New Museum Block Party

Like Step Up 2, the New Museum is taking it to the streets with its annual art-and-community-themed festival (there are even dance performances, but that’s about as far as the comparison goes). Craft your own fun, literally, at workshops inspired by current exhibits and museum programs. For instance, you can make a postcard of your ideal American landscape, something artist Llyn Foulkes has been doing for more than half a century (more than 100 examples are currently on view at the museum), or assemble a magazine about the neighborhood’s creative history using materials from the Bowery Artist Tribute research project. Over the course of the afternoon, the New Mu will waive admission and offer free guided tours to Block Party attendees, so you can wander through exhibits like “Don’t Axe Me,” a survey of Rhode Island–born Ellen Gallagher’s work that’s running concurrently with a show at the Tate Modern in London. It includes a video installation based on a freaky marine worm that burrows into the bones of dead whales—one convincing reason to never go swimming again.