The best things to do in NYC this weekend

A cherished New York City tradition returns to the heart of Manhattan thisweek. On Friday, May 22, The Public Theater officially kicks off its summer season of Free Shakespeare in the Park with the highly anticipated first preview of Romeo & Juliet.

Marking the first time the Bard’s ultimate tragedy has graced the Delacorte Theater stage in nearly 20 years, this production arrives with a revitalized energy. Directed by Saheem Ali, the staging offers a bold linguistic twist: while the warring world of the Montagues and Capulets operates in English, the star-crossed lovers share their private scenes in Spanish—a secret language reserved solely for their romance. Set in a border town where ideological violence spills into the streets, the production promises a visceral, contemporary resonance.

This year's season opener marks the grand reopening of the newly revitalized Delacorte Theater. To celebrate, The Public is hosting a massive kickoff event on Saturday, May 30, featuring family-friendly festivities, concessions, a pop-up from Wonder and meet-and-greets with the theater’s unofficial mascot, Romeo the Raccoon.

An unforgettable Memorial Day Weekend starts at Time Out Market. 

For the extended weekend, Time Out Market New York, Dumbo, is throwing a full-blown day party. DJ Fatfingaz of the Heavy Hitters will be spinning live from 2 to 7pm. Naturally, cocktails will be flowing, with Patrón, Grey Goose and Santa Teresa spirits at the ready, plus giveaways and complimentary swag bags all day long. Looking to upgrade your weekend? Purchase a $15 all-day happy hour wristband to enjoy discounted drinks. And for one of the best kick-offs to the summer, we are hosting a Memorial Day raffle. For $10, you can enter to win excellent prizes, including tickets to our Fourth of July rooftop party and our World Cup viewing experience, goodie bags from Patrón and a $100 gift card to Time Out Market. 

Expect high energy, rooftop vibes, cocktails flowing and the perfect soundtrack to kick off summer.

New York is officially entering its most emotionally optimistic season: beach season.

Starting Saturday, May 23, all New York City public beaches will reopen for the summer, meaning the annual migration from subway platform to sandy towel is about to begin. And honestly? After the winter and spring New Yorkers just survived, it feels deserved.

The big headliner, as always, is Brooklyn’s legendary Coney Island and Brighton Beach stretch, where the vibe remains wonderfully unhinged in the best possible way. You’ve got the Cyclone, Nathan’s, boardwalk performers, beach volleyball and enough people-watching material to sustain the group chat for weeks. Brighton Beach, meanwhile, offers a slightly calmer energy with excellent Eastern European food and a more local feel.

Out in Queens, Rockaway Beach once again claims its title as the city’s coolest shoreline. It remains the only legal surfing beach in New York City and the boardwalk scene has evolved into a full summer ecosystem of taco stands, beach bars and skaters. Nearby Jacob Riis Park continues to draw massive crowds with its Art Deco bathhouse, sprawling sands and social-party atmosphere.

In recognition of the men and women in uniform, the Intrepid Museum has an entire weekend of patriotic programming to celebrate Memorial Day. The weekend’s activities kick off Friday, May 22, with a free screening of Top Gun on the flight deck. On Saturday, May 23, the Museum hosts Battle of the Big Bands, celebrating the music, dance, and style of the swing era. There will also be a vintage pinup showcase, barbershop quartet, fashion contest, and swing dance performances and lessons throughout the evening. 

Throughout the weekend, explore a variety of displays and activities on Pier 86 from participants including the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force, antique military vehicles from the Military Transport Association and many more. And on Monday, May 25, a solemn ceremony take place to honor the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who have given their lives in defense of our nation.  Civic and military leaders will offer remarks and join in a special wreath-laying ceremony in honor of the fallen; the ceremony concludes with a flyover by Navy fighter jets.

To honor and remeber those who lost their lives in defense of the nation, Brookyn's annual Memorial Day Parade will be held on Monday, May 25. This year is the 159th parade, making it one of the oldest parades in Brooklyn. The patriotic festivities kick off at 11am from 78th Street and Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, then proceeds down to Marine Avenue, up to Fourth Avenue and over to John Paul Jones Park for a memorial service that includes bab pipes, flag raising, wreath laying by veteran service organizations and a 21-gun salute by the Veteran Corps of Artillery.

Psychedelia comes to the New York Botanical Garden with Flower Power, a groovy, garden-wide takeover celebrating blooms as symbols of peace, love and counterculture cool. Running May 23 through October 18, the exhibition mixes vibrant botanical displays with ’60s-era art, plus trippy installations, live music and after-hours light shows. Wander through technicolor plantings, spot photo ops and lean into the feel-good nostalgia—it’s part flower show, part time warp. And honestly, we could all use a little nature (and time travel) these days.

New York’s American Museum of Natural History is getting a serious dose of championship energy this spring. Opening May 15, “For The Win: Objects of Sports Excellence” will bring more than 70 glittering symbols of athletic glory—from Olympic medals to Super Bowl hardware—into the museum’s Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery, set inside the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.

Among other items, that means the Vince Lombardi Trophy itself will be on view. The sterling silver prize, which has been handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. since 1967 and awarded annually to the Super Bowl champions, anchors an exhibition that spans more than 15 sports and nearly 150 years of competition. The show aims to trace how trophies, rings and medals evolved alongside modern sports culture.

Honor fallen members of the United States Armed Forces at the largest of the city’s Memorial Day parades. Bring your handheld Old Glory and cheer on local members of the military, veterans, marching bands, Brownie troops and Boy Scouts as they march westward along Northern Boulevard in Queens from Great Neck to Douglaston. Go to lndmemorialday.com for more information.

BAM's FilmAfrica returns May 22–28 as a celebration of Pan-African cinema, once again presented alongside DanceAfrica and the New York African Film Festival. This year’s edition highlights contemporary and classic works that trace the continent’s layered storytelling traditions, political histories and evolving artistic voices. Across a week of screenings in BAM’s theaters, audiences can expect a rich mix of features, documentaries and shorts that foreground new filmmakers alongside essential voices in African film history.

Kabawa is one of the hottest tickets in town. Paul Carmichael's Caribbean affair has already earned adoring fans in its first year of business, earning a five-star review from us and the title of the best restaurant in the entire country by Food & Wine. Given those stats, securing a table can be a bit of a challenge, unless you don't mind dining at 10pm. Thankfully, there's also next door's Bar Kabawa, which gives us good reason to visit—particularly to sip on nitro daiquiris and sink your teeth into glossy patties. And now Carmichael has teamed up with a handful of chef pals for a patty collab, sweetening the deal even further.   

Bar Kabawa is hosting Patties & Pals, a monthly series where several culinary titans in NYC are taking a spin on one of the most iconic dishes of the Caribbean, the humble patty. Bringing its old-school Italian sensibilities to the medium, Nolita's Torrisi is kicking off the series on May 19, starting strong with the Jamaican beef ragu patty. Later in the summer, Fort Greene's Strange Delight will bring a NOLA-inflected spin on the dish, serving up the Creole daube with Kyoto carrots and hakurei turnips. 

The series extends all the way to the fall. Keep in mind that you can catch these specialty patties for only one week. So do as Carmichael says and come on by to "Fill Yuh Belly." 

Patties & Pals Calendar:

• May 19-23: Torrisi
• June 16-20: Sunn’s
• July 14-18: Strange Delight
• August 18-22: Win Son
• September 15-19: Salty Lunch Lady
• October 13-17: Ha’s Snack Bar

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.

Radiohead fans, prepare to willingly walk into the anxiety spiral. A massive immersive Radiohead installation called Motion Picture House featuring KID A MNESIA has officially opened at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, turning part of the industrial waterfront into a haunting, dreamlike fever vision inspired by two of the band’s most beloved albums: Kid A and Amnesiac.

The limited-run experience takes over the Agger Fish Building through June 28 with towering projected visuals, unsettling soundscapes, cryptic monsters and distorted architecture, all accompanied by the emotional sensation of staring out a rainy train window.

The installation expands on KID A MNESIA, the acclaimed virtual exhibition originally released through Epic Games in 2021. That digital version was created during the pandemic as an interactive exploration of artwork that Thom Yorke and longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood developed while making Kid A and Amnesiac.

But according to the band, this physical installation was always the real goal. Now, visitors can wander through the project in actual three-dimensional space, complete with galleries of large-scale artwork by Yorke and Donwood, plus a fully immersive audiovisual experience powered by a custom six-point surround sound system. The soundtrack draws directly from original Radiohead multitrack recordings specially remixed for the installation.

You could easily mistake newcomer writer-director Curry Barker’s Obsession for a romcom. At least, for the first 20 minutes. Aside from the foreboding presence of a dead cat, it feels light, jaunty, quirky and fun, just another harmless tale of an imperfect twentysomething dude (Michael Johnstone’s Bear) who’s desperately in love with a girl in his social circle (Inde Navarrette’s Nikki), despite her firmly friend-zoning him. However, it all goes a bit monkey’s paw when Bear unboxes an apparent novelty gift called a ‘One-Wish Willow’ and wishes that Nikki would love him ‘more than anything else in the fucking world’. 

The resulting descent into passion-fuelled psycho-horror goes far, far beyond the bunny-boiling antics of Fatal Attraction. It is a love story in the nastiest possible way. With a pitch-black sense of humour and evident nourishment from the films of Ari Aster and Zach Cregger, Barker does not hold back in presenting the disturbing, distressing consequences of Bear’s ill-conceived romantic dream.

In cinemas worldwide May 15.

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.

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.

On October 27, 1904, New Yorkers dressed in their finest clothing and hosted dinner parties to celebrate the big news of the year. After four years of messy, sometimes controversial construction, a subway had opened in New York City. Officials didn't know if people would show up for its debut, but more than 100,000 people descended beneath the ground that evening to traverse the system's 9 miles and 28 stations. The next day, a Sunday, more than 1 million people showed up on the subway's first full open day. 

It may not seem like a big deal to us now, but the subway was revolutionary—and it still is. A fascinating new exhibit at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn digs into the history and the future of our underground rail system. Titled "The Subway Is...," the exhibition brings together artifacts, photos, multimedia installations, old advertisements, train models and more to tell the story of our city's subway system. 

On view through May 24, 2026.

QC Spa New York is home to a lot of things, a new Italian-leaning restaurant and whimsical wellness rooms that include waterbeds and saunas across its 15,000-square-foot sprawl. But its location is part of what makes this spa so serene, as it gazes upon the beautiful skyline of Lower Manhattan. The best times to drink in the sights? Definitely at sunset to watch the fleeting orange and red sky fall over the city. Adding to the view, the Italian-born spa is setting the tone with a little DJ session. 

Starting on May 8, QC Spa New York is launching Sunset Sessions. The first of an ongoing DJ series, Sunset Sessions will bring a relaxed beach vibe to the spa. DJ Elektra will be playing sets at the spa's outdoor garden, making it easy to enjoy the music among the blooming florals or while soaking in one of the property's infinity pools. Leaning into its Amalfi Coast origins, guests can also take a complimentary scented paper fan, handcrafted and shipped from Italy, as a keepsake.

Sunset Sessions will be held from now until September 8. DJ sets start at 6pm; no ticket needed. Reserve your spot here. 

Step into downtown Manhattan’s electrifying postwar art scene with “New York City Circa 1960,” a sprawling exhibition at Schoelkopf Gallery. Drawn from the collection of Robert A. Ellison Jr., the show gathers paintings and works on paper by 15 artists—including heavyweights like Elaine de Kooning, Bob Thompson and Milton Resnick—from the pivotal moment when abstraction, figuration and experimentation collided. Running through July 2, the free exhibit offers a vivid portrait of artistic camaraderie in midcentury New York.

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.

New York’s latest wellness obsession has officially arrived and it involves voluntarily alternating between extreme heat and feeling like you accidentally fell into the Hudson in February.

Lore, a new members-based thermal bathing club opened this week in NoHo, bringing the increasingly trendy world of contrast therapy to downtown Manhattan in a setting that feels less like a medical spa and more like a very chic Scandinavian cave. The 6,200-square-foot space spans two floors and centers around a massive 700-square-foot dry sauna, a 46-degree cold plunge, an infrared sauna and a series of softly lit communal spaces designed for lingering and decompressing.

Unlike some of the city’s more touristy spa experiences, Lore is positioning itself as something people actually build into their weekly routines rather than a once-a-year “treat yourself” moment. The founders describe it more like a social club organized around bathing rituals, with memberships designed to encourage repeat visits.

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. ✨

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.

“Give yourself over to absolute pleasure,” urges the absurdly named Dr. Frank-N-Furter as the silly, sexy cult musical The Rocky Horror Show nears its frenzied climax. Roundabout Theatre Company’s exuberant Broadway revival of the show, directed by Sam Pinkleton and featuring a killer cast led by international heartthrob Luke Evans as Frank, makes roughly the same invitation. It’s an awfully hard one to resist. 

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 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.

Artists included in the show range from emerging names to more established figures, with a noticeable emphasis on early- and mid-career voices. Many have direct ties to Queens and the surrounding area, connecting the show to neighborhoods just outside the museum’s doors.

As for what it’s all about: don’t expect a single theme spelled out on a wall label. Instead, the exhibition loosely tracks the pressures shaping life in New York today—everything from surveillance and rapidly evolving tech to infrastructure strain and collective resistance.

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.

After a long winter of wistfully eyeing empty courts, pickleball is officially making its return to Central Park. From April 21, the iconic Wollman Rink once again swaps 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.

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. 

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 Met is going all in Raphael, in what will be the first comprehensive exhibition of the great master in the U.S. “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.

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.

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.

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. 

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

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

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.

If you're a fan of Survivor, you won't want to miss "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: Celebrating 50 Seasons of Survivor." Running through May 31, the exhibit will be 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.

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. 

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.

Opening to the public on Thursday, February 12, “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 New York Transit Museum is giving the time-honored subway swipe a proper sendoff with a new exhibit called "FAREwell, MetroCard" (see what they did there?) in Brooklyn.

The exhibit covers the full journey of the little yellow card that changed how the city moved. When the item launched in 1994, the goal was simple: retire the cumbersome token for something more fitting for the modern era. The show explores how that idea grew from clunky magnetic stripe prototypes into the systemwide rollout that reshaped the daily commute. Through early pilot brochures, SubTalk ads and photos of the first activated turnstiles, you'll realize how much work went into convincing riders to trust the new system.

When Studio Museum opened in 1968, it was the first Black fine arts museum in the country, and it remains the place to go for historical insight into African American art and the art of the African diaspora. The museum reopened in 2025 after a seven-year closure for construction. The new space, located on the same footprint along 125th Street, doubled space for the groundbreaking exhibitions the museum is known for. 

The abstract, towering building is centered around a sleek stone staircase, which stretches throughout the building like a spine. At the bottom, there's a community hangout area called the stoop. At the top, a lush garden with skyline views will no doubt become a popular space in warmer weather. Throughout, exhibitions fill each floor, drawing pieces from the museum's collection of 9,000 pieces and highlighting works by artists-in-residence over the years.  

Grand Bazaar is one of NYC's oldest and largest marketplaces where you can buy vintage treasures, antiques, clothing and more goodies from more than 150 local merchants. Photographers, jewelers and furniture designers sell their best on Sundays between 10am and 5pm on the Upper West Side (77th Street at Columbus Avenue), rain or shine.

Each week offers a different theme, from featuring women-owned businesses to focusing on handmade items to spotlighting international wares. The market runs both indoors and outdoors each week all year long.

As a testament to the beloved Grand Bazaar's staying power, the market is celebrating 40 years in 2025. Grand Bazaar also has a mission to give back with 100% of its profits from booth rentals supporting four local public schools, helping with everything from school supplies through teaching assistants.

City Climb—which is the highest external building climb in the world on the Western Hemisphere's tallest observation deck, Edge—tethers brave thrillseekers to a secure trolly along the outside of the building and open, edged platforms and stairways. Two cables will keep you secure on a path that leads up 32 steps to “The Cliff,” an outlook 1,190 feet in the sky and to “The Stair,” which consists of 151 steps on a 45-degree incline. “The Apex” is where they can lean out and hang over the platform at 1,271 feet. Are your knees buckling yet? Here’s what it was like to climb it. It all finishes with a victory lap on Edge's outdoor viewing area on the 100th floor (and a celebratory medal for inaugural guests).

What does it mean to be American? That's the question a new immersive art exhibition in Manhattan seeks to answer. 

Called "Path of Liberty: That Which Unites US," this installation takes over six acres in Midtown East with massive screens sharing the voices of 50 Americans from across the nation. You'll hear their thoughts on democracy, liberty, freedom and unity. Path of Liberty is free to visit with reservations available here. The exhibition opens as America approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, which will be celebrated in 2026.  

Find "Path of Liberty: That Which Unites US" on Manhattan’s East Side from 38th to 41st Street along First Avenue. It's open free of charge every Thursday through Saturday from 8-11pm.

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. We'd recommend 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. 

If space is looking pretty good to you right now, there’s a chance to escape to the wide expanse even if only for an hour. INTER, the experiential, multi-sensory museum in Soho, has been reimagined to be an immersive intergalactic adventure.

From the creative minds behind the Museum of Ice Cream and photography center Fotografiska, INTER, inside the old First National City Bank of New York, first opened in a beta version in November 2022 but officially opened in May 2023, with abstract digital art of images evoking natural phenomena like earth, fire and water, its own floral tunnel, an infinity room and a water installation.

But now, it has more than 10 immersive exhibits using light, sound and digital projection to transport you to another galaxy.

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.

This sprawling 16,000-square-foot space in Bushwick, designed to double as a concert venue and nightclub for up to 1,200 people, is the city’s first new wooden roller skating rink in over a decade.

Xanadu is decorated with a giant black-and-white photo of a group of young Black skaters taken over 40 years ago, a model for the energy in the room today. There’s also a rinkside bar, serving drinks with names like Skaterade and Purple Rain with direct sightlines of all the action on the wood. And in the bathroom, a surprise DJ spins a soundtrack for patrons to dance to as they wash their hands, a cheeky setup Kataria calls, “Club Flush.”

Need a laugh? The Second City—the renowned comedy club with locations in Chicago and Toronto—just opened in Brooklyn, and you will definitely laugh out loud there. The New York City venue, which opened on the legendary club’s 65th anniversary, offers hilarious live comedy every single night of the week.

The club has debuted "The Second City Presents The Mainstage Revue 1: Ruthless Acts of Kindness," a completely original NYC revue, which has been created in conversation with the audience over the last ten-weeks.

Some of the funniest names in comedy got their start at Second City. Just a few Second City alumni include: Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Amber Ruffin, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Aidy Bryant. You might just see the next comedy star on this stage.

The venue offers sketch shows and improv performances, along with a great restaurant and no drink minimums in a beautiful venue. Tickets start at $39.

Puttery is an adults-only mini-golf and nightlife destination that just opened at 446 West 14th Street by Washington Street in the Meatpacking District and is backed by, among others, Irish professional golfer Rory McIlroy.

The first location of its kind in New York, Puttery spans 24,000 square feet over five levels that feature an underground lounge and a total of three bars, including a rooftop one that will be open year-round (yes, there will be heat lamps on site). 

Beautiful, buoyant, beguiling bubbles are back at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in Queens. The beloved bubbles exhibit, which had been closed for five years, has returned 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.

Wild Captives, the nation’s first female- and LGBTQ-owned archery studio, is now open. It's a place where everyone can "be their own superhero." The studio in Brooklyn’s Industry City offers empowering and fun hour-long introduction to archery classes every weekend for $45/person. 

Each intro class includes a chance to learn about different parts of the bow and safety requirements. After the lesson, each participant gets a chance to shoot the bow trying to pop a balloon pinned onto the bullseye. Intro-to-archery classes are available each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, bookable online for anyone over age 12.

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 available now; 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.  

With a full restaurant, craft cocktails, comfy reclining seats and even more bells and whistles, this new movie theater in Hell's Kitchen elevates the movie-going experience. LOOK Dine-in Cinemas is now open in VIA 57 West, the pyramid-shaped building located at West 57th Street and 11th Avenue. 

With a 15-year lease, LOOK's operating in a 25,000-square-foot venue that used to house Landmark cinema until it closed in 2020. This is the company's first New York City location. At this fancy theater, you can relax in a heated seat while ordering dinner directly to your seat in the theater. 

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. 

On a typical tour of Manhattan, the big tourist attractions—Times Square, the Empire State Building, Central Park—get all the attention. But on these new walking tours by a local author, you'll see fascinating historical sites that you won't find in a typical guidebook. 

K. Krombie's Purefinder tours, "Death in New York," "The Psychiatric History of New York" and "Hell Gate," explore the city's darker side through meticulously researched and theatrically presented historical narratives.

Each tour covers about 2.5 miles in about two-and-a-half hours. “Death in New York” and “The Psychiatric History of New York” are offered weekly, while “Hell Gate” is offered twice per month. Tours cost $32-$34 per person; you can book one here.

From amazing costumes to Broadway history to fun photo opps, this long-awaited new museum is a must-see for theater buffs.  

You can expect the new museum to highlight over 500 individual productions from the 1700s all the way to the present. 

Among the standout offerings will also be a special exhibit dubbed "The Making of a Broadway Show," which honors the on- and off-stage community that helps bring plays and musicals to life multiple times a week. 

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 are often added, 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.

Part visual splendor, part olfactory wonder and part ooey-gooey sensory fun, Sloomoo Institute’s slime museum is worth a visit for kids of all ages. This captivating playground welcomes all ages to its home in SoHo—or “SooHoo,” in Sloomoo parlance (see what they did there?).

Here are five things not to miss at Sloomoo, including a chance to get slimed and a DIY slime making activity.

A bucolic 1920s English country golf club is on its way to NYC's concrete jungle! But with a twist. Swingers NoMad, a "crazy mini-golf course" and entertainment complex straight from London brought with it 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. Plus, there are plenty of food options to pair with your drinks.

Every Saturday night, two piano men battle it out to prove who is truly the master of all 88 keys, with a playlist decided entirely by the audience. Whether you’re in the mood for Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera or current chart toppers, these pianists are up for the challenge. But they expect you to do your part by singing along, but from home. Grab a ticket and request songs in advance.

New York’s latest wellness obsession has officially arrived and it involves voluntarily alternating between extreme heat and feeling like you accidentally fell into the Hudson in February.

Lore, a new members-based thermal bathing club opened yesterday in NoHo, bringing the increasingly trendy world of contrast therapy to downtown Manhattan in a setting that feels less like a medical spa and more like a very chic Scandinavian cave. The 6,200-square-foot space spans two floors and centers around a massive 700-square-foot dry sauna, a 46-degree cold plunge, an infrared sauna and a series of softly lit communal spaces designed for lingering and decompressing.

Unlike some of the city’s more touristy spa experiences, Lore is positioning itself as something people actually build into their weekly routines rather than a once-a-year “treat yourself” moment. The founders describe it more like a social club organized around bathing rituals, with memberships designed to encourage repeat visits.

“We were drawn to this practice for the social elements, but stayed for the health and felt benefits,” co-founder James O’Reilly said in a statement. “While it’s been around for millennia, science now confirms what tradition always knew: regular sauna and cold water immersion sessions enrich health.”

The club arrives right as New Yorkers collectively enter their annual wellness era ahead of summer, joining a growing wave of social bathhouses, saunas and recovery clubs opening across the city over the past couple of years.

Lore’s interiors lean heavily into natural materials and sensory design. The cold plunge area is wrapped in warm travertine and textured flooring, while the sauna uses rich alder wood and deep chocolate tones intended to emphasize the transition between hot and cold environments.

“Living in the city, it’s easy to become disconnected from ourselves,” co-founder Adam Elzer said. “Lore is designed to be a place to reconnect.”

The founders themselves come from very New York résumé territory: O’Reilly previously co-founded coworking brand NeueHouse and later helped expand Life Time’s coworking business nationally, while Elzer previously co-founded restaurant group Everyday Hospitality.

Lore officially is now open at 676 Broadway and will operate daily from 7am to 11pm.

Every day, our staffers are eating, drinking, partying, gigging and generally appreciating their way throughout this fair town of ours. Which makes pinning down the most essential New York activities kinda…tough. We need to include the classics, naturally—art museums in NYC, stellar New York attractions, killer bars and restaurants in NYC—but also spotlight the more recent or little-known gems that we truly love. Consider the below your NYC Bible.