NYC events in January 2024

The McKittrick Hotel is home to the world-famous production of Sleep No More, a “site-specific, immersive experience” that blurs the line between audience and actor, stage and seating. It began previews in March 2011 and has been continuously extended over the past decade. 

But as the lights fade out on its 5,000th performance Sleep No More will conclude its nearly 13-year run on February 25, 2024. The pioneering performance has hosted over two million guests and has a sister run still ongoing in Shanghai, China. 

Go see the show this month before it closes; here's our guide to making the most of the experience.

Two New York City hotels are offering outdoor spa experiences this winter—The William Vale in Brooklyn and The Rockaway Hotel + Spa in Queens, so grab your swimwear and make a reservation. 

At The William Vale, enjoy the views while indulging in some much-needed stress relief. Bask in the heat of a barrel sauna with panoramic skyline views or soak in a cedar hot tub under the stars—or both! The experience makes for a special solo trip or a romantic date night. 

At The Rockaway Hotel, enjoy a resort-style escape not too far from Manhattan. For the winter, the hotel has transformed its patio area into a winter pool house with cedar saunas and cozy decor. Plus, the outdoor pool is open for a refreshing plunge. After your dip, you can slip into a buttery robe and relax with tabletop games.

"Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister," there's a spicy new Moulin Rouge pop-up that's definitely worth going to. 

Moulin Rouge! The Musical has taken over the rooftop at M Social Hotel in Times Square with a Broadway karaoke experience this winter. Decked out in red decor and lit with chandeliers, this pop-up promises to heat up the colder days and makes an especially fun night out for Valentine's dates. Find the venue at 51st and Broadway, with the pop-up available through at least February 2024. 

Now you can belt out the lyrics to those tracks at this karaoke installation. If you need a little liquid courage, there’s a themed drink menu from M Social’s food and beverage partners, Tanduay Rum and Smoke Lab Vodka. Cocktails include The Rouge, Baby!, a twist on a rum punch, and The Sparkling Diamond, a take on a French martini.

Be sure to make a reservation to attend. Reservations can be made for an hour and 15 minutes, bookable on OpenTable. Tickets cost $50/person and include one complimentary themed cocktail.

The latest skating destination takes over a pretty iconic local landmark: the Oculus shopping mall inside the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan.

Through January 2024, folks with a penchant for skating will get to do so beneath the beautiful architecture that defines the legendary structure while also enjoying live musical performances. 

The Winter Whirl roller rink will also host a wide selection of local food and beverage vendors—Eataly! Gansevoort Liberty Market! Épicerie Boulud!—and retail options, making holiday shopping easier.

Tickets, which can be found right here, include a 45-minute skating session and a rental pair of roller skates.

A refreshing new fashion exhibit at The Met hands the mic to pioneering women designers who dress women of all shapes and sizes. The exhibition shows how female designers have reclaimed the body—and are reclaiming the message in fashion.

"Women Dressing Women" showcases 80 garments by 70 makers, from couture gowns by well-known designers like Donna Karan to political garments by Katharine Hamnett to plus-size outfits by Ester Manas. The exhibition, curated by The Costume Institute, is on view at the Upper East Side museum from December 7 through March 3, 2024, included with museum admission. It highlights rare pieces from the collection, many of which are on view at The Met for the first time. 

The exhibition explores the subject through four sections: anonymity, visibility, agency, and absence/omission. Focusing on the period between the early 1900s and today, the collection offers a snapshot of fashion history and fashion trends. 

Majestic, incredible elephants are getting the spotlight in a new exhibit at The American Museum of Natural History. "The Secret World of Elephants" showcases both modern and ancient elephants, offering visitors a chance to see a full-scale model of a woolly mammoth, learn about what elephants eat, touch an elephant's tooth, listen to elephant calls and more.

The exhibition is now open in the museum’s LeFrak Family Gallery. An additional ticket is required to visit the exhibit; museum members can visit for free.

As she donned the black robe for her role on the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was known to adorn the traditional garment with a wide array of collars and necklaces. 

Now, her fashion is getting the spotlight in a new photography exhibit called "RBG Collars: Photographs by Elinor Carucci." See it at The Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side through May 27, 2024. 

The installation features two dozen photographs of the late justice’s collars and necklaces taken shortly after Ginsburg died in 2020. This is the first time the Carucci’s photographs are being shown at the Jewish Museum since the images were acquired in 2021.

Explore "The End of Fossil Fuel," the latest pop-up from the NYC Climate Museum. It's free to visit in Soho and offers a bevy of eye-opening activities for all ages.

Inside the gallery, a collection of maps will put climate change issues into perspective, alongside text panels about the history of the fossil fuel industry. The exhibits trace the origins of the climate and inequality crises and how we got to where we are today. Other activations include a sticker wall where visitors commit to specific climate actions and a kids' corner with books and drawing materials.

Find the pop-up at 105 Wooster Street in Soho through April 30. The museum is free to visit and open to all. It's open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1-6pm. 

If scrolling through social media to see pictures of cute dogs and hilarious cats is a favorite pastime of yours, then this new exhibit at Fotografiska is a must-see. Titled "Best in Show," the exhibition explores the role of furry and feathered friends in our culture through more than 100 incredible photographs. 

Photos show dogs in a variety of situations, like getting baths, posing, partying, shaking their heads and even dressing up in fancy “cones of shame.” Cats, rats, bunnies, birds, reptiles, turtles and fish get their moment in the spotlight, too, at this exhibition on view in the Flatiron District through January 2024. 

The show showcases works by 25 renowned photographers. That includes William Wegman's famed Weimaraner portraits, pictures by Sophie Gamand of dogs taking baths and images by the world's first professional cat photographer Walter Chandoha. From candid photos of pets at home to posh portraits of pups at the Westminster Dog Show, each image explores the unbreakable bond between humans and their pets.

For three months in the summer of 1921, Pablo Picasso worked out of a makeshift garage studio in Fontainebleau, France, where he created both cubist and classical masterpieces. Now, for the first time since then, the works are reunited in a sprawling new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. 

MoMA's "Picasso in Fontainebleau," on view through February 17, is the latest show in NYC presented as part of the international Picasso celebration marking 50 years since his death.

A garage space measuring in at 20 by 10 feet served as Picasso's studio that summer. Using the exact dimensions, MoMA created a room with the garage's footprint, so museum-goers can step inside and imagine creating such large paintings in a small space. 

In that garage, Picasso created the cubist "Three Musicians" with colorful geometric shapes as well as the classical "Three Women at the Spring" with references to Greco-Roman antiquity. For the first time in more than a century, MoMA has reunited these works.

Painter Marc Chagall's lusciously vibrant works of art come to life in a new immersive experience at Hall des Lumières. Titled "Chagall, Paris-New York," the exhibition explores the prolific painter who defied labels. 

His works are projected in a larger-than-life scale, taking over walls, ceilings and even the floor of the ornate bank-turned-exhibition hall located at 49 Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan. “Chagall, Paris-New York” is now on view through 2024 with adult tickets starting at $30. In addition to the Chagall works, Hall des Lumières is also displaying works by Wassily Kandinsky. 

Inside a venue dating back 100 years into the past, a new art show explores a question of the future: How can human creativity and artificial intelligence coexist?

ARTECHOUSE, located inside an old boiler room at Chelsea Market, has debuted its latest digital art exhibition, "World of AI·magination;" tickets are on sale here starting at $21/person. To create the exhibition, ARTECHOUSE Studio developed original visual elements with generative AI systems. Designers hope to inspire visitors to consider AI as a "creative associate rather than a mere tool for innovation." 

World of AI·magination centers around a 20-minute cinematic experience with six scenes. One scene, called the Library of Magical Portals, features colossal books brimming with dreams and algorithms. Another scene called Symphony of Illusions constantly morphs, while the Infinite Maze immerses visitors into multiple parallels.

When the 50,000 runners crossed the finish line at the annual New York City Marathon this fall, they were joined in spirit by Joe Yancey Jr. and Ted Corbitt, two men who shaped the epic road race into what it is today. 

Remarkable Black athletes and coaches, Yancey and Corbitt helped break the color barrier and revolutionize long-distance running in the United States and across the globe. Just in time for the marathon, a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan will honor their legacies. 

The exhibit, titled "Running for Civil Rights: The New York Pioneer Club, 1936–1976,” runs through February 25, 2024. It explores how the New York City Marathon grew out of decades of activism for racial justice.

On Sunday mornings at 11am in Manhattan, GatherNYC creates the community and spiritual nourishment of a religious service, but the religion here is music. All are welcome at these hour-long performances of classical music by celebrated local artists. Coffee and pastries are available for free.

These upcoming events are held at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in Columbus Circle. Shows are scheduled through May 2024. Here’s what’s on the calendar:

• January 7: 9 Horses + Jacob Jolliff (mandolin)
• January 21: Parker Ramsay (harp) + Brandon Patrick George (flute)
• February 4: Douglas J Cuomo + The Overlook: Seven Limbs
• February 18: Duo Kayo
• March 3: Invoke
• March 17: Borromeo Quartet
• March 31: Juilliard Quartet
• April 14: Maeve Gilchrist (harp)
• April 28: Majel Connery + Felix Fan: Rivers are our Brothers
• May 12: Ocean Music Action: Megan Conley (harp) + friends
• May 26: Kristin Lee (violin) + friends 

There's a reason Chamber Magic has remained a staple in NYC's magic scene for more than two decades: It dazzles, show after show, with tricks that'll still leave you awestruck days later. 

The charming Steve Cohen, billed as the Millionaires’ Magician, conjures high-class parlor magic in the marble-columned Madison Room at the swank Lotte New York Palace. Dress to be impressed (cocktail attire is required); tickets start at $125, with an option to pay more for meet-and-greet time and extra tricks with Cohen after the show. If you've come to see a classic-style magic act, you get what you pay for.

Sporting a tuxedo and bright rust hair, the magician delivers routines that he has buffed to a patent-leather gleam: In addition to his signature act—"Think-a-Drink," involving a kettle that pours liquids by request—highlights include a lulu of levitation trick and a card-trick finale that leaves you feeling like, well, a million bucks.

There's something unusual "blooming" among Bella Abzug Park's natural fauna.

Part of a solo exhibition by Korean American artist Sui Park, this outdoor installation in Hudson Yards features the artist's biomorphic sculptures, which are shockingly made using plastic materials like zip ties and fishing line.

For Park, who trained as both an architect and in the ancient art of Korean basketry, "nature is a sacred space that allows her to slow down, consider her surroundings, acknowledge her thoughts, and find inspiration," reads a press release. "With this exhibition, she captures that sentiment using humble materials and reconstructs them into whimsical forms, awakening one’s senses and encouraging others to connect with their thoughts as well as their surroundings."

See the artwork now through fall 2024.

Since it was first observed nationwide in January of 1986, the holiday commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has served as a reminder of his legacy to the causes of civil rights, nonviolent opposition and community service.

This year, the holiday is celebrated on Monday, January 15.

The Winter Village at Bryant Park is back in all its holiday glory. On the grounds you can peruse more than 180 shopping and food kiosks—all at one of the best NYC parks. Expect loads of handmade, unique and New York City-specific gifts for your family and friends. Work up an appetite at the 17,000-square-foot ice-skating rink and then fill up at the rinkside pop-up restaurant called The Lodge for festive cocktails and hearty food.

Don't miss the Small Business Spotlight booth, which features local minority-owned businesses. 

The Winter Village will be open through March 3, 2024.