When living in one of the most expensive cities in the country, it’s helpful to know the places in New York City that offer discounts and freebies. Thankfully, many of the Big Apple’s world-class museums and galleries offer free admission on some days, from the one-bedroom-sized Mmuseumm in Chinatown to architectural-icon the Guggenheim Museum. Ahead, we’ve rounded up all of the free museum days in NYC to let you pinch pennies and get your culture fix at the same time.
Mmuseumm
Features, Museums, NYC Guides
New York is home to world-class institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, and MoMA. But this city’s museum scene has more to offer than just the Temple of Dendur—in fact, it’s full of smaller, way funkier spots serving up found art, oddities, and history, including the history of this ever-odd city itself. Here are 10 of our favorites.
Daily Link Fix
- Mmuseumm, the quirky museum hidden in a Chinatown elevator shaft, is opening a second location this weekend in Tribeca, and it’s in a 20-square-foot storefront window. [NYT]
- Here’s 15 historic, opulent private clubs that still exist in NYC. [Refinery 29]
- The MTA has released the Second Avenue Subway Simulator to give New Yorkers a taste of riding the new line. [NY1]
- This 3D-printed sofa only weighs 5.5 pounds. [Contemporist]
- A Brooklyn couple made their 690-square-foot Williamsburg loft feel enormous. [Apartment Therapy]
- The first ice cream ad ever ran in May 1774 in the New-York Gazette. [Mental Floss]
Images: Mmuseumm in Chinatown (L); Second Avenue Subway construction (R)
Art, Chinatown
Looking for something off-the-beaten-path to do this Halloweekend? Mmuseumm might be right up your alley. And speaking of alleys, it’s located on Cortland Alley in Chinatown within a single, abandoned elevator shaft.
The 60-square-foot Mmuseumm is a modern natural history museum that exhibits contemporary artifacts, illustrating “the complexities of the modern world.” Its eclectic collection of everyday items includes toothpaste tubes from around the world and papers left behind in copy machines. It even manages to fit a gift shop and café in its tiny footprint.