As much as I love splashing through puddles and getting sprayed with dirty curbside water by New York City buses, on a rainy day in the city, I’ll trade in my rain boots and umbrella for a stroll through a dry museum anytime. This week, in order to avoid the inevitable head cold that comes with spring showers, we’re taking you on a stroll inside one of my favorite museums, the Museum of Modern Art.
Starting Point
Take the E or M train to 5th Avenue/53rd Street, and head to MOMA, located at 11 West 53 Street. If you happen to be going on a Friday after 4pm, you can skip the normal $25 admission ticket and get in for FREE. (Note: Avoid getting there exactly at 4pm, as the line is still pretty long. I always make my visit around 6ish and get right in…still having 2 hours to explore the exhibits.) The only downside to Free Friday Evenings is you can expect a bit more of a crowd than normal, but as long as you don’t mind waiting a few minutes for your turn to snap a photo of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, I say, go for it!
The museum is quite huge, and where you’ll spend the most time really has to do with your personal art preferences. Hours of your day can be spent perusing photography, paintings, sculpture, installations, films…and I’m sure I need not mention the excellent people watching that can be had! And if you are visiting on a nice day, do check out the sculpture garden…it’s a lovely little spot for a bit of solace in the city.
During your six story stroll, you’ll spy everything from art that may baffle you as to how it possibly made it into one of the most prestigious museums in the world (my reference here is that ginormous canvas painted red…gets me every time), to truly iconic pieces you’ll recognize from Art History 101 back in college (Andy Warhol’s Tomato Soup Cans, anyone?), to pieces that make you thank the weather Gods that it was raining so hard that you decided to take a museum stroll in the first place. For me, this will always be anything created by Jackson Pollock. How I’d love to have one of those beauties hanging in my living room…but first maybe I’d need a living room large enough to hold it. Until then, I’ll always have the MOMA.
Do you have a favorite piece you always make a point to visit at the museum?
Jessica Tiare Bowen lives in the juicy Big Apple with her adorable pink-nosed chihuahua, Gillman. He’s the inspiration for her first published children’s book, “Park Avenue Pound Puppy.” The book is the combined result of her two greatest passions: pooches and penning stories.
Her passions include art, urban hikes through Manhattan, drinking coffee with 3 creams and 6 sugars, making extremely detailed itineraries and traveling to far away places, singing along to Broadway shows, Netflix movie nights, discovering incredible treasures at Goodwill and thrift stores, and listening to stories from little people under 7 and big people over 70.
She started her career as New York City Teaching Fellow, teaching elementary school and theater arts at a special education school in the South Bronx for 6 years. She is now a Special Education School Improvement Specialist working in public schools throughout New York City. She is the Editor-In-Chief of the online New York City travel magazine, Used York City. The magazine focuses on finding the best of New York…as used by New Yorkers. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and an ASPCA Ambassador.
