From the great outdoors to the halls of a gorgeous space that was once the Bank of New York, New York City museums are in endless supply.
On a recent Saturday, I visited three of them:
The #DyckmanFarmhouseMuseum (DFM) situated near the northernmost tip of Manhattan Island.
The Museum of Arts and Design (#MAD) located off Columbus Circle in midtown.
The Museum of American Finance (#MOAF) housed down near the southern tip on Wall Street.
Uptown: Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
Perched above Broadway at 204th Street, this 1784 Dutch Colonial-style farmhouse is an historic site – an extraordinary reminder of early Manhattan and a step back in time.
The mission of the DFM Alliance is "to support preservation, to be a catalyst for engaging, programming and to be a dynamic resource for the community." As the last farmhouse in Manhattan, it’s a cultural asset for the city and the surrounding Inwood neighborhood.
The museum houses Dyckman family objects, on view as you wander from from to room, and floor to floor. Amateur archaeologists discovered thousands of more artifacts, many dating back to the Revolutionary War. Cannon balls, pottery shards, bayonet points and grapeshot were donated in 1916 by engineer and archaeologist Reginald Pelham Bolton. He helped create the Relic Room where many objects from the more than 5,000-strong collection are on rotating view. The collection also includes the archaeologists’ notes, storage boxes, and labels from the original exhibit.
Take that trip up to Inwood and visit this wonderful site from a bygone era. #WhatsHappeningInNewYork
Midtown: Museum of Arts and Design
MAD’s mission is to “collect, display, and interpret objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design” through exhibitions and educational programs.
I specifically went to see the exhibit, Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space with Sound, and it was delightful and educational, even for a somewhat tone deaf ear like mine. This multi-component exhibition features “interactive installations, immersive environments, and performing objects that explore how the ephemeral and abstract nature of sound is made material. Sonic Arcade explores sound as substance…[and creates] encounters that are not only heard, but felt.”
I particularly enjoyed the Foo/Skou sound experience where shapes and touch-reactive sculptures driven by conductive ink serve as the instruments to create a graphic score.
Highly recommended! It’s exciting to see projects by artists, designers and performers as they use sound to drive their work. Through 25 february. #WhatsHappeningInNewYork
Downtown: Museum of American Finance
MOAF is the nation's only independent public museum dedicated to celebrating entrepreneurship and the democratic free market tradition. It’s core mission is “to preserve, exhibit and teach about American finance and financial history.”
Filled with historic objects and ephemera from the worlds of finance and politics, and legacies of the one and only Alexander Hamilton, some of the many exhibits included the permanent The Financial Markets, about Wall Street’s history and processes. Also on view were showings of historic currencies and African-American commemorative coins and treasures from the vault, some never-before seen, such as the National Cash Register of 1913 and IPO lucite deal toys.
Definitely worth a visit for the collection, the building itself, and the Wall Street area. #WhatsHappeningInNewYork
Photos: © 2017 Janet Giampietro.
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