The 38th annual Museum Mile Festival, the biggest block party in the cultural capital of the world takes place on Tuesday, June 14, 6 pm-9 pm, rain or shine on a mile-long stretch of Fifth Avenue, from 82 Street to 104 Street. The festival kicks off at 5:45 pm on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
It is a fantastically festive event, with street performers – clowns, magicians, bands – plus art on the street activities..Best of all, all eight museums are open at no charge, many offering entertainment and special activities inside.
Begun as an initiative to spur the development of new museum audiences and to increase support for the arts during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, Museum Mile was formed as a consortium by the museums that share the Fifth Avenue address. It has become one of the most popular happenings in a city known for spectacular events – some 40,000 turn out. Expect long lines and to get in about 3 or 4 museums during the course of the night.
Participating museums include:
El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue (at 104th Street), New York, NY 10029, (212) 831-7272 (https://www.elmuseo.org/) Figure and Form: Recent Acquisition so the Permanent Collection (on view through Dec. 4). Also Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion; Joiri Minaya: Redecode; Sarah Zapata: Siempre X.
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue (at 104th Street), New York, NY 10029
(212) 534-1672, https://www.mcny.org/ New York’s Yiddish Theater: From the Bowery to Broadway, through Aug. 14. Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs – Cartoons from the “New Yorker (through Oct. 9). Also: Chris “Daze” Ellis: The City Is My Muse; Scenes from the South Bronx, 1976-82; Picturing Prestige: New York Portraits, 1700 – 1860; Activist New York; Gilded New York; and Timescapes (not to be missed)
The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue, (between 92nd & 93rd Streets), New York, NY 10128, (212) 423-3200, www.thejewishmuseum.org: Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History is the first museum exhibition to focus on the influential American fashion designer, artist, and entrepreneur; on view through Aug. 7; Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist, through Sept. 18. Also: Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Beatriz Milhazes; Masterpieces & Curiosities: The Fictional Portrait; The Television Project: Some of My Best Friends; Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey; for children, Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures from Playgrounds to Palaces
Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2 East 91st Street (off Fifth Avenue) New York, NY 10128, 212-849-8400, https://www.cooperhewitt.org/ (Beauty celebrates design as a creative endeavor that engages the mind, body, and senses, on view through Aug. 21; Passion for the Exotic: Louis Comfort Tiffany and Lockwood De Forest, through Oct. 10. Also: Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial; Thom Browne Selects; Pixar: The Design of Story; Energizing the Everyday: Gifts from the George R. Kravis II Collection
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 88th Street) New York, NY 10128
(212) 423-3500, https://www.guggenheim.org/ Moholy-Nagy: Future Presenton view through Sept. 7. Also: But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa;
Neue Galerie New York, 1048 Fifth Avenue (at 86th Street), New York, NY 10028
(212) 628-6200, https://www.neuegalerie.org/. Munch and Expressionism closes June 13. invites attendees of the 2016 Museum Mile Festival to visit the second floor gallery where Gustav Klimt’s iconic portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) hangs on permanent display (the subject of the movie, “Woman in Gold,” starring Helen Mirren. This work is joined by a selection of landscape and portrait paintings by Klimt, and a display of Austrian decorative arts from the early twentieth century.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), New York, NY 10028
(212) 535-7710 https://www.metmuseum.org/. Turner’s Whaling Pictures is on through August 7) ; Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology is on through Aug. 14. Also: The Roof Garden Commission: Cornelia Parker, Transitional Object (PsychoBarn), weather permitting; and P.S. Art 2016: Celebrating the Creative Spirit of NYC Kids.
Entertainment includes Justin Weber Yo Yo (83rd St); Cabaret performer, Kim David Smith (84th Street); Magic Brian (87 St); Daisy Doodle’s Parties, Magic, Face painting & Balloons! (88 St); Alsarah and the Nubatones (89th St); Miss 360 (90th St); Imagination Playground in the garden, and on the sidewalk, a design activity in conjunction with the exhibition Pixar: The Design of Story (91 St)’; Mariachi Band (92 St); a Sammie & Tudie’s Imagination Playhouse (93 St).; It’s Showtime NYC, music by DJ Mickey Perez spinning Afro Latin disco (104th St).
There will also be an array of outdoor family activities for Museum Mile Festival attendees: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will offer chalk drawing. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum entertainment will include Imagination Playground in the museum’s garden, and a sidewalk design activity in conjunction with the exhibition Pixar: The Design of Story. Visitors to the Jewish Museum can create an abstract fabric design using stamps and drawing techniques inspired by imagery in the exhibition Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist and the looks on view in Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History. El Museo del Barrio will offer art-making for the entire family.
See museummilefestival.org for more information, and https://museummilefestival.org/index.php/map-schedule/ for map and schedule.
