Things to do on a Sunday in New York

After years in the making, the New Museum has officially reopened on the Bowery with a major expansion that is about more than added space. The new iteration of the institution rethinks what a museum is, how it functions and who it’s for. The new OMA-designed building, which will open to the public on Saturday, March 21, adds nearly 62,000 square feet to the institution and effectively doubles its exhibition capacity, bringing the total footprint to roughly 120,000 square feet. 

The original SANAA-designed tower is still vertical and introspective, while the new building leans outward, with horizontal galleries, open circulation and a more porous relationship to the city. Bridges, shared galleries and a central atrium stitch the two together, making it easy to move fluidly between them. 

The museum’s expansion didn’t just add galleries; it also has added significant infrastructure for making things. There are artist studios, a permanent home for the New Museum’s incubator NEW INC, education spaces and multi-use areas designed for workshops, talks and events. At the top of the building, these programs converge in what Shigematsu described as the “brain,” essentially a zone for production, discussion and experimentation.

NYC has an amazing independent film scene, with some of the best arthouse cinemas in the world. (Just check out Time Out's new global list of the 100 Greatest Cinemas in the World for proof.) And now New Yorkers can take advantage of it for free with a new campaign out of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment: Running from March 20 through 26, the inaugural Art House Cinema Week will offer up 5,000 free tickets to 30 participating independent theaters around town, including Film Forum, Metrograph, IFC Center, the Angelika and more.

So, how exactly do you get said tickets? You have to be among eligible New Yorkers, including NYC teachers, CUNY students, U.S. active-duty military personnel and veterans, people with disabilities, SNAP/EBT cardholders and NYC families registered with the nonprofit Cool Culture, which provides free access to cultural spaces. Simply present valid forms of identification at the box office. 

Advance tickets are currently available to all for purchase and additional information can be found on the Art House New York website. 

Few arrivals have captured NYC’s imagination quite like Dinosaur, the colossal aluminum pigeon by Iván Argote that has perched on the High Line’s Spur for the past year and a half. Now, as the viral sculpture prepares to fly the coop in early April, the park is giving its feathered icon a lively New York goodbye.

On March 21, the High Line will host Farewell, Dinosaur, an afternoon celebration marking the end of her 18-month run on the High Line Plinth. From 12pm to 4pm, the Spur will transform into a pigeon-themed playground, complete with a live DJ set from Tommy Sparks, family workshops scattered throughout the space and rounds of trivia for those who consider themselves amateur ornithologists—or at least committed pigeon fans.

There’s also a bingo session hosted by Miriam Abrahams, winner of the city’s delightfully niche pigeon impersonation pageant with plenty of pigeon prizes. Meanwhile, Argote himself will be signing limited-edition Dinosaur posters at a pop-up from the High Line Shop, alongside a flock of themed merchandise. Attendees are encouraged to dress for the occasion in full-on pigeon-core. Professional photos will be taken at the foot of the sculpture so visitors can document their moment with the city’s favorite oversized bird. 

On May 4, 1912, at the age of 16, Lee rode on horseback in an honor guard leading a massive parade up Fifth Avenue as part of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. However, despite her activism, Lee was impacted by the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from obtaining citizenship. Lee’s narrative is among many other real-life women’s stories linked to New York City and shared by the She Shapes History tour, “Badass Women of New York.”

Beginning March 21, the walking tour will run on weekends from 10am to noon. The two-mile experience starts from Grand Central Terminal and ends at Central Park. The tour brings to life the stories of women who shaped New York City in many ways. Their influence stretches across many attributes that NYC is often associated with, including publishing, politics, civil rights, the arts and finance. One of them was Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve as a secretary within the U.S. Cabinet.

Hiroshi Hiraoka, one of the most respected ramen chefs in Japan and the chef-owner behind Sapporo’s Japanese Ramen Noodle Lab Q, is heading to New York City this month for a series of limited-time pop-ups at two Manhattan restaurants. The events will bring his refined “tanrei” style ramen, rarely experienced outside Japan, to diners at Towa in Flatiron and nonono in NoMad.

First up is an elegant collaboration at Towa, where Hiraoka will join chef Masaya Shirai for a special “ramen-kaiseki” tasting menu running March 21–22 and March 28–29. The multi-course experience will feature two different types of Hiraoka’s signature ramen (one warm and one chilled) woven into the progression of dishes. Prices are $125 per person at the sushi counter and $75 in the dining room.

After the Towa collaboration wraps up, Hiraoka will continue his New York visit at nonono, Hand Hospitality’s yakitori and ramen izakaya. From March 30 through April 4, guests can order his ramen a la carte during lunch and dinner service. The pop-up is also part of a bigger transition for nonono, as Hiraoka is working with the team on a refreshed ramen program that relies on the chicken-based broths. The dishes developed during the collaboration will remain on the menu after the chef returns to Japan.

Opening March 16 at the New York Transit Museum’s Grand Central Gallery & Store, "Inspired by MetroCard" explores how the humble fare card evolved into a creative canvas for artists, designers and institutions across the city. The free exhibition pulls from contemporary artworks and the museum’s own collection to show how MetroCards have been transformed into fashion pieces, sculptures, paintings and collages, as well as limited-edition cards.

Rather than treating the MetroCard solely as transit technology, "Inspired by MetroCard" presents it as an accessible design object, one handled by almost every New Yorker and that material artists repurposed in strikingly personal ways. The show includes rare art MetroCards, fashion collaborations and works created from expired or discarded cards. Among the highlights are works by artists as different as Nina Boesch, Barbara Kruger, Nina Vishneva, Thomas McKean and VH McKenzie, who have turned the cards into everything from mosaic tiles to canvases and even a wedding dress.

This giddy, wonderfully optimistic intergalactic epic teams Ryan Gosling up with a friendly extraterrestrial rock creature to save the galaxy from a catastrophic solar event. It’s proof, if it was even needed, that it’s impossible not to love the Hollywood star – even if you have a heart of stone. 

With a near-irresistible combination of Steve McQueen charisma and Droopy Dog reluctance, Gosling brings charm and physical comedy chops as scientist-turned-teacher-turned-reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace, who wakes from hypersleep to find that his crew mates are dead and he’s several lightyears into a one-way mission to save the dying sun. He’ll start to tackle the task as soon as he figures out how to float through the ship without braining himself on a console. 

Enter that mysterious rock-shaped alien, ‘Rocky’, who docks alongside Ryland’s ship and makes first contact. The pair are soon finding a way to communicate, pooling their skills and knowledge in common purpose. It’s the bromance of the year, with practical effects and puppeteering giving the most loveable alien this side of E.T. a sense of tactility.

In cinemas worldwide Fri Mar 20.

Coney Island is about to get a brand new kind of thrill. On March 21, Coney Island Escape Room will open its doors on Surf Avenue alongside the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel and Nathan’s. If you're into riddles more than roller coasters, this attraction is for you.

Coney Escape Room will officially open at 1205 Surf Avenue, right on the corner of Surf and West 12th Street, directly across from Coney Island USA and Sideshows by the Seashore. It’s the first escape room in southern Brooklyn and a rare indoor attraction in a neighborhood that usually revolves around sunshine, sand and summertime crowds.

Groups of two to eight players are locked inside a themed room and given 60 minutes to crack codes, uncover clues and solve puzzles before time runs out. It's full-immersion mystery theater for family fun, friend groups and teambuilding. The venue will also feature a live game-show style experience with trivia and physical challenges, plus a gift shop and private party space for birthdays and team outings.

Steven Soderbergh knows good movies—hell, he's given us Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, the Ocean's Eleven trilogy, Magic Mike and, most recently, Black Bag. So what better way to celebrate the Oscar-winning director's 63rd birthday than with a screening series handpicked by the filmmaker himself. From February 18 through April 15, "A MAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE: 63 Days of Steven’s Selects" will showcase nine personally and culturally influential films curated by Soderbergh, one from each decade of his life, with screenings alternating between Nitehawk Prospect Park and Nitehawk Williamsburg. The evening kicks off with a 63-minute Singani 63 Happy Hour featuring a rotating “Feature Cocktail” inspired by the evening’s film, followed by top-notch flicks like Trouble in Paradise, Notorious, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, The Servant, Jaws, Do the Right Thing, Fargo, Lost in Translation and Phantom Thread. Check out the full schedule here. 

What does American art look like right now? According to the 2026 Whitney Biennial: complicated. Opening on March 8 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the exhibition gathers 56 artists navigating everything from AI belief systems to climate grief and geopolitical power.

Co-organized by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the exhibition spans most of the museum’s galleries and extends into performance and public programming. The curators resisted the urge to build the show around a tidy thesis. “Rather than coming to our research for the Biennial with a preconceived container, Marcela and I let our conversations with artists guide us,” Sawyer said during an official preview. 

The participant list reflects that breadth. In addition to artists working across 25 states, the Biennial includes artists from Afghanistan, Chile, Iraq, Okinawa, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Vietnam—“places marked by the reach of U.S. power,” as the museum noted. The definition of “American art” here feels elastic and deliberately complicated.