Kick off 2020 with an adventure as an Untapped New York Insider ! Insiders have access to an ever changing series of behind-the-scenes tours and special events that take place all year long. We are starting the year with a free preview of Untapped New York’s brand new coffee tasting tour, a trip to an immersive art and retail space, a curator led walkthrough at the Grolier Club, and more. We closed out 2019 with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Art Students League, a special visit inside the Tiffany glass archives and an all-access tour of Madison Square Garden. Check out all of the events happening this first month of the new decade. Not an Insider yet? Become a member today to gain access to behind-the-scenes tours and special events all year long!
Sunday, January 5th and Tuesday, January 7th – Explore House of SHOWFIELDS, an Immersive Art and Retail Experience
Photograph Courtesy of Showfields
Immerse yourself in the funky art and fun products at House of Showfields, a revolutionary new art and retail space in Manhattan! Untapped New York Insiders are invited to get a top to bottom look at this innovative new space filled with interactive art installations and pop up shops. The experience will start at The Loft, the top floor of the building, where special events are held. After exploring The Loft, Insiders will dive into the House of Showfields. A short slide down to the second floor transports you into an immersive theatre experience that bridges art and retail. Here you will get to touch, smell, eat, and test all products and artwork onsite. House of Showfields is a self-guided experience, but Insiders will have a personal guide who will share more in-depth knowledge on each art installation. After experiencing the magic realism of House of Showfields, you will have the chance to shop the site’s unique brands and grab a snack or cup of coffee at the cafe.
January 8th – Preview Las Fridas, a Play About Artist Frida Kahlo
Photograph by Reiko Yanagi
Watch a dress rehearsal of Las Fridas presented at the Mark DeGarmo Dance Studio Theater 310. This 60-minute duet is inspired by the life and work of Mexican painter and revolutionary, Frida Kahlo. The work explores a transcultural, transdisciplinary art, theater, and performance space, while the sum of its two parts suggests a strange new surrealistic view of Frida’s life and traumas. It is inspired by the duality of sun and moon, mother and child, sacred and secular, ancient and current as they appear in Kahlo’s artwork. Las Fridas challenges its audiences to examine their own history, heritage and assumptions about Kahlo, gender, power relations and aging. The implicit question the work proposes is: “What might Frida Kahlo’s life been like had she lived beyond the age of 47?” The performance was directed, and choreographed by Mark DeGarmo, who also plays a role alongside performer Marie Baker-Lee, Performer.
Friday, January 10th – Explore the Rare Book Room Collections at NYC’s Academy of Medicine Library
Take part in an intimate lunchtime tour of the beautiful Rare Book Room at the New York Academy of Medicine’s historical library. Inside the Rare Book Room, guests will see milestone anatomical illustrations, surgical texts, historical artifacts, and books on a range of topics, including alchemy, cookery, botany, natural history, and New York city history. Texts and ephemera inside the collection date back to as late as the 15th century! The experience will be led by Arlene Shaner, the Historical Collections Librarian at the New York Academy of Medicine. The Academy Library began with only a three-volume set in January 1847 and was originally intended only for the use of the Medical College of the University of New York City Fellows. By the time the Library opened its doors to the general public in October 1878, the collection had grown to over 6,000 volumes.
Sunday, January 12th – George McAneny’s New York Walking Tour and Federal Hall Exhibit
Celebrate the legacy of a legendary planner, preservationist and civic leader on a tour of George McAneny’s New York. Led by historian and tour guide Lucie Levine in honor of McAneny’s 150th birthday, Insiders will stop by historic sites of Lower Manhattan to learn the story of the man known as “The People’s Planner” and “The Anti-Robert Moses.” The tour will end inside Federal Hall where Insiders will get to explore the Magnificent Mr. McAneny exhibit and admire the building’s stunning rotunda. Federal Hall, where McAneny is honored with a marble plaque, is one of the many buildings he fought to save. In fact, McAneny is one of only two people permanently honored at the site – the other is George Washington. The Magnificent Mr. McAneny is on view from December 20, 2019 through January 31, 2020, and an accompanying speaker series is scheduled with events throughout January.
Wednesday, January 15th – Make Your Way Out of The Escape Game – Gold Rush
Photograph Courtesy of The Escape Game
Find the gold and escape the miner’s cabin before others come hunting for it! That is your objective in the Gold Rush room at The Escape Game, a new escape room experience in New York City. Located minutes from Grand Central Terminal inside the historic Lefcourt Colonial Building, The Escape Game is a subterranean amusement park of five different escape rooms. Each custom designed room immerses you in a unique world full of puzzles, tricks, and surprises. Teams of 2-12 have one hour to complete a series of task that will unlock the room. Insiders are invited to take part in a members-only game inside the Gold Rush room, or the Prison Break room!
Registration opens Wednesday, January 1st at 12PM EST
Wednesday, January 15th – Make Your Way Out of The Escape Game – Prison Break
Photograph Courtesy of The Escape Game
Could you break out of a prison cell? That is your objective in the Prison Break room at The Escape Game, a new escape room experience in New York City. Located minutes from Grand Central Terminal inside the historic Lefcourt Colonial Building, The Escape Game is a subterranean amusement park of five different escape rooms: The Heist, Gold Rush, Prison Break, Special Ops: Mystery Market and the Playground. Each custom designed room immerses you in a unique world full of puzzles, tricks, and surprises. Teams of 2-12 have one hour to complete a series of task that will unlock the room.
Registration opens Wednesday, January 1st at 12PM EST
Saturday, January 18th – Experience Machine Hallucinations at Artechouse, Chelsea Market’s Hidden Digital Art Space
Discover ARTECHOUSE, a hidden digital art space in the basement of Chelsea Market. ARTECHOUSE is the first permanent space in New York City devoted to showing new media artworks. It takes up 6,000 square feet of what use to be the historic boiler room of the former Meatpacking District headquarters of the National Biscuit Company. The debut installation in this space is Machine Hallucinations, a mind-bending immersive experience by acclaimed digital artist Refik Anadol that uses artificial intelligence and photographs of New York City to tell a visual narrative.  Untapped New York Insiders were among the first to experience the exhibit back in September, and now Insiders have a chance to see the show before it closes in January 2020.
Registration opens Friday, January 3rd at 12PM EST
Thursday, January 23rd – Curator Led Walkthrough of the Women’s Work Exhibition at the Grolier Club
Photograph Courtesy by George Etheredge, Courtesy of the Grolier Club
Explore the new exhibition, Five Hundred Years of Women’s Work: The Lisa Unger Baskin Collection on a curator led tour at the illustrious Grolier Club. This exhibition upends the idea of women’s work being simply domestic duties. The artifacts on display in this first floor exhibition document the often obscured, forgotten, and overlooked work and intellectual contributions of women from the Renaissance to the modern era. The collection was carefully assembled over forty-five years by noted bibliophile, activist, collector, and Grolier Club member Lisa Unger Baskin, who will be leading the tour!
Registration opens Monday, January 9th at 12PM EST
Friday, January 24th and Saturday, January 25th – Members Only Preview of Untapped New York’s Greenwich Village Coffee Tour and Tasting
Be the first to experience Untapped New York’s brand new experience: Greenwich Village Coffee Tour and Tasting! On this tour led by expert tour guide Justin Rivers, Insiders will discover the surprising history of coffee in New York City while exploring its iconic birth place: Greenwich Village. We will learn how New York and coffee go hand-in-hand both in cultural and economic development. We will hear the story of one of the most successful coffee entrepreneur of the early 20th century, who’s first shop was in Grand Central and who was a woman! In between sampling coffee at some of the retailers that popularized America’s favorite beverage, you’ll get a crash course in coffee history from its ancient discovery in Africa to its sustainable farming movements of the past few years. We will also highlight many of Greenwich Village’s hidden historical gems, like the Minetta Brook, and explain their connection to coffee. By the end of this experience you will have tasted: an espresso, a drip coffee, chocolate covered coffee beans and a cappuccino… so you will be caffeinated!
Registration opens on Tuesday, January 10th at 12PM EST
See our full list of Untapped New York Insiders member events  and our upcoming public tours.
