We’re approaching the middle of January! Here is what our editors have picked for things to do in NYC in the upcoming week, including the return of the No Pants Subway Ride, access to a rare book room, free events at The Shed, book talks and more.
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. Tour is at noon, sign up to become a member to join!
Haven’t checked out The Shed in Hudson Yards yet? On Saturday, The Shed will transform all of its spaces for a free one-day-only celebration featuring with exhibitions, special performances and DJs, food, and more. Explore the building, catch special performances from Shed artists, and enjoy admission to exhibitions Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates and Manual Override—all for free!
Have you read The Masterpiece about Grand Central Terminal yet? Join us for our next tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminalthis Saturday to learn about the lost art school, hidden tennis courts and more!
The Morris Jumel Mansion is hosting its Con Edison Family Day: Colonial Life at the Mansion from 12 – 2 PM. Discover colonial life at the Mansion by exploring the period rooms, and then visit colonial kitchen to create colonial crafts, as Museum educators guide you through the process of making corn husk figures and herb sachets. Draw connections between the past and present by comparing and contrasting Colonial life, tools, and toys with your contemporary world.
Sunday, January 12th
It’s the annual No Pants Subway Ride from Improv Everywhere! The event begins at Foley Square in Manhattan, and pants-less participants head off from there on different subway lines. The rules remain as before, with the participants supposed to act normally and pretend they don’t know each other.
The Queens Museum, one of our Untapped New York Insiders Museum Partners, is hosting the last day of the Community Partnership Exhibition Worker’s Studio: El Co-op. The Workers’ Studio: El Co-op is a series of collaborative art projects that use art as a tool for worker-led organizing. The Workers’ Studio is nomadic, and functions mostly in Day Laborers’ Worker Centers as a weekly encounter facilitated by the artist Sol Aramendi. Workers use the studio to create art projects that support their organizing and advocacy. This exhibition features a series of photographs, writing and works created by the participants.
Catch the last showing of a play about Frida Kahlo. Las Fridas, presented at the Mark DeGarmo Dance Studio Theater 310, is a 60-minute duet 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. Dates are not just on Monday but also on the Friday, Saturday, Sunday leading up.
The Poster House is hosting the tour Money Snakes & Revenge Ghosts at 6:30 PM in partnership with Morbid Anatomy. Join Poster House Chief Curator, Angelina Lippert, as she explores hidden beliefs and practices in Ghana as they are revealed in movie posters from the 80s and 90s. This tour focuses on Baptized by Beefcake: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, an exhibition chronicling a brief period in the country’s history when Pentecostalism, local superstition, and American pop culture collided to create a multi-layered, over-the-top form of advertising.
The Museum at Eldridge Street one of our Untapped New York Insiders Museum Partners is hosting Dig Your Roots, a genealogy workshop at the Center for Jewish History’s Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute. The CJH team is opening the doors to its research library after-hours just for this evenet. It’s a special opportunity to have some of the world’s most experienced family history researchers and genealogists introduce you to the best ways to trace your roots.
Thursday, January 16th
Photo courtesy Project Assemble
If you like events such as the MP3 Project and other guerrilla events, definitely check out Project Assemble, a secret choose-your-own-adventure performance/art show that transforms the mundane spaces of a well-known store in New York City into a series of worlds, fantasies and meditations. Project Assemble is part of the Exponential Festival. The event will take place over the course of three weekends in January, starting January 16th in a yet-to-be-disclosed location in New York City. As an Untapped New York Insider, you can attend a show on opening weekend for free (from Thursday to Sunday).
Brian Rose, author of the book Atlantic City, a haunting photograph documentation of the decline of the seaside destination, will be giving a presentation and book signing at Cooper Union at 6:30 PM. There will be a slide talk followed by a discussion and Q&A from the audience. Books will be available for purchase and signing, and he’ll be donating 50% of the proceeds to Cooper Union.
Photograph Courtesy of The Escape Game
