Visiting Museums

     Our last two days in New York turned out to be museum days. Because of the heat we really needed to find indoor activities.

     On Monday, July 2 we headed for the Museum of the City of New York. This is not to be confused with the New York Historical Society Museum and Library which we have toured in the past.The Museum of the City of NY requires a subway ride up Lexington Ave. to 103^rd Street and a walk through a bit of Harlem to the museum on 5^th Avenue. It turned out to be a really interesting museum and one we had not been to before. This is a museum which celebrates and interprets the city. We especially enjoyed the ½ hour movie on the history of New York City from its founding by the Dutch as New Amsterdam to becoming the nation’s largest, most densely populated, most diverse, and most influential city. There was an exhibit on the architecture of Rosario Candela who designed many of the classical apartment buildings which replaced the elegant old mansions on 5^th Avenue and nearby streets. There was also an interesting exhibit on the photographs of Stanley Kubrick when he was a photographer for “Life” magazine before he became a film maker.

    

Don at the Guggenheim

Monday we also visited the Guggenheim Museum which is also on 5 ^th Avenue. They were featuring the sculptures and paintings of Giacometti.

Exhibition of Thomas Bayrle at the New Museum

     Tuesday we headed for the New Museum in The Bowery. It was built in 1977 as an alternative to the Whitney. They both exclusively show case contemporary art. However, the Whitney specializes in American art, while the New Museum specializes in art from all countries. I can’t say we were too impressed by the “art”, but we did enjoy looking around and being someplace cool!

     We finished up the day by wending our way to the China Institute Gallery which is next to the 9/11 Memorial. We had to go through some security to get up to the second floor of the building and look at some beautiful, interesting photographs from various mountain regions in China. I am glad we made the effort to get there.

Cloud shrouded mountain in China 

     And now it is time to get ready to go home tomorrow.

Going to the ballet

     Saturday and Sunday turned out to be days for the ballet. The weather is hot and humid (in the 90’s), so walking around is not fun! Indoors sounds much better!

     On Saturday we got tickets for the American Ballet’s production of “Don Quixote” which was performed at Lincoln Center. It turns out that neither of us has ever seen a live ballet performance and we were quite surprised at how much we enjoyed it. It is the typical story of Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, and the search for his ideal woman, Dulcinea. But it is really a love story between Kitri and Basilio, who must dance and stay together in spite of her father’s wanting to marry her off to the comic character of Gamache, a foppish nobleman. There were lots of beautiful costumes, fantastic leaps and twirls, and a general feeling of beauty, love, and joy throughout the performance. Needless to say the lovers managed to stay together and Don Quixote went on with his search.

     On Sunday we had plans to meet Hildie and Marion for dinner and a show! We went to the Joyce Theater on 8^th Avenue and 18^th Street. We have always loved going to that theater to see dance programs since Don’s cousin turned us on to it years ago. They are having a ballet festival with a different ballet company every few days. The company performing was called BalletX. They are headquartered in Philadelphia, so we have come full circle again! They do contemporary ballet and were quite talented and energetic.

Working on my bucket list

     On Thursday, June 28, it was rainy so we decided to visit the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. It was just a short ride on the subway from our hotel. The museum’s core exhibits explore how moving images throughout history are made, marketed, and shown. It goes from flip books to movies, TV, and digital. There is also a whole section on Jim Henson’s career which brought back many memories of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show. We enjoyed watching the movie on Jim Henson behind the Seams (how muppets are made) and one of the Muppet shows featuring Bob Hope.

     Friday was another day to make a dent in my bucket list of NYC activities. We started out by visiting the Church of the Ascension on 5^th Avenue. It is a National Historic Site, but it was closed and no sign of a visitor center or a National Parks Passport Stamp!

"Delirious Matter" in Madison Square Park

     Our next stop was the Museum of Math at Madison Square Park. This is a 5 year old museum and looks like a lot of fun playing with math. It would be worth a visit when we have more time. We walked through Madison Square Park and looked at the art installation, six sculptures by Diana Al-Hadid, called "Delirious Matter."

     At Washington Square we stopped in the Grey Art Gallery, one of many sponsored by NYU. I loved the brass painted “weeds” that one of the artists had “growing” along the floor and some of the walls.

  

Grey Art Gallery at NYU

Merchant's House Museum

     The Merchant’s House Museum on 4^th Street was built in 1832 as a home for the Tredwell family. It is a 5 story brownstone and is still filled with the family’s original furnishings. It is basically one room wide. I managed to struggle up the stairs to see everything except the servant’s quarters on the top floor.

      Our final stop was the Judd Foundation on Spring Street and Mercer. This is in a 5 story cast iron building where the artist Donald Judd had his home, office, and studio. It is open for tours, but we only spent time looking at the installation of 12 extruded aluminum works in 12 anodized colors on the ground floor - slightly under whelming!

     We finished our day with a ride on the free Staten Island ferry to Staten Island and back.