10. There’s a tiny museum in a freight elevator
One of NYC’s top 10 off-the-radar museums, Mmuseumm is a tiny museum housed in a freight elevator on Cortlandt Alley on the Tribeca/Chinatown border. Founded by entrepreneur Alex Kalman and filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie, Mmuseumm is a self-described “modern natural history museum” featuring an annually changing eccentric collection of objects displayed behind glass on shelves. A past exhibition included bullet-proof Disney backpacks, potato chip packets from around the world, and splatters of fake vomit.
In 2015, Kalman debuted Mmuseumm 2, a storefront window exhibition space next to the original Mmuseumm. For this even smaller space, Kalman’s mother, the artist Maira Kalman, recreated her mother Sara Berman’s closet. According to the New York Times, “The cable-knit sweaters, lace-up shoes and spare accessories that were once neatly arranged in her West Village apartment, along with mementos like her perfume and her box grater, are now displayed behind a pane of glass, like a diorama of compressed urban life.”
Next, read about the top 10 secrets of Chinatown and the top 10 secrets of the Financial District!
