s Birds of America, a world-class collection of Hudson River School landscapes, and its famed oil portrait of Lord Cornbury, the transvestite British colonial governor (1704-08) of New York. Painted in a stylish blue dress, he bears a striking resemblance to his first cousins Queen Mary II and Queen Anne of Great Britain.
Museum of the City of New York – Its collection includes works from the early 1700s to the present, including portraits by Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copely, and Charles Wilson Peale. The collections also include a major collection of contemporary graffiti art, a costume and design collection, a furniture design collection and an extensive theater collection including over 40,00 photographs, original first drafts of plays by Eugene O’Neill, set and costume design drawings. and other items.
If you are into funerary art and have the time, Calvary Cemetery, in the borough of Queens, covering 365 acres (150 hectares), and with more than 3 million burials, is the largest and one of the oldest cemeteries in the USA. Owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, its “residents” include the famous (Nellie Melba, 1928 US presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith, etc), the infamous (quite a few mafia dons and corrupt politicians), the heroic (including dozens of Medal of Honor winners) and ordinary New Yorkers. The oldest grave, from 1848, is of Esther Ennis who “died of a broken heart.” Annie Moore Schayer, the first immigrant processed through Ellis Island, also rests there. Explore the gravestones and monuments. The cemetery’s chapel, which has been called the most beautiful mortuary chapel in the United States, was designed by Beaux-Arts era architect Raymond Amirall.
Thank you, Peter! That´s a whole bunch of interesting things to do in NYC. 🙂
Good article and great pictures! It’ s good to read and I like used sense of humour 🙂 I am definately not “NY person”.,people are rude there and it’s dirty. I prefer cities on west coast like San Antonio or Portland.