The Museum Mile is a long row of Museums on Fifth Avenue in New York City. When I first visited New York in 2010 I visited the Met. And I was unaware that this amazing museum was part of an entire mile of museums! This was something I discovered only a few years ago.
Museum entrance fees and pay as you wish
Although you have to pay entrance fees to most of the museums, there are some days which are cheaper than others. Some museums will work with the pay as you wish system om particular days at particular hours. And El museo del Barrio and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have a suggested price.
In both cases this means that it’s up to you what you’re willing to donate as an entrance fee. This could also be more than the suggested price or entrance fee but it could also be zero dollars. Although it is polite, and for the future of the museum necessary, that you give something, if only a dollar.
Let’s start with The Museum Mile
Starting north, at the ‘top’ of the Park, this is the order in which you can visit the museums:
Museum for African Art
This museum focuses on the arts and cultures of Afrika and its inhabitants from around the world. Their collection houses both contemporary pieces as historical artefacts. The main focus of this museum however is on their traveling expositions, which is why the collection in the museum itself is rather small.
Adults pay 5 dollars entrance fee and children and seniors pay 2,50 dollars.
El Museo del Barrio
The museum shows Latin, Caribbean and Latin American pieces of art. They emphasize on conserving the art and culture of Puerto Rico and other Latin-American countries.
The museum has a suggested price for their entrance fees. It’s 9 dollars for adults and 5 dollars for students and seniors. On Wednesdays seniors get free entrance.
And this is interesting: if you buy a ticket to El Museo del Barrio you get a ticket for the Museum of the city of New York for free. Since a ticket to this museum costs 18 dollars, I would recommend going to El Museo del Barrio first.
Museum of the City of New York
The name says it all, this museum is full of artefacts about the history of the Big Apple. This museum has different collections: paintings amd sculptures, photography, theatre, costumes and fabrics, furniture and decorative objects and manuscripts.
Adults pay 18 dollars entrance fee and students and seniors 12 dollars. If you’re younger than 20 years than you get free entrance.
The Jewish Museum
A museum dedicated to the Jewish history of New York. Besides multiple collections they have regular movie screenings, lectures, discussion programme’s and concerts in collaboration with Bang on a Can.
Adults pay 15 dollars, seniors 12 and students 7,50 dollars. Every Thursday between 5 and 8 p.m. you can pay what you wish and every Saturday the entrance is free.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institute and it shows the history of design as an artform.
According to their website the collection has, among others, “the world’s coolest office, a large snail shell, snakes, a dragon and four bearded men, a cone propped up on a bench, a pair of colorful hands, a mysterious tv and a perpetual calender”.
The entrance fee is 5 dollars and you can book online.
National Academy of Design
American visual art from the 19th and 20th century. It’s not only a museum bit also an art academy. The collection is comprised of works of art donated by prominent artists and architects. Unfortunately the museum is temporarily closed, because It’s moving to a new location.
Adults pay 8 dollars and seniors and students pay 4,50 dollars. Children under the age of 6 get free entrance.
Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum
American and European modern and contemporary art from the end of the 19th century. The futuristic looking building that houses this collection was designed in 1959 by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is in itself a work of art.
The collection started out as the private collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim and his wife and as of today consists of 7000 works of art l. It has more than 150 works by Vasily Kandinsky. But they also have works by Rudolph Bauer, Marc Chagall, Mondriaan and Picasso.
The collection is part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the works are also on display at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
Adults pay 15 dollars entrance fee and seniors and students pay 10 dollars. Children get free entrance. On Saturday between 5:45 and 7:45 p.m. they work with a pay as you wish system.
Neue Galerie New York
Early 20th century German and Austrian art. The collection has paintings, sculptures, sketches, decorative art and photography. It shows works of the Austrian artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. The German collection focusses mainly on Bauhaus and Neue Sachlichkeit.
Adults pay 20 dollars, seniors 15 dollars and students 10 dollars. Children under the age of 12 are not allowed. The first Friday of the month the museum has free entrance.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Colloquially called the Met. The permanent collection has over 2 million pieces of art from around the world. From the classical antiquity to paintings from almost every European and American master.
It also houses African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, Indian and Islamic treasures of art and culture. Besides paintings and sculptures, they also have musical instruments, furniture, armor and weaponry. This vast collection is very impressive and definitely worth a visit, or two.
The ticket price is a suggested price of 25 dollars for adults, 17 dollars for seniors and 15 dollars if you’re a student. Kids have free entrance.
I hope you enjoy this Museum Mile as much as I do! And if you aren’t tired of museums in New York City, you should visit the Frick Collection and the American Museum of Natural History as well!
But of course there is so much more to do in this gorgeous city, than only visiting museums!
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