Location: Upper East Side
Top Things to do in Upper East Side
10 Museums in Upper East Side That You Shouldn't Miss
Conquering New York in one visit is impossible. Instead, hit the must-sees – the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art – and then explore off the beaten path with visits to The Cloisters or one of the city’s libraries. Indulge in the bohemian shops of the West Village or the fine dining of the Upper West Side. The bustling marketplace inside of Grand Central Station gives you a literal taste of the best the city has to offer.
Restaurants in New York City
1. Frick Collection
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 8,658 reviews
The Frick Collection is your home for art from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. Founded by Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), the museum offers visitors intimate encounters with one of the world’s foremost collections of European fine and decorative arts. The Frick—now in its temporary location at Frick Madison, at the Breuer-designed building at 945 Madison Avenue, while its historic buildings undergo renovation—features celebrated works by Rembrandt, Fragonard, Ingres, Bellini, Vermeer, and more. The Frick Art Reference Library, a leading art historical research center, was established one hundred years ago by Helen Clay Frick and provides access to its rich collections for scholars and the public alike.
Reviewed By JuliaManhattan - New York City, United States
Architectural critic Paul Goldberger may have said it best: "The Met is admired but the Frick is beloved." You can sit in peace in Henry Clay Frick's magnificent mansion, contemplating his extraordinary collection of old masters, all living serenely in a setting filled with Rococo and Renaissance furniture, and accumulated superb decorative arts, including Limoges enamels, Meissen porcelain, and Italian bronzes.
2. Questroyal Fine Art
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 2 reviews
Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, is an established American art gallery specializing in quality American paintings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Questroyal’s extensive inventory of over five hundred artworks includes important Hudson River School, tonalist, impressionist, and modernist examples.
3. The Jewish Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 475 reviews
The Jewish Museum of New York offers acclaimed art exhibitions that explore art and culture from ancient to modern times. The Museum is located on New York's famed Museum Mile.
Reviewed By RJBLH - South Ozone Park, United States
A wonderful collection do Jewish contribution to culture only blocks north of the Met. There are many religious objects from various places and eras along with exhibits that highlight the influence of Jews on art, film and popular culture. It is housed on the former Warburg mansion across form Central Park. It is an easy walk from both the Met and the Guggenheim. Don't miss it!
4. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 580 reviews
Effective March 14, Cooper Hewitt is temporarily closed to support the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. Our priority is to protect the safety and health of its staff, volunteers, and visitors. Please visit cooperhewitt.org for updates on our operating status.
Reviewed By JuliaManhattan - New York City, United States
A couple of blocks north of the Guggenheim, Cooper-Hewitt projects a sense of peaceful isolation, with an imposing iron gate protecting Andrew Carnegie's splendid mansion. With its eclectic but vivid exhibits it is very much worth the short walk uptown. (And you should see this part of Fifth Avenue anyway.) At the moment Cooper-Hewitt is showing Nature by Design, featuring four centuries worth of selections from its permanent collection, including jewelry, textiles, and furnitures by designers interpreting nature's beauty and science. And in celebration of the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus in Weimar, it has a compelling exhibit on Herbert Bayer, who spent his most productive years in the US, especially Chicago and Aspen. Cooper-Hewitt's interactive presentations will enchant the kids, especially Face Values, which takes composites of your features & tells you who you are, and Curiosity Cloud, a gorgeous chandelier w/ tiny sculptured chattering insects that you can wander through & around, producing different musical sounds and sensations. And so much more!
5. Society of Illustrators
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 62 reviews
The mission of this museum is to promote and stimulate interest in the art of illustration by showcasing more than 1,500 works by such luminaries as Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Rockwell Kent, Bernie Fuchs and Brad Holland.
Reviewed By 124C41NewEngland
The Bistro 128 is a lovely space with a second story outdoor garden. If you go to see the art, and you should, plan to have lunch. If you sit at the bar you will be looking at a hi=ugh original Norman Rockwell painting.
6. Neue Galerie
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,598 reviews
A museum displaying works of art by German and Austrian artists and designers.
Reviewed By billmarsano - New York City, United States
And that's Gustav Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. There's a Mona Lisa aspect to this piece: is it famous because it's great or is it great because it's famous? Either way it's wonderful, more so because the gallery forbid selfies EXCEPT below stairs, where there is an excellent full-size reproduction erected especially for nitwits who are addicted to this sort of thing. Would be worthwhile to first see "Woman in Gold,"(starring the peerless Helen Mirren), the 2015 movie about the painting, the Bloch-Bauer family, the theft by the Nazis and the final recovery of the painting after decades of mulish and cynical maneuvering by the Austrian government. Off Central Park & smack in the middle of Museum Mile, so you can easily plan a day's worth of exhibit-going.
7. Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 63 reviews
Constructed in 1799 as a carriage house and converted into a day hotel in 1826, the Museum transports visitors back to a 19th-century country resort for New Yorkers escaping the crowded city below 14th Street. Enjoy a guided tour of eight period rooms, browse in the gift shop, and linger in the secret garden.
Reviewed By Fastenyourbelt
We thoroughly enjoyed our low-priced, 90-minute guided tour of this unique piece of New York history. Built as an upscale carriage house in 1799, it served as a "day hotel" for only 7 years (1826-1833) yet remarkably survived through other incarnations and remains intact, filled with period furniture and household necessities of the early 19th century. The 10-minute video and subsequent tour are crammed with surprises about the city and the way people lived. For real history buffs.
8. Sotheby's
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 31 reviews
Sotheby's New York features six floors of newly renovated gallery space. Exhibitions change frequently, depending upon upcoming auctions. For the most up-to-date exhibition schedules, please refer to the Sotheby's website. A branch of the Sant Ambroeus café is located on the 10th floor adjacent to the roof deck and is open daily. Sotheby's Diamonds also has a Salon in the building, which may be visited by appointment. Sotheby's galleries are open to the public and free to visit.
Reviewed By ashoki172 - Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
The walk from 48th Street 8th Avenue to 71st Street York Avenue was an urban experience followed by the eye opener to the art world.... the Sotheby’s Headquarters in New York...a visit for art connoisseurs..
9. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 22 reviews
Just steps away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISAW is a center for scholarly research and graduate education that offers free exhibitions and public programming about its investigations of the ancient world from the western Mediterranean to China.Photo from The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000-3500:Female Figurine, Cucuteni, 4050-3900 BCPhoto: Marius Amarie
10. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 5,506 reviews
The circular Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building is as much of a draw as the museum's collection of modern art.
Reviewed By PMHiggins - Hove, United Kingdom
The building is a must see from the inside and out. The art is displayed mostly around the spiral of the building which works well. The collection certainly isn't as great as that of MoMA but it's still very good.
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