The best things to do in NYC this week

Frieze returns May 13–17 with dozens of leading galleries from New York City and around the world. The 2026 installment will transform The Shed into an international destination for the visual art community with a particular focus on art from Latin American countries. Another highlight is choreographer, artist and writer Jonathan González' Body Configurations (2023–2025), a photographic installation on Level 6 of The Shed, as well as the premiere of his new work, magic hour–golden time. 

If you’ve ever wondered what haute couture might look like at the bottom of the ocean, inside a mushroom spore or on a distant alien planet, the Brooklyn Museum has an answer—and it involves bioluminescent algae, laser-cut dresses and a whole lot of 3D printing.

Opening on Sunday, May 16, “Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” marks the North American debut of the Dutch designer’s sprawling retrospective, bringing more than 140 of her couture creations to Brooklyn along with contemporary art, scientific specimens, fossils, sound installations and immersive video works.

But honestly, calling these things “dresses” barely does them justice. Van Herpen has spent the past two decades becoming fashion’s reigning architect of the impossible, building garments that resemble frozen waterfalls, coral reefs, jellyfish and microscopic organisms more than anything you would traditionally see in Vogue. Her work mixes old-school couture craftsmanship with technologies like 3D printing, laser cutting and experimental biomaterials, often in partnership with scientists, architects and engineers.

Celebrate all things design at this annual festival that brings in the city’s top designers, makers, and manufacturers, along with cutting-edge design businesses and districts, and leading cultural and academic institutions. The festival covers all areas of design, from architecture and urban design to product design and entertainment design.

The week-long festival from May 14–20 will take place at different venues across the five boroughs, so make sure to check out their website for updates on programming. 

After more than a decade of drawing crowds to Brooklyn waterfronts and Prospect Park’s lawns, Smorgasburg is finally heading somewhere a little more central. Starting on May 14, the city’s best-known open-air food market will set up shop at Columbus Circle, bringing craveable eats to the southwest corner of Central Park.

For anyone who’s ever schlepped to Brooklyn for a bao bun and a soft-serve moment, this is big. The new outpost will feature more than 25 vendors—though the exact lineup hasn’t dropped yet, expect the usual Smorgasburg formula: plenty of newcomers, cult-favorite regulars and dishes engineered to go viral.And here’s the twist: you won’t have to wait for the weekend. The Central Park edition will run Thursday through Saturday from 12 pm to 8 pm, turning what used to be a once-a-week pilgrimage into an office-lunch-break option. Entry is free, you pay per bite and the rest is up to you. But the real appeal might be the setting. Instead of jostling for picnic tables, you can take your haul straight into the park.

The expansion comes as Smorgasburg enters its 16th season, already operating in Williamsburg, Prospect Park and the World Trade Center. This year’s broader roster includes more than 70 vendors across all the locations, so the Central Park addition feels like a natural next step (and arguably its most high-profile yet).

The new market will run May 14 through September 19 at the Columbus Circle entrance on West 59th Street. Show up hungry, bring friends and maybe a blanket.

For a playwright who's been dead for a few hundred years, Molière is sure having a moment. Hot on the heels of dueling Off Broadway productions of Tartuffe, beloved annual Brooklyn tradition Molière in the Park has announced its 2026 season of performances, workshops and outdoor productions, all completely free. The ambitious slate reaffirms the company’s mission to make classical theater accessible to everyone, regardless of background or income.

The season kicks off on May 14 at BRIC with A Very Modern Classical Evening, a double-bill that pairs contemporary and classical voices. The program includes staged readings of The Regulars, a new verse tragedy by playwright Le’Asha Julius, alongside Molière’s satirical one-act comedy The Ludicrous Ladies, starring Michael Emerson and Lakisha May. The performance continues MIP’s practice of placing classic texts in conversation with modern storytelling.

Sounds That Move takes over Bushwick May 15–17 for a block-party-style sprawl across Scott Avenue with five stages, indoor-outdoor venues and a steady churn of live music, DJs and creative collisions. Expect the thrill of discovering new artists, unexpected sets and spontaneous moments plus nightlife energy that bleeds from one space to the next. Come ready to wander, linger and lose track of time (and likely your friends).

The Ninth Avenue International Food Festival (a.k.a. the city's oldest and largest food festival) turns Hell’s Kitchen into a gloriously chaotic, mile-long buffet, shutting down Ninth Avenue from 42nd Street to 57th Street for two days of serious eating from 10am to 6pm. Expect a globe-trotting spread—Brazilian, Thai, Greek, Italian and more—plus live music, street performers and the kind of crowd size that makes grazing an extreme sport. 

A landmark exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s earliest works is heading back to the borough where it all began—and for New York art obsessives, this is the kind of show that doesn’t come around often.

Opening during New York Art Week this May, Our Friend, Jean: Early Works of Jean-Michel Basquiat will take over Brooklyn’s Bishop Gallery, offering a rare look at the artist before the fame, the auctions and the mythology. The show runs May 13–17 and centers on a deeply personal collection that captures Basquiat in his formative years, when he was still hustling between downtown apartments and making work wherever he could.

Much of the work on view comes from the collection of Alexis Adler, who lived with Basquiat during a crucial stretch from 1979 to 1980. Her archive includes intimate photographs and pieces created on everything from doors to furniture, documenting the moment just before Basquiat’s meteoric rise.

the-top smash burger creation.

Built around richly marbled A5 Wagyu beef that is ground in-house daily and seared to a perfect medium-rare, this is less fast-food nostalgia and more downtown steakhouse fantasy disguised as a burger. Every detail leans indulgent without losing the messy, craveable spirit that makes a smash burger great in the first place.

The burger is layered with a 13-year aged white cheddar that brings deep sharpness and nutty richness, balanced by a slow-braised sweet onion compote infused with Herbes de Provence. Then things get gloriously excessive. A quenelle of truffle sturgeon caviar crowns the burger before it is finished tableside with generous shavings of fresh black truffle.

Everything lands on a house-baked brioche bun brushed with roasted bone marrow butter, adding another layer of savory richness that somehow pushes the entire thing even further into celebration territory.

At $30, Sovereign’s Burger Month special feels designed for people who believe burgers deserve the same reverence as tasting menus. It is decadent, dramatic, and unapologetically extra in all the right ways.

Available for a limited time during Burger Month at Time Out Market Union Square, this is the burger equivalent of ordering champagne at lunch on a Tuesday simply because you can.

A film festival dedicated entirely to Wallace Shawn is landing on the Lower East Side this month, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Titled “Wallace Shawn: The Master Builder,” the series kicked off on May 8 at Metrograph, running through May 22 with a lineup that stretches beyond the actor’s most meme-able roles.

Shawn, now 82, has spent decades bouncing between worlds: beloved character actor, playwright, essayist and occasional leading man. There’s Clueless, where he plays the perpetually exasperated Mr. Hall, and yes, there’s The Princess Bride, the source of that immortal one-word catchphrase. But the real draw here is everything in between.

There’s Vanya on 42nd Street, where Shawn takes center stage in a Chekhov adaptation, and A Master Builder, his 2013 reworking of Ibsen that gives the festival its name. There’s also the rarely seen Marie and Bruce, starring Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, which never received a proper theatrical release and is being screened here with special permission.

A silent disco performs a pas de deux with contemporary ballet in this immersive Dumbo happening, where audiences don wireless headphones, tune into pre-recorded dialogue and wander through the action as choreography springs up around them. Inspired by La Ronde and framed by the Brooklyn waterfront, THE CIRCUIT begins at Superfine (126 Front St) and fuses dance, music and after-dark energy from May 15 through June 29.

The 11th annual Greek Jewish Festival returns to Broome Street on the Lower East Side May 17. A celebration of the Romaniote and Sephardic heritage of the Jews of Greece, the festival boasts a feast of authentic kosher Greek foods and homemade Greek pastries, along with Sephardic cooking demonstrations, traditional Greek dancing and live Greek and Sephardic music, an outdoor marketplace and more. It’s free to attend the festival, which runs from noon to 6pm on Sunday, May 17 at 280 Broome Street between Allen and Eldridge Streets.

The New York Dance Parade will return on Saturday, May 16, for its 20th anniversary, bringing more than 10,000 dancers and over 100 styles of dance to the streets of Manhattan. Kicking off around 11:45 am at West 17th Street and Sixth Avenue, the procession will move downtown before culminating in a full-blown dance festival in Tompkins Square Park.

If you’ve never stumbled into it before, it’s a moving, high-energy mix of global dance traditions, everything from African and South American styles to voguing, breaking, house, salsa and swing, plus a combo of student performers and professional companies all sharing the same stretch of pavement.

This year’s edition is centered around an anniversary theme, “The Beat Goes On,” with a lineup of grand marshals that showcases how wide the dance world really is. Honorees include Joan Myers Brown, a force in American concert dance; DJ and producer Timmy Regisford, a key figure in New York City’s house music scene; Christine Jowers, founder of The Dance Enthusiast; and Jeff Selby, creator of New Style Hustle, a genre that’s become global.

12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Saturdays in May
Grand Bazaar NYC x Time Out Market Union Square

Get a taste of Grand Bazaar NYC at Time Out Market Union Square.

For Saturdays in May, discover a curated selection of NYC’s best independent vendors and tastemakers that make Grand Bazaar NYC one of the city’s most beloved shopping destinations.

Browse an eclectic mix of contemporary and vintage fashion, home décor, fine art, handmade goods, and one-of-a-kind finds inside Time Out Market Union Square. Designed as an intimate downtown shopping experience, the pop-up invites guests to explore thoughtfully curated vendors while surrounded by some of NYC’s best food and drink offerings under one roof.

More than a market, this collaboration blends shopping, culture, food, and community in the heart of Union Square. Spend the afternoon discovering emerging makers, unique treasures, standout local brands, and the unmistakable energy of New York City all in one place.

Come shop, sip, explore, and experience a new way to discover Grand Bazaar NYC at Time Out Market Union Square. ✨

There’s immersive theater, and then there’s Fight Back, which dispenses with the idea of spectators entirely. Returning to New York on May 11 and May 18, the experience drops participants directly into a pivotal moment in activist history: a March 13, 1989, meeting of ACT UP, the grassroots group that reshaped the national response to the AIDS crisis.

Created by David Wise, the setup is powerful. Instead of watching the story unfold, attendees are assigned the persona of a real person who attended that meeting, complete with a biographical profile and guidance on how to engage. (Yes, including Larry Kramer.) There are no actors to guide the emotional temperature, just a room filled with strangers tasked with embodying activists at a time when urgency, grief and anger were colliding in real time. And indeed, the action takes place in the very same room as the real-life meeting did almost 40 years ago.

Some attendees can choose to take on additional responsibilities—facilitators, agitators, organizers—mirroring the internal dynamics that made ACT UP both effective and fractious. The structure leans into that tension. You’re not just learning about history; you’re asked to participate in it, to make decisions, to speak (or not), to feel the pressure of collective action unfolding without a script.

Brooklyn Crab is well known for its seafood—be it peel-and-eat shrimp to full-on lobster tails basted in butter. Marking the return of warmer weather, the tri-level crab shack is back with its annual bivalve bash on May 17. 

The annual celebration brings together endless booze and all of the oysters you can slurp down. The bottomless afternoon includes six varieties of oysters, each from a different region. Slug it all down with unlimited beers courtesy of Montauk Brewing and Coney Island Brewery, spritzes from Juliette Liqueur, margaritas with Milagro tequila and glasses of rosé and sauvignon blanc.

General admission tickets are $115 and include three hours of unlimited booze and bivalves. There is also a quick entrance ticket priced at $125 for early access to the event and the ability to skip the check-in line altogether.

Naturally, this all-you-can-eat fest tends to sell out, so reserve your spot here. 

We previously reported on The Paley Center’s transformation into a neon-soaked haven for retro gaming enthusiasts with the opening of “45 Years of PAC-MAN” earlier this year. Now, as the exhibit’s run comes to a close at the end of this month, the space is being sent off with a massive tournament: the PAC-MAN NYC Chompionship 2026. 

Scheduled for Saturday, May 16, this high-stakes tournament will serve as the centerpiece for the museum’s broader celebration. Competitive players and casual fans alike will gather at the PaleyGX Studio to test their reflexes on classic arcade cabinets, vying for the ultimate grand prize: their very own PAC-MAN pub table arcade machine. The machine features eight games with two-player functionality, so the contest winner can hone their skills should a “Galaga” tournament be on the horizon.

Check-in for competitors begins at 12pm, followed by qualifying rounds from 12:40pm to 3pm and a high-stakes final round in which the city's top scorers will face off for the title.

No, this ain't Texas, but New Yorkers still have plenty of opinions about their chili. Some people prefer cumin-spiked bowls, while others prefer a generous helping over a Coney Island dog. However you like to spoon yours up, you are sure to find a new favorite at the Texas Chili Cook-off.

On Sunday, May 17, the Texas Chili Cook-off returns to NYC for its 57th year. Once again, the Texas Exes New York chapter is bringing together amateur chefs and restaurant teams to Astoria's Pig Beach, all to determine who makes the best chili in NYC. Barbecue stalwarts of the scene will be going head-to-head, including Central Texas barbecue spot, Hill Country BBQ, New York's first Tex-Mex restaurant, Javelina, and Bronx-born, Carolina-inspired catering company Cooley’s BBQ. As you gorge yourself on all-you-can-eat chili, you can also drink up with an open bar stocked with libations from Bronx Brewery, Montauk Brewery, sotol from Desert Door Sotol and more. 

General admission tickets start at $75, with a last call ticket priced at $90. VIP tickets are priced at $140 and include early access to the event, a private shaded area and an exclusive bar with chili samples. Kids and adults under 21 are more than welcome to join, with tickets starting at $32. Kids under 10 are free. All proceeds support the Texas Exes New York Chapter and its fundraising and scholarship efforts for the University of Texas–Austin. Reserve your tickets here.

Who says museums need walls? This summer, one of Brooklyn’s most charming cultural projects is hitting the road again inside a gleaming custom Airstream trailer.

The Brooklyn Museum has officially announced the return of Museum on Wheels, a roaming mobile arts initiative that brings free hands-on creative programming to neighborhoods across the borough from May through October. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a tiny traveling museum packed with art activities, storytelling, games and community events, all taking place out of a retrofitted silver trailer.

This year’s route includes a stop this Saturday during the Kite Festival at​ Brooklyn Bridge Park, along with editions in Fort Greene, Williamsburg, Kensington and beyond, with each event developed alongside local community groups and artists. The programming changes from stop to stop, but expect interactive art-making, games, storytelling and activities inspired by works in the museum’s collection.

It seems that New Yorkers just can’t get enough of Andy Warhol, and the Whitney Museum of American Art is leaning into that appetite. On April 30, the museum will debut "Andy Warhol: Family Album," a new exhibition featuring 732 Polaroid photographs taken between 1972 and 1973 of the famed artist, specifically focusing on his social and personal life.

The selection of Polaroids is drawn from one of six Holson albums—those vintage collections that were once ubiquitous—containing hundreds of prints that Warhol himself assembled as part of his personal archive. Considering that Warhol bought his first Polaroid camera in the mid-1960s, the display draws from an archive of thousands of photographs. This exhibition, in particular, will feature a wide range of shots, from friends visiting Warhol on Long Island to images of the artist’s dog, Archie, as well as photographs from European vacations, together encompassing Warhol’s eye for capturing everyday life as a way to document relationships and social interactions.

Just when you thought New York nightlife had hit its ceiling, it’s heading toward the top again—by about 1,100 feet.

Marquee Skydeck at Edge is officially back for its second season, starting May 1, turning the highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere into a full-blown open-air nightclub. Set 100 stories above Hudson Yards, the 21+ series brings Tao Group Hospitality’s trademarks (read: big-name DJs, booming sound systems and a crowd ready to dance) to one of the city’s most vertigo-inducing settings.

If you went last year, you already know the deal. If you didn’t, picture this: you’re dancing to a world-class DJ while the Manhattan skyline stretches out in every direction, the Hudson River just below and the wind occasionally reminding you just how high up you are. This season’s lineup is stacked from the jump. Italian dance legend Benny Benassi is slated for May 2, with other early acts including Kaz James (May 8), Layla Benitez (May 9) and Agents of Time (May 15), according to the event calendar.

Sex and mortality share the spotlight (as usual) at Manhattan's Museum of Sex with The Life Force: Portraits from the Amparo & Manuel Foundation, running through November 30. The Mexico City–based Amparo & Manuel Foundation makes its U.S. debut with 45 works spanning painting, sculpture and photography, exploring desire, vulnerability and resilience. Expect big names (pieces by Tracey Emin, Lisa Yuskavage, Hernan Bas, Oh de Laval and Sarah Lucas will be on view, among others) as well as intimate moments and bodies under pressure in a show that insists intimacy is its own form of resistance.

MoMA PS1 just opened "Greater New York 2026," its sprawling, building-wide exhibition that doubles as a snapshot of what artists across the city are actually making right now. Running now through August 17, the show features 53 artists and collectives working across pretty much every medium you can think of.

This isn’t the type of show you can power through in 45 minutes, though. It takes over the entire museum with more than 150 works, including large-scale installations, new commissions, performances and pieces that, in many cases, have never been shown publicly before. There’s painting next to animation next to scenography next to something you’re not entirely sure how to categorize and that’s entirely the point.

There’s also a full slate of live programming. A performance series runs through May and June, featuring eight artists debuting new works, plus artist talks throughout the run. The best part? Admission is free, which makes this one of the most ambitious—and accessible—art shows in the city right now.

Bryant Park’s beloved outdoor dance series is back for the 12th year, turning weeknights into globe-trotting socials every Wednesday and Thursday nights from Wednesday, April 29 to Thursday, May 14. Free lessons kick off at 6pm, followed by live music. On the schedule: salsa clásica (April 29), Motown/funk/R&B (April 30), Brazilian samba and bossa nova (May 6), swing and rock ’n’ roll (May 7), bachata (May 13) and a Cuban salsa festival finale (May 14).

After a long winter of wistfully eyeing empty courts, pickleball is officially making its return to Central Park. Starting April 21, the iconic Wollman Rink will once again swap skates for paddles as CityPickle rolls back in for its fourth season, turning the space into a sprawling, 14-court pickleball hub right in the heart of the park.

The setup runs daily from 8 am to 9 pm through early fall, with programming that includes open play, clinics and private lessons for every level.

The courts can host hundreds of players each day and reservations open on a rolling basis one week in advance, meaning you’ll need to plan ahead if you’re hoping to snag a prime-time slot. One of the biggest draws remains the $5 community play sessions, which run for several hours each day and include complimentary paddle rentals, making it one of the more affordable ways to spend an afternoon in Central Park.

Smorgasburg returned the first weekend of April for its 16th season, bringing back more than 70 food vendors with one of the most globally diverse lineups the market has seen yet.

This year’s edition of the beloved open-air food market features 74 vendors across its two flagship locations (at Marsha P. Johnson State Park in Williamsburg, and at Breeze Hill in Prospect Park) this year. That includes 22 newcomers serving everything from Korean shaved ice and Fuzhounese dumplings to Mexico City-style tacos and Colombian grilled meats. 

Both markets will run weekly from 11 am to 6 pm through October.

There's no new book smell at Audible Story House, a first-of-its-kind “bookless bookstore" that's devoted entirely to audio storytelling.

The monthlong pop-up at 260 Bowery is being billed as both a listening lounge and a community hub, designed to bring stories off the page and into a fully immersive, sensory experience. The concept leans into the growing popularity of audiobooks and scripted audio, transforming the solitary act of listening into something more social, tactile and very New York.

Instead of browsing shelves, visitors will explore stories through physical “story tiles,” a hands-on system that is more akin to crate-digging at a record store than scrolling through a list on one's phone. After making your choice, settle into one of seven distinct listening spaces, each designed for different moods and formats. And be prepared to give your old earbuds the side eye, because the pop-up will feature high-end audio powered by Dolby Atmos, alongside premium listening setups with Sony headphones.

If your spring calendar is still looking a little… indoorsy so far, here’s a quick fix: take your movie night to the roof.

Rooftop Cinema Club has returned to midtown with a lineup focused on crowd-pleasers and date-night classics with just enough nostalgia. The concept is simple but effective: open-air (well, technically enclosed and heated for spring), skyline views, wireless headphones and a rotating schedule of films.

April’s theme, “Don’t judge a book by its movie,” brings a literary twist to the programming, with adaptations like Pride & Prejudice, The Great Gatsby (2013) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s anchoring the schedule. But if you’re less into period drama and more into emotional chaos or blockbuster escapism, there’s plenty of that too—The Notebook, Crazy Rich Asians and The Hunger Games are also in the lineup.

The cinema sits on the Skylawn rooftop of the Embassy Suites on West 37th Street, with views that stretch across midtown, including a peek at the Empire State Building if you time it right. It’s fully enclosed and heated for spring, so there’s no gambling with the weather and the whole thing is designed to feel more like a low-key lounge than a typical theater.

Step back in time at Before New York: A Traveling Pop-Up Exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden, where the city’s original landscape becomes the focus. This immersive display from ecologist Dr. Eric W. Sanderson and colleagues reconstructs the area as it was on September 12, 1609, just before Henry Hudson landed. Before New York explores the region’s original ecosystems and Indigenous histories, inviting visitors to imagine Manhattan as it once was: lush, wild and teeming with life. It’s a fascinating, thought-provoking complement to the Garden’s living collections and environmental mission.

If you're a fan of Survivor, you won't want to miss "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: Celebrating 50 Seasons of Survivor." Running now through May 31, the exhibit is an immersive, nostalgia-heavy tribute to the CBS juggernaut. It will feature some of the show's most memorable moments and will give visitors the chance to step into the winner-takes-all world of Survivor.

The exhibit celebrates 50 seasons with actual items from the show and plenty of behind-the-scenes photos. There will be authentic outfits worn by Jeff Probst and castaways, immunity idols and necklaces and a torch snuffer. View original sketches for logos, sets and props. There’s even a chance to snap a pic with the iconic torch and sit at a replica Tribal Council. While the museum hasn't revealed exactly which iconic wardrobe pieces will make an appearance, fans are hoping for the infamous Q skirt, Boston Rob Mariano’s Red Sox hat or perhaps Angelina Keeley’s jacket. In addition to the artifacts, the exhibit will include plenty of photos and videos spanning all fifty seasons, plus screenings of classic episodes in the Paley Museum’s Bennack Theater.

Ditch the YouTube tutorials and make learning a smoky eye into a night out with Powder Room Pop-Up. A series of fun, detail-oriented makeup lessons is coming to 231 W. 29th St. from April 24 through May 17, offering small-group guided sessions covering everything from date-night looks to bridesmaid looks. There will also be some beauty collabs and private bookings, plus plenty of product testing. Come solo or with friends, get answers to the questions you didn't even know to Google and maybe leave with some ideas about better lighting habits.

Timed to the United States’ 250th anniversary, the American Folk Art Museum's Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States exhibition explores how vernacular art has shaped national identity. Using the museum’s collection, the show delves into the meanings of “folk,” “nation” and “patriotism” at the 2 Lincoln Square gallery. It offers a thought-provoking look at who is represented in American stories and how those stories change. The show runs April 10–September 13, then reopens October 8 and runs through February 28, 2027.

New York’s outdoor food festival season is about to get a delicious jumpstart. JAPAN Fes, one of the city’s most beloved street food events, is returning this month to celebrate a major milestone: its 10th anniversary in New York City.

The festival officially launches its 2026 season on March 28 at Astor Place in the East Village, bringing dozens of Japanese food vendors to the streets for a full day of snacking, sipping and exploring. If you miss that first event, another festival will follow the very next day on March 29 on 40th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown.

If you’ve never been, imagine a block party devoted entirely to Japanese street food. Vendors serve everything from teriyaki chicken skewers and crispy karaage to onigiri, ramen, takoyaki and yakisoba. Sweet treats like matcha shaved ice and bubble tea also make frequent appearances, along with Japanese snacks, crafts and cultural booths.

“Raphael: Sublime Poetry” will be on view through June 28, pulling more than 170 of the Renaissance star’s works from museums and collections around the world. The show follows the artist’s entire career, from early days in Urbino (where he was born in 1483 to a painter-poet father) to his rise in Florence, where his peers were Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and finally to his years in Rome as the go-to artist for the papal court.

There are heavyweights—like “The Alba Madonna,” which is on loan from the National Gallery of Art, and the Louvre’s “Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione,” considered one of the finest portraits of the High Renaissance—but the exhibition also sheds light on Raphael’s processes. Finished works are shown alongside preparatory drawings, sketches and studies, giving a glimpse into his obsessive dedication to composition, anatomy and emotion.

That behind-the-scenes angle runs throughout the show, which unfolds chronologically, weaving in themes like his approach to storytelling, his experiments across media (from chalk to tapestry) and his evolving depiction of women, including both idealized Madonnas and more complex figures.

For the first time in five decades, a retrospective spotlighting the radical modern works and revolutionary readymades of Marcel Duchamp is coming to North America and, more specifically, New York’s Museum of Modern Art. On view from April 12 to August 22 in partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Marcel Duchamp will feature nearly 300 pieces spanning six decades and all mediums, from his Cubist masterpiece Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) to his “portable museum,” The Box in a Valise. 

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.

Your new monthly ritual has arrived. Join us every third Saturday for a late-night soundtrack curated by Mike Medium of the Heavy Hitters and Hot 97, alongside special guest DJs bringing nonstop heat to the dance floor. Expect the best in hip-hop, R&B, reggaeton, throwback jams and more surprises throughout the night.

Sip on specialty cocktails courtesy of Patrón, vibe with the crowd and dance like it’s a Saturday in NYC done right. Whether you’re coming for the music, the cocktails or the energy, this is where Saturday night lives.

The Guggenheim's iconic spiral rotunda gets a colorful transformation courtesy the works of Geneva-born, New York-based artist Carol Bove, in the first museum survey of her sculptural pieces. Running from March 5 through August 2 and charting more than 25 years of work, the career-spanning show displays the wide range of her inventive practices, "from assemblages of paperback books and intimate paper collages to towering steel sculptures," per the museum. 

Two of Mexico's most beloved artistic and cultural icons—Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—will be rightfully celebrated in a new MoMA exhibition presented in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera and its production of El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (May 14–June 5, 2026). On view from March 21 through September 12, 2026, the exhibit will showcase five paintings and a drawing by Kahlo and over a dozen works by Rivera pulled from MoMA's collection, in an elaborate installation designed by Jon Bausor, the set and co-costume designer of the opera.  Photographic portraits of the artists by the likes of Lola Álvarez Bravo and Leo Matiz will also be on view.

Nearly two decades after The Sopranos ended with that excellent and polarizing series finale, the HBO series remains an enduring television masterpiece. And the Museum of Modern Image will celebrate the groundbreaking drama with a new exhibition, Stories and Set Designs for The Sopranos, drawing from showrunner and series creator David Chase's personal archive. From February 14 through May 31, 2026, fans of the show will get to peruse scripts, notes and research material chronicling the series' story arcs and character trajectories, as well as delve into the designs of four principal sites from the show, including Dr. Melfi’s office, the Soprano home, the Bada Bing strip club, and Satriale’s Pork Store via concept art, ground plans and more. MoMI will also present three special screenings featuring David Chase and cast members from The Sopranos, February 26–28; find more info here. 

“He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model” brings a sprawling, handmade replica of New York City to the Museum of the City of New York, just steps from Central Park. The exhibition marks the first time the viral model, famously constructed by Queens-born truck driver Joe Macken, has been presented in New York City itself.

Macken began the project in 2004 and stuck with it for the next 21 years, quietly recreating the five boroughs by hand in his upstate New York home. Built from everyday materials like balsa wood, cardboard and glue, the finished model measures roughly 50 by 27 feet and is made up of more than 300 individual sections. It captures the city’s skyline, neighborhoods and landmarks with obsessive detail, from Midtown towers to outer-borough blocks.

If you ever lost an afternoon chasing ghosts, the Paley Museum has your next field trip lined up. The midtown mainstay is celebrating one of gaming’s most beloved icons with a new exhibit, “45 Years of PAC-MAN,” opening Friday, January 16 and running through May 31.

The show traces how a simple yellow circle dreamed up in Japan in 1980 by designer Toru Iwatani grew into a global pop-culture heavyweight. From early arcade cabinets to living room consoles and far beyond, PAC-MAN redefined what video games could be, while still welcoming in first-time players.

At the exhibition, visitors can jump straight into the action with classic Pixel Bash arcade cabinets, competitive rounds of PAC-MAN Battle Royale Chompionship and newer titles like PAC-MAN WORLD 2 Re-PAC. There’s also a chance to tackle what the museum bills as the world’s largest PAC-MAN.

The Brooklyn Museum has gotten a major dose of calm. Visitors can now enter a Tibetan Buddhist shrine room with ritual horns, butter lamps and the hum of chanting monks, courtesy of a long-term loan from the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art.

The Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, one of the institution’s most beloved installations, will be on view inside the Brooklyn Museum’s Arts of Asia galleries as part of a six-year collaboration between the two museums. Entry is included with general admission, which the museum offers on a pay-what-you-wish basis. 

Let internet boyfriend Pedro Pascal be your guide on a tour of the universe. The famous actor is the narrator for a new space show at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium titled Encounters in the Milky Way. 

Encounters in the Milky Way takes a 20-minute voyage through outer space with stunning visualizations of dazzling stars, constellations and planets. Stirring music complements Pascal's narration, and you'll even feel your seats move as if you could blast off to space yourself. 

If Da Vinci had the technology we do today, what would he have created?

That’s the question being asked at Mercer Labs’ newest exhibit, “Maestros and the Machines,” featuring sound by Timbaland. The exhibit investigates: what could’ve been created if past artists, musicians and geniuses had technology as we know it today.

The new exhibit, which showcases an immersive atmosphere with cutting-edge digital tools, soundscapes and more, is conceived and directed by artist and Mercer Labs founder Roy Nachum. (You might recognize Nachum’s name because he designed Rihanna’s Anti album cover.)

Sure, you can learn about the American Revolution in history books. Or you can experience it in real life—in the actual place where history was made—during this exhibit at Fraunces Tavern Museum in Lower Manhattan. 

The museum is set to debut “Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation” in honor of America’s 250th anniversary. Find the exhibit inside Fraunces Tavern, a historic building that served as a meeting place for the Sons of Liberty, hosted Washington's farewell to his officers and even was hit by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. 

As part of the nation's semiquincentennial (a.k.a. 250th) celebrations, Fraunces' exhibition will offer a chronological, multi-year experience telling the history of the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783, with a distinctive focus on what occurred in New York State and the surrounding areas.

After a five-year closure, the Frick Collection is now open once again inside its historic Gilded Age mansion at 1 East 70th Street by Fifth Avenue.

Visitors will get to experience even more of the museum's extensive collection by stepping inside restored spaces on the first floor while also walking around a new roster of galleries on the mansion's second floor, open to the public for the very first time.

The second floor used to be the Frick family’s private living quarters, but later became staff meeting rooms and administrative offices. So yes, you’ll be able to walk into the original bedroom of Henry Clay Frick.

It's hard to imagine now in our globalized world, but many of the young American soldiers who headed onto massive ships like the USS Intrepid during World War II had never even seen the ocean before. They’d soon be navigating the Pacific, launching planes off of aircraft carriers and battling Axis enemies. 

Now, the stories of those military members are on display in a new permanent exhibit at the Intrepid Museum, the historic aircraft carrier docked along the Hudson River in Hell’s Kitchen, which served from 1943 to 1974. The new 10,000-square-foot exhibit includes 50 never-before-seen artifacts, crew member oral histories, videos and photos showcasing the ship's history.

Plus, you’ll get to see the museum’s newest WWII aircraft acquisition, a legendary fighter-bomber called the FG-1D Corsair. Planes just like it often flew off of Intrepid’s flight deck during the war.

Tucked away on Bridge Street in an old factory basement, this two-story playscape for kids and adults contains ample room for fun, including laser tag, mini-bowling and arcade games.

Laser tag games are comprised of three 10-15-minute matches, where you bob and weave around rustic columns and obstacles Area 53 has set up. Across an hour-and-a-half, you and your friends will be giggling and screaming as you "shoot" each other's guns to gain points. It's not for the faint of heart—running to avoid lasers is a workout, but a super fun one. Checking out its "After Dark" laser tag and mini-bowling for those 18+ on Thursday nights.

Area 53's mini-bowling allows for up to six people to knock down pins across 25 minutes and its arcade has traditional games, from basketball shooting games to racing games and claw machines. 

Blast off to another planet at INTER's new interstellar experience. Inside this Soho space, expect to see more than 10 immersive exhibits using light, sound and digital projection to transport you to another galaxy.

Walk through a mirrored hallway with moving light, then find yourself on an alien terrain. Stroll through a tunnel of bioluminescent flowers, bounce around in a netted space called “The Vortex,” and get swallowed by a black hole in an infinity mirrored room. All of it is certainly fodder for your Instagram feed.

But it’s not just about looking around. INTER asks you to … interact. There are multiple generative art installations that react in real-time, like donning a space suit in the interstellar research lab and forming new constellations via motion-tracking technology.

Some 4,500 years ago, ancient Egyptians built the Great Pyramid of Giza—the greatest pyramid the world had ever seen. Sure, you can read about this incredible civilization in history books, but you can now walk through their pyramid without ever leaving New York City. A new virtual reality experience called Horizon of Khufu offers a chance to travel miles away and back in time. 

You'll get a chance to wander around the pyramid, then look in awe at the intricate tombs of Pharaoh Khufu and the majestic Giza Necropolis. Eventually, you'll board a ship for a journey across the Nile, attend a mummification ceremony, and experience the somber occasion of King Khufu's final rites.

As the Revolutionary War came to a close, British Loyalists and soldiers evacuated the colonies in droves. But the evacuation was more complicated for Black Loyalists, some of whom joined the British cause in response to offers of freedom. 

In 1783, the new government formed a special committee to review the eligibility of some Black Loyalists to evacuate with the British Army, and that committee met at Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan. A new permanent exhibit at the Fraunces Tavern Museum explores this important moment in history. 

The exhibition first opened last year, and officials are now moving it to a larger permanent gallery within the museum. The new space will offer a chance to include recent new discoveries of significant information concerning the identities of individuals participating in the Birch Trials and their inclusion in the Book of Negroes.

You may just miss Hell’s Kitchen’s latest lounge. Tucked away off 52nd Street and 8th Avenue, you’ll find a red light and a blue door marked with red graffiti of a martini and a piano. Once the light flicks on, duck inside to find the city’s latest piano bar and supper club. Follow the red light to So & So’s Piano Bar. A part of the Romer Hell’s Kitchen hotel, the piano bar and supper club is an ideal escape for locals and theater industry vets alike. Illuminated by stunning marquee lights, the stage will host up-and-coming local acts alongside Broadway legends, and has already been graced by Darren Criss and Noah Cyrus.

If you’re on Foodie-Tok, chances are that you’ve come across a video of The Lavaux, a romantic Swiss restaurant and wine bar in the West Village that has some of the best Swiss cheese offerings in the city. But recently, it’s gone viral on TikTok for its “Secret Message Party,” where they encourage strangers to send each other anonymous notes on Tuesday nights.

The note-passing party is the baby of general manager Christian Stemmer, who got the idea two years ago while traveling through his native Switzerland and ate at a restaurant where people were sending notes to other tables. He decided that something like that would probably do very well in New York, where most of us are starved for deeper human connection. “New Yorkers are all about new experiences,” Stemmer tells Time Out. 

Beautiful, buoyant, beguiling bubbles are back at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in Queens. The beloved bubbles exhibit, which has been closed for five years, will return bigger, better and bubblier than ever.

The Big Bubble Experiment encourages kids of all ages to experiment and discover through the joy of playing with bubbles. That includes blowing, stretching, popping and looking closely to see what happens at each move. 

The exhibit features 10 stations, each one with different tools and methods for exploring bubble solution.

Eighty years ago, as World War II raged on, Danish citizens worked together to ferry 7,000 Jewish people to safety, keeping them out of concentration camps. 

Now, New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is commemorating that anniversary, known as one of the most effective examples of mass resistance in modern history. "Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark," the museum’s first exhibition developed for elementary-age students, is now open.

The exhibit focuses on themes of separation, bravery and resilience to help children ages 9+ reflect on the dangers of prejudice and on their own potential for courageous collective action. 

On a typical visit to the Museum of Modern Art, crowds surround the most precious paintings, and it can be tough to squeeze your way in for a photo, let alone to admire the artwork’s brushstrokes. But now, thanks to these new exclusive tours by GetYourGuide, you can get in before the museum opens for a guided tour of amazing artwork. 

The new MoMA Before Hours Tour with Art Expert is now available. Tickets are on sale here for $99/person. Few New York City experiences compare to the absolute thrill of gazing at famed works of art uninterrupted for as long as you like.  

Find your latest read at The Free Black Women’s Library, a new free library in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood, which also serves as a social art project, a reading room, a co-working space and a community gathering center. The library "celebrates the brilliance, diversity and imagination of Black women and Black non-binary authors." All 5,000 books in the library's collection are written by Black women and non-binary authors.

Here's how it works: Anybody can visit the space to read, work or hang out. If you want to take a book home, simply bring a book written by a Black woman or Black non-binary author, and you can trade. Whether you decide to bring the book back after you're done reading or keep it for your collection is up to you.

The library is currently open four days per week (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) at 226 Marcus Garvey Boulevard. In addition to offering a space to read or work, the library has also hosts a book club, art shows and workshops on topics like writing, drawing, poetry, painting and sewing. All are welcome. 

New York City is full of free outdoor art that you don't even have to go to a museum to see. Sculptures, murals and photographs can be found in its parks, sidewalks and on its buildings! 

An outdoor artwalk makes for a perfect fall activity, and there's no shortage of art to check out right now. Best of all, it costs you nothing to pay a visit.

The New York Public Library dug through its expansive and centuries-spanning archive to stage an impressive free exhibition filled with cultural artifacts. "The Polonsky Exhibition of New York Public Library’s Treasures" spans 4,000 years of history and includes a wide range of history-making pieces, including the only surviving letter from Christoper Columbus announcing his “discovery” of the Americas to King Ferdinand’s court and the first Gutenberg Bible brought over to the Americas.

New treasures were just added to the exhibit this fall, including a signed, first edition copy of "Passing" by Nella Larsen, a selection of manuscript pages from "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, and a miniature early 19th-century Qur’an, produced in Turkey.

Swingers NoMad, a "crazy mini-golf course" and entertainment complex straight from London, offers three nine-hole golf courses across 23,000 square feet under 20-foot-high ceilings.

"Crazy golf" is a British spin on mini-golf, but it's for a 21-and-over audience since craft cocktails are served by caddies on the course. Take your pick from six cocktail bars with signature classic cocktails, as well as 12 cocktails created specifically for Swingers NoMad. Plus, you can rent private rooms, check out an opulent clubhouse and enjoy four gourmet street food vendors—Sauce Pizzeria, Miznon, Fonda and Mah Ze Dahr Bakery.

For the holiday season, Swingers is offering a fun twist on the festivities: Spin a Naughty-or-Nice Prize Wheel to decide whether you're ordering the "Naughty" Sex on the Green shot or the "Nice" Festive Dessert. In addition to the game, there's also seasonal decor and even more holiday drinks.

Join Josh Johnson (Comedy Central's The Daily Show), Lucas Connolly (Comedy Central), and Brittany Cardwell (Drule, New York Comedy Fest) for stacked lineups of top comics from NYC and beyond every Wednesday at 7:30pm. 

Plus you can enjoy free beer from 7:30 to 8pm and there's a pizza raffle if you RSVP. What's not to love? Show up to Two Boots Williamsburg for the show.

Descend into The Django (l2 6th Avenue, The Roxy Hotel, Cellar Level) and you’ll feel like you’ve entered another world. The subterranean jazz club, with its vaulted ceilings and exposed brick walls, was modeled after the boîtes of Paris. The venue consists of two cocktail bars, an open dining space, and a stage for live performances with a state-of-the-art sound system. The Django offers a full dinner menu and handcrafted cocktails, all partnered with a brilliant entertainment lineup. Check out the schedule here.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Date Nights" give visitors an opportunity to become acquainted with artwork with informal drop-in gallery chats, listen in on gorgeous live music and sip on yummy cocktails.

"Date Nights" are held every Friday and Saturday night in the American Wing Café from 5pm to 9pm. Make it a night out with The Met's buy-one-get-one drink special and snack on light bites in the American Wing Café. More details can be found at metmuseum.org/datenight. 

There's literally no excuse not to go—the date nights come with museum admission, which is always pay-what-you-wish for New York State residents and NY, NJ, and CT students with valid ID. And this time, advance tickets are not required. 

The luxurious Italian wellness spa QC NY has opened to the public, bringing the elegance and rejuvenation of a European spa to Governors Island, but with New York City flavor. It's immediately clear when you enter the spa that it was made to feel like home. From its cozy reception area decorated with custom-made furniture from Italy to its welcoming relaxation spaces with plush leather chairs and massive pillows you can sprawl out on, it feels like you're staying at a retreat with New York Harbor views. Since it's on the edge of the island, a short walk from Soissons Landing, looking out the windows offers gorgeous blue water views and glimpses of the city skyline. Because of its layout, the spa feels secluded from the rest of the island. Click through to read more about the new spa.

A new audio tour by the Brooklyn Public Library seeks to explore the lives of the characters and authors that call the borough home in fiction and in real life. From Patti Smith to Biggie Smalls, Howard Zinn to Tanwi Nandini Islam, the guide covers a total of 16 writers over eight miles of Brooklyn. You can also expect to stop at important public libraries the likes of Washington Irving and Clinton Hill, which, according to an official press release, "played an important role in the lives of the featured author[s]." Expect the entire tour, which can virtually start off from anywhere in Brooklyn, to take at least two hours to complete, depending on how many stops you wish to make along the way.

The sun will come out—eventually! Our guide to spring in NYC details flower shows, outdoor fests and cultural musts.

Want to know what’s happening in New York today, this weekend or in the coming months? Use our NYC events calendar for 2025 as your guide to find the best things to do around town.