New York City is home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites, many of which are internationally known. This list contains the most famous or well-regarded organizations, based on their mission.

Museums

Also included are non-profit art galleries, arts centers and cultural centers with galleries. * See List of museums in New York City for a complete sortable list in alphabetical order. * See

List of museums in New York This list of museums in New York is a list of museums, defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, o ...

for museums in the rest of New York state.

Encyclopedic

Region and tradition

African and African American

Asian and Asian American

Indigenous and African Caribbean in Latin America

European Jewish and Jewish American

Western by era

=Traditional European art

=Modern art

Other Western and Native American

Artistic medium

Books, drawings, illustrations, prints

Photography, film, new media

Sculpture

Design, decorative arts, architecture

Entertainment

Performing arts

Amusements

Science

History

American history, local history, historic monuments

Military, police, fire

Transportation and maritime

Financial

Historic houses

Children's

Contemporary spaces

Contemporary museums

Contemporary galleries

Neighborhood art centers

Miscellaneous

Defunct museums

American Museum of Immigration Liberty Island is a federally owned island in Upper New York Bay in the United States. Its most notable feature is the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''), a large statue by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi that was dedicated in ...

, Liberty Island * Barnum's American Museum, Manhattan *

Chelsea Art Museum The Chelsea Art Museum (CAM) was a contemporary art museum located at 556 22nd Street (Manhattan), West 22nd Street on the corner of Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan), Eleventh Avenue in the Chelsea (Manhattan), Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New Y ...

, Manhattan, closed in 2011 *Con Edison Energy Museum, Manhattan *

Choco-Story New York Choco-Story New York: The Chocolate Museum and Experience with Jacques Torres was a museum of the history of chocolate-making. It was associated with Jacques Torres Chocolate, a chocolate manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer whose flagship store wa ...

, 2017-2019 * Discovery Times Square Exposition, closed in 2016 *

Fisher Landau Center The Fisher Landau Center for Art is a private foundation located in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City, United States. It offered regular exhibitions of contemporary art, open to the public from 12 to 5pm, Thursdays through Mondays, until ...

, Long Island City, closed in 2017 *

Forbes Galleries The Forbes Galleries, housed within the Forbes Building on Fifth Avenue between West 12th and 13th Streets in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, was the home of Malcolm Forbes' collection, which the Fo ...

, closed in 2014 * Ground Zero Museum Workshop, history of the September 11 attacks and the workers at the World Trade Center site. Status unknown after 2014 *

Guggenheim Soho The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, Manhattan * Kurdish Library and Museum, Brooklyn, collections now owned by

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

Met Breuer The Met Breuer ( ) was a museum of modern and contemporary art at Madison Avenue and East 75th Street in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It served as a branch museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (known as the Met) from 20 ...

, building turned over to the Frick for temporary use. * MICRO Museum, Brooklyn, closed exhibit space *

Morbid Anatomy Museum The Morbid Anatomy Museum was a non-profit exhibition space founded in 2014 by Joanna Ebenstein, Tracy Hurley Martin, Colin Dickey, Tonya Hurley, and Aaron Beebe in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The museum was an expansion ...

, Brooklyn, closed in 2016 *Museum of the American Piano, Manhattan
website
* Museum of Biblical Art, closed in 2015 *

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is a not-for-profit arts organization and former museum in New York City devoted to comic books, comic strips and other forms of cartoon art. MoCCA sponsored events ranging from book openings to educati ...

, closed in 2012, collections now part of the Society of Illustrators *

Museum of Primitive Art The Museum of Primitive Art is a now defunct museum devoted to the early arts of the indigenous cultures of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. It was founded in 1954 by Nelson Rockefeller, who donated his own collection of Tribal ...

, closed in 1976, collections now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art *

National Museum of Catholic Art and History The National Museum of Catholic Art and History is a museum in Washington, D.C., focusing on Catholic art. It was formerly located in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by Christina Cox in 1995. History Cox opened the first C ...

, closed in 2010 * New York Jazz Museum, Manhattan * New York Tattoo Museum * Onassis Cultural Center * Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex, opened in Soho in 2008, closed in 2010 * Sony Wonder Technology Lab, closed in 2016 *

Sports Museum of America The Sports Museum of America (SmA) was the United States' first national sports museum dedicated to the history and cultural significance of Sports in the United States, sports in America. It opened in May 2008 and closed less than nine months lat ...

, Manhattan, opened in 2008, closed in 2009 *

9/11 Tribute Museum The 9/11 Tribute Museum, formerly known as the 9/11 Tribute Center and Tribute WTC, shared the personal stories of family members who lost loved ones, survivors, rescue and recovery workers, volunteers and Lower Manhattan residents with those wh ...

, Manhattan, opened in 2006. Closed its physical location in 2022.

Proposed museums

Climate Museum The Climate Museum is a nonprofit organization in New York City and the first museum dedicated to climate change and climate solutions in the United States. Its mission is "to inspire action on the climate crisis with programming across the arts ...

* Museum of Food and Drink *Museum of the Street

Zoos and gardens

* Bronx Zoo * Brooklyn Botanic Garden *

Central Park Zoo The Central Park Zoo is a zoo located at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). In conjunction with the Central ...

Community gardens in New York City Community gardens in New York City are urban green spaces created and cared for by city residents who are stewards of underutilized land. There are over 550 community gardens on city property, over 745 school gardens, over 100 gardens in land trus ...

* Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge * New York Aquarium * New York Botanical Garden *

Prospect Park Zoo The Prospect Park Zoo is a zoo located off Flatbush Avenue on the eastern side of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. , the zoo houses 864 animals representing about 176 species, and , it averages 300,000 visitors annually. The Prospect ...

Queens Botanical Garden Queens Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 43-50 Main Street in Flushing, Queens, New York City. The site features rose, bee, herb, wedding, and perennial gardens; an arboretum; an art gallery; and a LEED-certified Visitor & Adm ...

Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden The Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden is located in Hanover Square in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It commemorates the Commonwealth victims of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. It was o ...

(formerly the British Garden) *

Queens Zoo The Queens Zoo is an zoo located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. The zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society in partnership with the New York Cit ...

Queens County Farm Museum The Queens County Farm Museum, also known as Queens Farm, is a historic farm located on of the neighborhoods of Floral Park and Glen Oaks in Queens, New York City. The farm occupies the city's largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland (in ...

Staten Island Botanical Garden Sailors' Snug Harbor, also known as Sailors Snug Harbor and informally as Snug Harbor, is a collection of architecturally significant 19th-century buildings on Staten Island, New York City. The buildings are set in an park along the Kill Van ...

** The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden *

Staten Island Zoo The Staten Island Zoo is an urban zoo in West New Brighton, Staten Island, New York City. The zoo is open year-round except on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. It has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) sinc ...

Wave Hill Wave Hill is a estate in the Hudson Hill section of Riverdale in the Bronx, New York City. Wave Hill currently consists of public horticultural gardens and a cultural center, all situated on the slopes overlooking the Hudson River, with exp ...

Performing arts

Lincoln Center

* Alice Tully Hall * David Geffen Hall, formerly known as Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic * David H. Koch Theater, formerly known as the New York State Theater, home to New York City Ballet *

Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society of Lincoln Center until 2019,Aridi, Sara (April 28, 2019).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved April 29, 2019. is a film society based in New York City, United States. Fo ...

Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center in New York City. The organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center in October 2004. Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director and the leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orches ...

* The Juilliard School * Metropolitan Opera * New York Public Library for the Performing Arts * Vivian Beaumont Theater

Music

* Bargemusic *

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is a symphony orchestra in the New York City metropolitan area. Founded in 1973, the orchestra plays concerts throughout the year at the Brooklyn Museum and other venues in Brooklyn and New York City. The BSO ...

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

* City Parks Foundation *

Kaufman Music Center Kaufman Music Center is a performing arts complex in New York City that houses Lucy Moses School, Special Music School, and Merkin Hall and the "Face the Music" program. Originally known as the Hebrew Arts School, it was founded in 1952 and is c ...

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

* Mannes College of Music * New York City Opera *

The New York Pops The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States, and the only professional symphonic orchestra in New York City specializing in popular music. Led by Music Director Steven Reineke, the orchestra performs an annual ...

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

Theaters

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, formerly the Biltmore Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 261 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1925, it was designed by Herbert J. Krapp in the neo-Renaissa ...

- formerly the Biltmore Theatre *

The Billie Holiday Theatre ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

* Bowery Ballroom * Hammerstein Ballroom *

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

* New York City Center * The Public Theater *

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

* Roundabout Theatre Company * Skirball Center for the Performing Arts * Snug Harbor Cultural Center * The Town Hall *

Williamsburg Art & Historical Center Kings County Savings Bank is a former bank building at 135 Broadway in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. It is an example of French Second Empire-style architecture. Construction of the building began in 1860, to de ...

Historically significant sites

Historic House Trust

Most of the following are Registered Historic Places covered in the county lists. *

Alice Austen House The Alice Austen House, also known as Clear Comfort, is located at 2 Hylan Boulevard in the Rosebank section of Staten Island, New York City, New York. It was home of Alice Austen, a photographer, for most of her lifetime, and is now a museu ...

Museum * Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum * The Conference House * Dyckman Farmhouse Museum * Edgar Allan Poe Cottage * Gracie Mansion *

Hendrick I. Lott House The Hendrick I. Lott House is a historic home located at 1940 East 36th Street between Fillmore Avenue and Avenue S, in Marine Park, Brooklyn, New York City. Lott House, one of the oldest Dutch Colonial houses in Brooklyn, is listed on the Natio ...

Historic Richmond Town Historic Richmond Town is an authentic town and farm museum complex in the neighborhood of Richmondtown, Staten Island, in New York City. It is located near the geographical center of the island, at the junction of Richmond Road and Arthur Kill ...

* King Manor Museum *

Kingsland Homestead Kingsland Homestead is an 18th-century house located in Flushing, Queens, New York City. It is the home of the remains of The Weeping Beech, a landmark weeping beech tree, believed to have been planted in 1847. The homestead is also close to the ...

, with "weeping beech tree" * Lefferts Historic House *

Lewis H. Latimer House The Lewis H. Latimer House, also called the Latimer House or the Lewis Latimer House, is a historic house located at 34–41 137th Street in Flushing, Queens, New York City. It was constructed in the Queen Anne style of architecture between 188 ...

* The Little Red Lighthouse *

Merchant's House Museum The Merchant's House Museum, known formerly as the Old Merchant's House and as the Seabury Tredwell House, is the only nineteenth-century family home in New York City preserved intact—both inside and out. Built "on speculation" in 1832 by J ...

* Morris-Jumel Mansion * The Old Stone House *

Seguine Mansion The Seguine Mansion, also known as The Seguine-Burke Mansion, is located on Lemon Creek near the southern shore of Staten Island. The Greek Revival house is one of the few surviving examples of 19th Century life on Staten Island. It is listed ...

Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre is a building in Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, southeast of the Delacorte Theater near West Drive and 79th Street. It was imported to the U.S. in 1876 as Sweden’s exhibit for the Centennial ...

* Valentine-Varian House *

Van Cortlandt House The Van Cortlandt House Museum, also known as the Frederick Van Cortlandt House or simply the Van Cortlandt House, is the oldest building in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is located in the southwestern portion of Van Cortlandt P ...

Museum * The Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum

National Parks of New York Harbor

Despite its name,

National Parks of New York Harbor National Parks of New York Harbor is the name of an office of the National Park Service that coordinates administration of eleven NPS sites that include 23 unique destinations located in the New York metropolitan area. National Parks of New York ...

does not oversee any national parks proper. *

African Burial Ground National Monument African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. ...

Castle Clinton National Monument Castle Clinton (also known as Fort Clinton and Castle Garden) is a circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1808 to 1811, it was the first American immigration station, predating ...

Federal Hall National Memorial Federal Hall is a historic building at 26 Wall Street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The current Greek Revival–style building, completed in 1842 as the Custom House, is operated by the National Park Service as a nati ...

* Fort Wadsworth * General Grant National Memorial * Governors Island/ Governors Island National Monument *

Hamilton Grange National Memorial Hamilton Grange National Memorial, also known as The Grange or the Hamilton Grange Mansion, is a National Park Service site in St. Nicholas Park, Manhattan, New York City, that preserves the relocated home of U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hami ...

* Statue of Liberty National Monument (including Ellis Island,

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

) * Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

World Trade Center site

International Freedom Center The International Freedom Center (IFC) was a proposed museum to be located adjacent to the site of Ground Zero at the former World Trade Center in New York City, USA. It was selected in 2004 to comprise a "cultural space" near to the memorial f ...

National September 11 Memorial & Museum The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) is a memorial and museum in New York City commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombi ...

*''

Tribute in Light The ''Tribute in Light'' is an art installation created in remembrance of the September 11 attacks. It consists of 88 vertical searchlights arranged in two columns of light to represent the Twin Towers. It stands six blocks south of the Worl ...

Other historic sites

* Brooklyn Navy Yard, building 92 * Fort Schuyler * Lower East Side Tenement Museum *

Irish Hunger Memorial The Irish Hunger Memorial is a park at the corner of Vesey Street and North End Avenue in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The memorial is dedicated to raising awareness of the Great Irish Hunger, referred to a ...

* Trinity Churchyard *

Weeksville Heritage Center The Weeksville Heritage Center is a historic site on Buffalo Avenue between St. Marks Avenue and Bergen Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. It is dedicated to the preservation of Weeksville, one of America's first free black commu ...

Libraries

* Biblioteca Instituto Cervantes *

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

** Central Library ** List of Brooklyn Public Library branches * Columbia University Libraries ** Arthur W. Diamond Law Library **

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is a library located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the New York City. It is the largest architecture library in the world. Serving Columbia's Graduate Schoo ...

Butler Library Butler Library is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University at 535 West 114th Street, in Manhattan, New York City. It is the university's largest single library with over 2 million volumes, as well as one of the largest bui ...

C.V. Starr East Asian Library The C.V. Starr East Asian Library is a library at Columbia University, holding collections for the study of East Asia in the United States. It is one of the largest East Asian libraries in North America, consisting of over one million volumes of C ...

Gottesman Libraries The Gottesman Libraries is located in Russell Hall at Teachers College, Columbia University at 525 West 120th Street, and is the sole library of Teachers College graduate school. It is one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive research lib ...

Rare Book & Manuscript Library The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is principal repository for special collections of Columbia University. Located in New York City on the university's Morningside Heights campus, its collections span more than 4,000 years, from early Mesopotam ...

* Cloisters Library and Archives * Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum * Dag Hammarskjöld Library *

Elmer Holmes Bobst Library The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library ( ), often referred to simply as Bobst Library or just Bobst, is the main library at New York University (NYU) in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The library is located at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia ...

at New York University * Frick Art Reference Library * The Morgan Library & Museum *

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...

Bronx Library Center The Bronx Library Center is a branch of the New York Public Library in the Fordham section of the Bronx in New York City. The library is located at 310 East Kingsbridge Road between Fordham Road and East 192nd Street, two blocks east of the G ...

** New York Public Library for the Performing Arts ** New York Public Library Main Branch **

Science, Industry and Business Library The Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) was a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) system in Midtown Manhattan. SIBL was created in 1996 when materials relating to science, business, and related fields were relocated fr ...

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

List of New York Public Library branches The New York Public Library system includes libraries in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. This page is organized by borough, and alphabetically. The boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens are supported by their own separate library systems. Res ...

New York Academy of Medicine Library New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

New York Society Library The New York Society Library (NYSL) is the oldest cultural institution in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the New York Society as a subscription library. During the time when New York was the capital of the United States, it was the de ...

* Queens Public Library ** List of Queens Public Library branches * Shevchenko Scientific Society

References

External links

* * * *
Directory of Special Libraries and Information Centers (Gale)
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Museums And Cultural Institutions In New York City New York City museums and cultural institutions * Museums and cultural institutions Museums and cultural institutions New York City museums and cultural institutions New York City

Museums

Encyclopedic

Region and tradition

African and African American

Asian and Asian American

Indigenous and African Caribbean in Latin America

European Jewish and Jewish American

Western by era

=Traditional European art

=Modern art

Other Western and Native American

Artistic medium

Books, drawings, illustrations, prints

Photography, film, new media

Sculpture

Design, decorative arts, architecture

Entertainment

Performing arts

Amusements

Science

History

American history, local history, historic monuments

Military, police, fire

Transportation and maritime

Financial

Historic houses

Children's

Contemporary spaces

Contemporary museums

Contemporary galleries

Neighborhood art centers

Miscellaneous

Defunct museums

Proposed museums

Zoos and gardens

Performing arts

Lincoln Center

Music

Theaters

Historically significant sites

Historic House Trust

National Parks of New York Harbor

World Trade Center site

Other historic sites

Libraries

See also

References

External links