The 39 best museums in NYC

Opened in 1880 and situated along Central Park, this iconic New York institution contains 5,000 years of art — from prehistory to the latest in contemporary works — under one roof. That's range, folks. Its unparalleled collection comprises more than two million objects that include Old Master paintings, the Ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur and the museum’s famed period rooms. Sure, you'll never take it all in at once, but that's alright – just visit again and again!

Now on: "Ensemble" on the Met's rooftop through October 19

Address: 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028

Pricing: $30 for adults; $22 for seniors; $17 for students. Free for Members, Patrons, and children 12 and under. $22 for visitors with a disability.

Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available for New York State residents and NY, NJ, and CT students. 

At this massive art institution, find the classics in contemporary art (Picasso, Matisse, Pollock), alongside art by new and up-and-coming artists, with a special focus on women and artists of color. The museum covers a whopping 708,000 square feet, and every inch is packed with paintings, sculptures and films.

The galleries are divided by era, so you can literally walk through the evolution of modern art.

Go see: Hilma af Klint's "What Stands Behind the Flowers" through September 27

Address: 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019

Pricing: Adults $30, Seniors and visitors with disabilities $22, Students $17; Free for members and children under 16.

With its mind-boggling holdings of artifacts and specimens from around the globe, the American Museum of Natural History, founded in 1869, tells nothing less than the story of creation, from the Big Bang to the present. Its dazzling highlights include the 94-feet long blue whale, the Hayden Planetarium, and a butterfly vivarium. Like many of these monster museums, you won’t get around this properly within a day. 

See the stunning new Gilder Center wing. 

Address: 200 Central Prk W, New York, NY 10024

Pricing: Adults $30, seniors and students $24, children $18, free for members; pay what you wish for NY State residents (with ID). 

Standing at the foot of the High Line along Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, the 63,000-square-foot facility features both indoor and outdoor exhibition space. True to its founder Gertrude Vanderbilt's wishes, the Whitney is dedicated to presenting the work of American artists. Its collection holds about 15,000 pieces by nearly 2,000 artists, including Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Edward Hopper (the museum holds his entire estate), Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Claes Oldenburg.

Three outdoor sculpture spaces provide views of the Hudson and the surrounding neighborhood. This is a goldmine for slightly lesser-known but fantastic exhibitions. 

Now on: "Amy Sherald: American Sublime" through August 10

Address: 99 Gansevoort St, New York, NY 10014

Pricing: Adults $30, seniors and students $24; free for members and 25 and under. 

Founded in 1804, the New-York Historical Society is NYC’s oldest museum. It's dedicated to the history of Gotham (not the Batman one) and its central place in American life, politics, and culture. 

The museum's collection and library contains more than 1.6 million items, including a gallery of Tiffany lamps, an outstanding cache of Hudson River School paintings, and James Audubon’s preparatory watercolors for his seminal study, The Birds of America. 

On view: "Blacklisted: An American Story" through October 19

Address: 170 Central Prk W, New York, NY 10024

Pricing: Adults $24, seniors, educators, active military $19, students $13, kids (5-13) $6; free for members and children under 5. Admission is pay-as-you-wish from 5–8pm on Fridays. 

The third-largest museum in the five boroughs, the Brooklyn Museum follows the encyclopedic template of the Metropolitan Museum with a collection housed in an 1897 Beaux-Art building packed with period rooms, ancient art and contemporary paintings, sculptures and more. Loads of things, all of the things.  

It boasts Egyptian, African, and Oceanic artifacts, as well as hotter contemporary art exhibits that rotate in and out. In fact, it has an entire wing devoted to the latest in feminist art, where you will find Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, a huge permanent installation that pays tribute to famous women throughout history.

Now on: "Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200" through February 22, 2026

Address: 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Pricing: Adults $20, seniors, students over 20 and visitors with disabilities $14; free for ages 19 and under.

"Monet and Venice" exhibition tickets are priced higher. 

In addition to a superb collection of Judaica, The Jewish Museum also mounts important exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. Housed in the 1908 Warburg Mansion, the museum maintains a collection of more than 28,000 works of art, artifacts and media installations. That's a lot of things. The museum aims to be at the intersection of art and Jewish culture for people of all backgrounds. 

On view: "Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity" through October 12, 2025

Address: 1109 5th Ave &, E 92nd St, New York, 10128

Pricing: Adults $15, seniors and students $10; free for 18 and under and members. 

The place to explore NYC’s past, present, and future, the Museum of the City of New York on Fifth Avenue at 104^th Street takes visitors on a tour of the city’s 400-year history. Explore rotating exhibitions and its extensive collection of vintage photographs, costumes, textiles, theater memorabilia, furniture, decorative arts, and more. For the full New York experience, this place basically has to be on your list. 

On now: "Urban Stomp: Dreams & Defiance on the Dance Floor" through February 22, 2026

Address: 1220 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029

Pricing: Adults $23, seniors $18; $14 for students over 19, free for members and 18 and under. Pay what you can is available for NYC residents; Wednesdays are free for everyone. 

The Transit Museum dives deep into one essential element of New York life: the public transit system. Opened in 1976 in a former IND subway station, the museum displays historic artifacts—including a collection of vintage train cars spanning the 20th century—as well as more timely pieces, such as works from the MTA’s Arts for Transit program. 

Don't miss: "Shining a Light on The Subway Sun"

Address: 99 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Pricing: Adults $10, seniors, children (2-17) and visitors with disabilities $5; free for museum members and MTA employees. 

You know the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and at the International Center of Photography Museum is where you should go to immerse yourself in the world visual storytelling. The institution caters to a wide audience—not merely shutterbugs and Instagram fans. 

Now on: "Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration" through September 28 

Address: 84 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002

Pricing: Adults $18; seniors, military and visitors with disabilities $14; students $14, SNAP/EBT Card Holders $3; free for children 14 and under and ICP members and students. 

Frank Lloyd Wright broke the mold on museum design when he completed his building for the Guggenheim in 1959. Since then, millions of visitors have come to the Gugg to gawk at its spiraling rotunda, but they stay for its daring art shows and its collection, which includes Peggy Guggenheim’s trove of Cubist, Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist works, as well as the largest collection of Kandinskys in the United States. Beautiful and innovative both inside and out, what more inspiration do you need?

Now on: "Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers" through January 18, 2026

Address: 1071 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128

Pricing: Adults $30, military $25; seniors, students and those with disabilites $19; free for children under 12. 

Situated in a former public school, MoMA PS1 hosts an international studio program in addition to mounting exhibitions (including career monographs) of cutting-edge artists. Affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art since 1999, MoMA PS1 is also known for its summer series of outdoor parties called “Warm Up.” If you find yourself in the area, you can basically guarantee popping by will be worth your time, whether it's for the exhibitions or just a hip event being hosted there. 

Don't miss: MoMA PS1's Warm Up through August 22

Address: 22-25 Jackson Ave, Queens, NY 11101

Pricing: Adults $10; seniors and students $5; free for New York residents, MoMA members and children under 16. 

Once the private library of J. Pierpont Morgan, the Morgan Museum was gifted to the city by the Gilded Age financier along with his collection of artworks and rare books—holdings that include drawings by Michelangelo and three Gutenberg Bibles. There’s also a first edition of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol that’s put on display every Christmas. A bookworm’s dream, there are also frequent special exhibitions, so keep an eye on their website. 

On view: "Jane Austen: A Lively Mind" through September 14

Address: 225 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Pricing: Adults $25, seniors $17; students and visitors with disabilities $13; free for children under 12. 

The biggest attraction at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is undoubtedly The Panorama of the City of New York, an exacting 9,335-square-foot scale model of the five boroughs created for the 1964 World’s Fair. In fairness, though, there are a lot of other great things to see. Check the website or just swing by. You'll likely end up making a day of it. 

Now on: Ongoing exhibit "Tiffany's Lamps: Lighting Luxury"

Address: Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Building, Corona, NY 11368

Pricing: Pay-what-you-wish admission; free for children under 12, military, museum members, those with disabilites and caregivers. 

Located in Astoria, Queens, the Museum of the Moving Image presents exhibitions and screenings that relay the history and cultural impact of movies, television and digital media. In addition to a state-of-the-art 267-seat cinema, the museum features ongoing installations such as “Behind the Screen,” which examines the filmmaking process. Film-nerds, if you haven't already been, it's a must. 

Don't miss: The ongoing exhibit on Jim Henson

Address: 36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY 11106

Pricing: Adults $18; seniors and students $12; children (3-17) $10; visitors with disabilities $3. 

Besides shining a spotlight on neighborhood artists as well as on African-American, Asian and Latino artists from the 20th and 21st centuries, this multicultural museum founded in 1971 has the virtue of being free. Ideal. It’s also an internationally recognized cultural destination, with great educational resources, events, and exhibitions aplenty.  

Address: 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10456

Pricing: Free

Devoted entirely to late-19th- and early-20th-century German and Austrian fine and decorative arts, this elegant addition to the city’s museum scene has the largest concentration of works by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele outside Vienna, including Klimt’s masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I. That's well worth a visit in itself, but there’s always plenty of great and undiscovered gems to view here. The Viennese-inspired cafe is excellent, too. 

To see: "Austrian Masterworks from The Neue Galerie," an ongoing exhibition

Address: 1048 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028

Pricing: Adults $28, seniors $18; students, teachers and visitors with disabilites $15. 

A battle-hardened veteran of World War II, the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid at Pier 86 has been repurposed as a floating museum since 1982. With a collection of military aircraft crowding its flight deck, the Intrepid also features the space shuttle Enterprise and a British Airways Concorde. It's chock-full of educational facilities and is a non-profit institution, so your admission fee will be spent wisely!  

Now on view: A permanent new WWII exhibit

Address: Pier 86, W 46th St, New York, NY 10036

Pricing: Adults $38, children $28; seniors and college students $36. Free for veterans, military and children under four. NYC residents can receive discounted prices. 

Situated on Columbus Circle, The Museum of Arts & Design mounts lively exhibitions dedicated to the latest in contemporary art and design. It's a beautiful and fascinating spot to check out after a morning stroll in nearby Central Park.

Now on: "OUT of the Jewelry Box," ongoing

Address: 2 Columbus Cir, New York, NY 10019

Pricing: Adults $20, seniors $16, students $14; free for members and children under 12. 

Sure, MoSex is dedicated to elevating porn and erotica to institutional status, but not every exhibit there is presented just for titillation’s sake. Its exhibitions have included serious explorations of such issues as gender and the impact of new technologies on human sexual behavior. Interesting, right! Plus you know, you'll be forgiven for having a little giggle. 

One of two Smithsonian museums in NYC, the Cooper Hewitt is housed in a sumptuous former mansion and is dedicated to the field of design. It houses a collection of objects that span 3,000 years. Among the ongoing exhibits is the Immersion Room, which allows visitors to interact with digital projections of wallpaper. But there's endless rooms and objects to gaze at here. Plus, it's worth popping in just to nosy at what was someone's actual, very lavish, home. 

On now: "Making Home: Smithsonian Design Triennial" through August 10

Address: 2 E 91st St, New York, NY 10128

Pricing: *CURRENLY CLOSED FOR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Dedicated to Hispanic artists in the U.S. and Latin America, this museum located in East Harlem (a.k.a. El Barrio) holds a 6,500-piece permanent collection that ranges from pre-Colombian artifacts to contemporary installations. Very few places provide such depth on the history and culture of a region of the world. 

Go see: "Jangueando: Recent Acquisitions, 2021-2025" through summer 2026

Address: 1230 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029

Pricing: Pay-what-you-can pricing.

If you haven't been to the Fraunces Tavern Museum yet, it's definitely worth a visit. First of all, it's the oldest building in Manhattan, dating all the way back to 1719 and it has an important role in American history. These days, the museum operates on the upper floors of the building with exhibits focusing on George Washington and Revolutionary-era history. The tavern and restaurant serve hearty fare at lunch and dinner.

On view: "The Birch Trials," ongoing

Address: 54 Pearl St 2nd floor, New York, NY 10004

Pricing: Adults $10, seniors, students and children $5; free for children under 5 and active U.S. military/veterans. 

The other branch of the Smithsonian Institution in NYC, along with the Cooper Hewitt, the National Museum of the American Indian displays its collection around the grand rotunda of the 1907 Custom House at 1 Bowling Green. In total, the museum contains some 825,000 items from 1,200 Indigenous cultures covering 12,000 years of Native American history. It's one of the world's most expansive collections of Native objects, all housed in a stunning building.

Address: 1 Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004 

Pricing: Free 

With 750,000 objects, The Hispanic Society Museum & Library boasts the largest assemblage of Spanish art and manuscripts outside Spain. The collection includes many religious artifacts, including 16th-century tombs from the monastery of San Francisco in Cuéllar, Spain. A permanent fixture of the museum, however, is Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida’s Vision of Spain, comprising 14 monumetal oil paintings commissioned by the Society in 1911. Each massive panel reflects a different region of Spain in vivid colors.

On view: "A Collection Without Borders" through October 19

Address: 3741 Broadway, New York, NY 10032

Pricing: Free

The Fashion Institute of Technology owns one of the largest and most impressive collections of clothing, textiles, and accessories in the world, including some 50,000 costumes and fabrics dating from the 5th century to the present. Overseen by fashion historian Valerie Steele, the museum showcases a selection from the permanent collection, as well as temporary exhibitions focusing on individual designers or the role fashion plays in society. Admission is free and no, you can't try on the clothing! This museum also offers a wide range of events and educational resources. 

Address: 227 W 27th St, New York, NY 10001

Pricing: Free

Set in a lovely park overlooking the Hudson River, the Cloisters houses the Met’s medieval art and architecture collections. A path winds through the peaceful grounds to a castle that seems to have survived from the Middle Ages—even though it was built less than 100 years ago using material from five medieval French cloisters.

Be sure to check out the famous Unicorn Tapestries, the 12th-century Fuentidueña Chapel, and the Annunciation Triptych by Robert Campin. There's a focus on Romanesque and Gothic periods. The building is fascinating in itself, so even if you just marvel at the exterior, it'll be well worth a visit. 

Address: 99 Margaret Corbin Dr, New York, NY 10040

Pricing: $30 for adults; $22 for seniors; $17 for students. Free for Members, Patrons, and children 12 and under. $22 for visitors with a disability.

Pay-what-you-wish tickets are available for New York State residents and NY, NJ, and CT students.

As it names suggests, The Drawing Center is devoted to exhibiting and promoting works on paper, both historical and contemporary. A Soho stalwart since its founding in 1977, The Drawing Center is as much a museum as it is a gallery, but its wooden floors and cast-iron columns are reminiscent of Soho’s glory days as a gallery district. 

Now on: "In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney" through September 14 

Address: 35 Wooster St, New York, NY 10013

Pricing: Free

New York City’s only preserved 19th-century family home is an elegant, late Federal-Greek Revival house stocked with the same furnishings and decorations that filled its rooms when it was inhabited by hardware tycoon Seabury Treadwell and his descendants from 1835 to 1933. So if you're in NoHo and want the low-down on what the area used to be like, here's the place to start. 

Address: 29 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003

Pricing: General admission $15.50; seniors and students $10.50; free for children under 12 and MHM members. 

When sculptor (and landscape architect and theatrical-set and furniture designer) Isamu Noguchi opened his Queens museum in 1985, he was the first living artist in the U.S. to establish such an institution. It occupies a former photo engraving plant across the street from the studio he had occupied since the 1960s to be closer to stone and metal suppliers along Vernon Boulevard. Twelve galleries and a garden are populated with Noguchi’s sculptures; also on display are drawn, painted and collaged studies, architectural models, and stage and furniture designs.

Address: 9-01 33rd Rd, Astoria, NY 11106

Pricing: General admission $16; seniors and students $6. Admission is free on the first Friday of every month. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re a tourist, commuter or longtime NYC resident: No visit to Lower Manhattan is complete without paying your respects at the September 11 Memorial & Museum. Both the outdoor memorial and accompanying museum are solemn, moving tributes to the nearly 3,000 victims who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and February 26, 1993. Designed by Israeli architect Michael Arad, two of North America’s largest man-made waterfalls mark the footprint of each tower, framing the perimeter and cascading into reflecting pools almost an acre wide. 

Address: 180 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10007

Pricing: Adults $36, youth (7-12) $24; young adults (13-17), college students and seniors $30. Veterans $25, FDNY/NYPD/PAPD $19; free for active/retired military and children under 6. 

Mercer Labs, Museum of Art and Technology is a unique new immersive museum created by Roy Nachum, the artist behind Rihanna’s famous 2016 “Anti” album cover, and his business partner Michael Cayre, a real estate developer. The 36,000-square-foot space opened in early 2024 at 21 Dey Street, inside the bank building that used to be part of the now-nextdoor Century 21. 

There are a total of 15 different rooms to explore, each one attacking all the senses upon entrance. A mere walk through Mercer Labs makes one thing clear: the immersive space can be much more than that given its size and the clear technological capabilities embedded in each room.

Coming soon: Maestros and the Machines, ongoing

Address: 21 Dey St, New York, NY 10007

Pricing: Adults $58, youth (4-17), seniors and students $53. Free for children under three. 

The galleries at the Asia Society host major exhibitions showcasing art—both historical and contemporary—from Asia, the Philippines and the Indian subcontinent. It’s a non-profit focused on educating the world about Asia, and is one of several Asia Societies worldwide.

Go see: "Susumu Shingu: Elated!" through August 10

Address: 725 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021

Pricing: Adults $15, students and seniors $10; free for ages under 16, Asia Society patrons, members and corporate members. 

This museum serves as a love letter to the enigmatic street artist known only as Banksy. The Lower Manhattan venue features the largest collection of Banksy’s life-sized murals and artwork in the world. 

After passing through an industrial door, you'll see a city of walls a.k.a. Banksy's ideal canvas. By its nature, street art is impermanent, but this museum offers a long-term space for the ephemeral. Many of the re-creations at the museum no longer exist on the street. Expect to see more than 160 works on display in this celebration of the artist.

Just a programming note: The production at the museum is unauthorized and unaffiliated with the artist.

Address: 277 Canal St, New York, NY 10013

Pricing: Adults $30; students, teachers and seniors $26; military, NYFD, NYPD $21. Children 6-12 $21, free for children under 6. 

Opened as a foundation to promote LGBT artists by Charles Leslie and his late partner, Fritz Lohman, this Soho institution was granted museum status by New York State in 2011. Its program includes solo shows, as well as group shows organized around important LGBTQ+ themes such as identity and gender. There are around 30,000 items in their collection, so you can spend a lot of time here and not see the same thing twice. 

Address: 26 Wooster St, New York, NY 10013

Pricing: Free; suggested donation is $10

Housed in the former Gilded-Age mansion of Henry Clay Frick, The Frick maintains a collection of Old Master paintings (including works by Rembrandt, Holbein, and Vermeer) on par with the Met’s. The Frick’s holdings also include paintings by Whistler and Renoir as well as furniture and other examples of the decorative arts. It's truly a frickin' excellent, less well-known spot to check out. 

Address: 1 E 70th St, New York, NY 10021

Pricing: Adults $30; seniors and visitors with disabilities $22; students $17; free for youth (7-12) and members. 

Ice cream is at the center of this 20,000-square-foot museum that’ll make the cold treat even more fun (who knew it’d even be possible?). Across 13 multi-sensory installations, visitors to the museum will be able to interact with fun elements like a three-story indoor slide, the all-pink Celestial Subway, and a new add-on where guests can build their own edible slime. Even better: The sweet treats along the way. Yes, we're talking about unlimited ice cream throughout the museum. For adults, check out some fun themed cocktails as well.

We recently tried the experience ourselves and have a lot of tips for your visit.

Address: 558 Broadway, New York, NY 10012

Pricing: General admission $38-$58

Taking its name from the New School, where it was founded in 1977, the New Museum has grown from a single gallery space to a global showcase of cutting-edge art. It's housed inside a purpose-built, seven-story building on the Bowery, designed by the cutting-edge Tokyo architectural firm SANAA.

Address: 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002

Pricing: TBD after renovations. 

As its name suggests, the American Folk Art Museum celebrates traditional craft-based works, but more than that, it has been instrumental in promoting the work of outsider, visionary, and other self-taught artists. You can teach yourself all about the concept while here. Admission is free, and there are also publications and educational programs if you want to learn more. 

Address: 2 Lincoln Square, New York, NY 10023

Pricing: Free

Note: Closed for renovation until September 26