New York can be a magical place for museumgoers. It also can be overwhelming and overcrowded at times, especially at the biggest, most famous museums. Luckily, the city has scores of great museums to choose from: Everything from small and quirky, to elegant gems housed in historic mansions, to preserved Lower East Side tenement apartments and hands-on experiences that might surprise even longtime New Yorkers.
“Going to the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the American Museum of Natural History is fantastic. But they can be like a big super-sized coffee drink, while we’re more like a cup of espresso,” says Alex Kalman, director of two of the city’s tiniest museums, Mmuseumm1 and Mmuseumm2. One is built into an old elevator shaft in a downtown alleyway.
At other small museums you’ll find a cozy, Viennese-style coffee shop; kosher Jewish comfort food; and edgy gift shops. You could view the chair that George Washington sat in before giving his inaugural address to Congress. Or you might make seltzer or solve math puzzles.
Here’s some of what’s happening at NYC’s “other” museums: This museum, housed in a 1914 Gilded Age mansion that was once home to society doyenne Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, focuses on art and design from Austria and Germany. Its Cafe Sabarsky is a destination of its own, with 1912 upholstery, period decor, and a grand piano in the corner used for cabaret, chamber and classical music performances.
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