As April starts this week, exciting spring activities are popping up around New York City. From outdoor movie screenings to walking tours around the city, check out 11 things to do this week:
Friday, March 29th
Aspiring art collectors on a budget can start building their collection this weekend at the Affordable Art Fair at the Metropolitan Pavilion. Pieces for sale start at $100 and max out at $10,000. This weekend long fair is family friendly with hands-on-workshops, kids activities and personal shopping experiences.
Rooftop Films’ free Friday night movie screenings are back! This Friday, catch a free screening of the Academy Award nominated film A Star is Born at Industry City in Sunset Park. Seating is first come first serve and food and beverages will be available for purchase from Industry City tenants.
It’s the last weekend to catch the Whitney Museum’s Andy Warhol retrospective. Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again features over 350 pieces of Warhol’s art that span the entirety of his four decade career and is the first retrospective of his work produced in the United States since 1989. The exhibit closes on Sunday, March 31st.
Uncover the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal on Untapped Cities’ expert-led tour. Learn what the station was like in the booming age of the railroad, as a rundown embarrassment, and as a renovated jewel at the center of the city while uncovering the treasure hidden within its over 100-year old structure. Whether you pass through it every day on your morning commute or stroll through the Beaux Arts beauty for the first time, you are sure to leave having learned, seen, or experienced something new and extraordinary.T
Tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal
Saturday, March 30th
Use the New York City subway as your personal time machine as you travel through stations past and present on Untapped Cities’ underground tour. Start at the birthplace of the subway, City Hall Park, which sits above the famously abandoned City Hall Station, and travel through over subway 100-years of history while uncovering art, quirky stories, and fascinating facts.
Underground Tour of the NYC Subway
Round out Women’s History Month with a visit to the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace where there will be a special exhibit on Theodate Pope Riddle, the first licensed female architect in New York State and the architect of the Roosevelt birthplace. In addition to the exhibit, which will be on view throughout the weekend, the The National Parks Service will also lead a special guided architecture tour.
Sunday, March 31st
Discover what remains of New York City’s colonial past on Untapped Cities’ Remnants of Dutch New Amsterdam tour! Walk the original street grid of Manhattan, touch an 18th century ruin, hear tales of the Revolution and more on this walking tour of Lower Manhattan.
Tour of The Remnants of Dutch New Amsterdam
See our full lists of upcoming public tours and Insider events!
Mark the end of Women’s History Month by celebrating the women who fought for the right to vote at the Museum of Interesting Things’ Suffragette Secret Speakeasy. Guests are encouraged to wear suffragette colors, green, white or violet and Victorian or Edwardian costumes. There will be various antiques on display and available for guests to handle as well as music playing on vintage LPs, 16mm film screenings, guest performances, a cash bar, and free snacks. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door.
Monday, April 1st
Join the curator of the Brooklyn Historical Society’s exhibition On the (Queer) Waterfront and author of When Brooklyn Was Queer Hugh Ryan, aalong with historian and CUNY professor, Daniel Hurewitz, and Sherill Tippins, author of the book February House for a discussion on the intersection of LGBTQ identity and creativity. The talk, The Queer Creative Impulse: Artistic Expression and Gender Identity, will be moderated by the senior managing producer of the Slate Podcast Network, June Thomas, founder of Outward, Slate’s LGBTQ section. This event is presented in conjunction with BHS’s new exhibition “On the (Queer) Waterfront.”
Tuesday, April 2nd
Visit the The River Project’s Wetlab during the first Wetlab Look-In of the season from 2pm through 5pm. Look-Ins are free and open to the public and offer visitors a 20-30 minute tour of the Project’s aquarium facility as well as a hands-on activity. Tuesday’s Look-In will focus on plankton and the role they play in the ecology of the river. Visitors will learn how to take samples using a plankton tow net and get to use microscopes to investigate living plankton up close.
Wednesday, April 3rd
Enjoy an evening of literary discovery inside the Payne Whitney Mansion, home of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the Albertine bookstore, at the Albertine Prize Launch Party & Live Reading. The Albertine Prize is an annual reader’s choice award for best French fiction in English. Throughout the evening, the five nominated titles will be revealed as actors stationed throughout the first three floors of the Gilded Age Townhouse read excerpts from the selected books. The readings will be followed by a cocktail reception will conclude the evening. The event is free but registration is required.
Thursday, April 4th
Join historian, librarian and sailor Andrew Wilson for an “armchair cruise” around the Lost Lighthouses of New York Harbor at the National Lighthouse Museum in Staten Island. Discover underwater bells, lightships at Governor’s Island and Sandy Hook, the lights of Newark Bay, the world’s largest gun at Romer Shoals, the Bergen Point Light by the Bayonne Bridge, and more beacons that once aided ships travelling through the old port of New York.
