Top 17 museums in New York City

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds tens of thousands of objects across more than 5,000 years of art at its two sites in New York City. Established in 1870, the Met is the biggest art museum in the US, housing a huge collection at both the Met Fifth Avenue and the Met Cloisters.

The main building at Fifth Avenue is one of the world’s largest art galleries. Visitors can also enjoy the Met Cloisters, a smaller location with an extensive collection of art, architecture and artefacts.

In 2022, the Met selected Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to design its $500 million modern and contemporary art wing. She will be the first woman to design a wing at the museum in NYC. The designs for the new wing were revealed in 2024.

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, which has been under renovation since 2021, reopens in 2025. The reimagined presentation will show objects from Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania in distinct spaces. 

The museum has also announced a project to develop a gallery for the Costume Institute’s annual spring show. Fundraising for the initiative is being led by Met trustee Anna Wintour.

Sofie Andersen, head of digital content, previously spoke to blooloop about the museum’s digital strategy. In 2025, it launched its first Web3-based experience, a new blockchain-powered smartphone game called Art Links.

The Whitney Museum of American Art was established in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and first welcomed visitors in 1931. In 1954, the institution moved to a larger site before opening the Marcel Breuer-designed building in 1963.

The current building opened in 2015 and holds a wide variety of 20th century and contemporary American art, focusing on works by living artists. Designed by Renzo Piano, the Whitney’s latest home is located between the High Line and the Hudson River and significantly increased the exhibition and programming space.

The permanent collection includes over 26,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, films, videos, and new media by more than 3,800 artists.

In 2023, the Whitney appointed Latinx art specialist Marcela Guerrero as DeMartini Family Curator. In the same year, Scott Rothkopf became the museum’s director, following Adam Weinberg, who stepped down after 20 years.

In 2024, the Whitney began offering free admission to all visitors aged 25 and under. This initiative expands on the museum’s existing free entry programmes, including free Friday nights and second Sundays, and its long-standing free admission for visitors aged 18 and under.

The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), one of the biggest natural history museums in the world, is arranged across 26 interconnected buildings. Established in 1869, AMNH has 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and library.

AMNH is known for its exhibitions and scientific collections, which serve as a field guide to the planet. The museum’s collection contains over 34 million specimens of plants, fossils, animals, minerals, rocks, meteorites and human remains. 

In 2023, AMNH opened the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. Costing $465 million, the development contains research facilities, scientific collections, new exhibits, an insectarium, and a butterfly vivarium. 

In the same year, Sean Decatur, was announced as president of the American Museum of Natural History. A biophysical chemist with a doctorate from Stanford University, Decatur is the institution’s first African American president.

Founded in 1897, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is home to innovative exhibitions, educational programmes and online resources.

The Smithsonian museum boasts one of the world’s most diverse and comprehensive design collections, with over 210,000 objects spanning 3,000 years. These include drawings, prints, graphic design, product design, decorative arts and textiles. Located in New York’s Carnegie Mansion, this acclaimed museum covers four floors of galleries dedicated to design.

Maria Nicanor, an architecture and design curator and historian, was announced as the new director of Cooper Hewitt in February 2022.

Carolyn Royston, then chief experience officer of Cooper Hewitt, spoke to blooloop in 2020 about merging digital and physical elements to create an integrated visitor experience.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is an internationally acclaimed art museum, cultural centre and educational institution in NYC. It has a reputation as one of the world’s top museums. It was founded by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, before opening in a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1959.

The Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in 1997 and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice launched in 1951. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is in development and due to open in 2026.

New York’s Guggenheim Museum is a permanent home for a growing collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art. 

Art historian Mariët Westermann was appointed as its new director and CEO in 2023 and succeeded Richard Armstrong, who had served at the institution for 14 years. In 2023, the institution also announced Noam Segal as its first associate curator of art and technology.

Founded in 1929, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York cares for a vast collection of more than 200,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, objects and models. Key works include Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’, Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ and Pablo Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’. 102,000 pieces are available to view online.

In 2020, over 250 new works were installed throughout 30 galleries on all floors of the museum. The expanded MoMA reopened in October 2019 following an investment of $450m.

“The real value of this expansion is not more space, but space that allows us to rethink the experience of art in the museum,” said Glenn D Lowry, the David Rockefeller director. The expansion was developed by MoMA with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, in collaboration with Gensler.

The Museum of Modern Art hired four women to its leadership team in October 2021.

In 2024, the museum announced that Lowry, its longest-serving director, will step down from his post in September 2025.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art was founded by Marcia Tucker, a curator at the Whitney, in 1977. It is a leading museum for new art and ideas, and is Manhattan’s only dedicated contemporary art museum. In 2007, the New Museum reopened in its current home with facilities including a theatre, five floors of gallery space and a Sky Room with spectacular views of lower Manhattan.

Back in 2019, the New Museum announced plans for a new second building designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in partnership with Cooper Robertson The building will replace the current space, The New Museum is opting to start from scratch instead of renovating.

“The OMA design will provide seamless connectivity and horizontal flow between the two buildings, expanded space for our world renowned exhibitions, and access to some of our most innovative programs that the public currently cannot see,” said the museum’s director, Lisa Phillips.

The seven-storey, 60,000-square-foot structure is set to open in fall 2025. It will feature three floors of gallery space, doubling the museum’s exhibition space. Other areas will be used for community and educational initiatives, a lasting base for NEW INC (the museum’s cultural incubator), and enhanced public facilities.

Another of New York’s top museums is the Brooklyn Museum – one of the largest and oldest art museums in the United States. Established in 1895, the institution features art by Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell and Georgia O’Keeffe.

Spread across 560,000 square feet, this is the third largest museum in NYC and boasts a collection which represents nearly every culture on the earth. The building was designed by American architects McKim, Mead & White and launched in 1897. A major renovation project was undertaken in the late 20th century.

In early 2022, the Brooklyn Museum announced two new leadership positions, with Adjoa Jones de Almeida and Carolyn Royston taking on the roles of deputy director for learning and social impact and deputy director for engagement, respectively. Royston formerly served as chief experience officer at Cooper Hewitt.

Located on NYC’s Museum Mile, the Jewish Museum was established in 1904 and is one of the world’s oldest Jewish museums. The first of its kind in the US, the museum is dedicated to art and Jewish culture and is home to diverse exhibitions and programmes that combine art and artefacts.

The institution cares for a collection of almost 30,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, archaeological artefacts, ceremonial objects and media. These span more than 4,000 years of Jewish history.

The French Gothic style building has housed the museum since 1947, with significant expansions in the 1960s and 1990s. 

One recent exhibition, ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’, tells the tale of the Ephrussi family, recognised in Edmund de Waal’s 2010 memoir of the same name. Diller Scofidio + Renfro worked closely with the Jewish Museum and de Waal to create an interpretive installation using family and loaned artefacts.

James S. Snyder was appointed as director in 2023, and succeeded Claudia Gould who had served in the role for 12 years.

Merchant’s House Museum is the only 19th century family home in New York that is preserved intact. The house was constructed in 1832, and was established as a museum in 1936 by a cousin of the Tredwell family, who lived there between 1835 and 1933.

The collection of more than 4,500 items comprises the Tredwells’ possessions, including furniture, decorative arts, clothing, photographs, books and household items.

One of New York’s top museums, Merchant’s House Museum explores the domestic life of the wealthy merchant family through public education programmes, exhibitions and collections.

In 1966, it was recognised as a National Historic Landmark. In 1977, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Founded in 1804, The New York Historical is New York City’s oldest museum. Its collections include more than 10 million items, from art and objects to artefacts and documents.

The museum is now expanding its building on Central Park West, in a project that is set to add more than 70,000 square feet of space. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the development will also house the American LGBTQ+ Museum. The new offering will explore the history and culture of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people through exhibitions and programmes.

Louise Mirrer, the president and CEO of the New York Historical, said: “How gratifying it is to realize the dream of telling the American story in all its complexity in state-of-the-art educational spaces and a brand-new gallery dedicated to the struggle for civil rights of the American LGBTQ+ community.”

In 2024, the organisation revealed its new wing for American democracy will open in 2026 in time for the 250th anniversary of the US.

In the same year, it also changed its name from New-York Historical Society to the New York Historical, deleting the hyphen, and removing the word “society” to show that the institution is welcoming to all.

The Frick Collection, an art museum and research centre in New York City, originated with Henry Clay Frick, who left his paintings and sculptures to the public. Since the Frick opened in 1935, it has more than doubled in size.

In 2021, the museum moved to a temporary space, Frick Madison, while renovations were undertaken at its permanent home, the Henry Clay Frick House. Designed by Selldorf Architects, the project sought to create new spaces to display art and improve amenities. 

Speaking to blooloop about the $290m renovation of Henry Clay Frick House, director Ian Wardropper said: “One of the principal changes will be that we are opening up the second floor of the original mansion. Those are the private family rooms; the bedrooms, breakfast room, studies, and spaces like that, which are smaller scale than the rooms downstairs.

“It will give us about 25% more space to show our collection. That is a big factor because our collection has continued to grow over the years, and more and more things have been going into storage. Once we move back, we’ll be able to bring out the collection more.”

In addition, the renovated building will have a new dedicated special exhibition space and an education centre. Improvements have also been made to the museum’s infrastructure and its accessibility.

In early 2025, the institution announced the reopening of the Henry Clay Frick House on 17 April 2025.

The Studio Museum in Harlem has been closed since 2018 for an expansion project and is set to reopen to visitors in fall 2025. It will feature extensive exhibition, education, and programme spaces, and enhanced public amenities.

Founded by a diverse group of artists, community activists, and philanthropists, the museum is known for its role in promoting the work of artists of African descent.

The Studio Museum’s permanent collection includes approximately 9,000 artworks by artists such as Romare Bearden, Dawoud Bey, Jordan Casteel, Barkley L. Hendricks, Seydou Keïta, Norman Lewis, Lorraine O’Grady and Faith Ringgold.

Other artists of African descent that will feature across the museum when it opens include Houston E. Conwill, David Hammons and Glenn Ligon.

Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, said:

“Taken in its entirety, our collection traces, as few institutions can, a history of creativity by artists of African descent that we will continue to nurture far into the future.”

The Tenement Museum is located in two historic tenement buildings in the Lower East Side neighbourhood of Manhattan. These buildings were home to an estimated 15,000 people from more than 20 nations between 1863 and the turn of the 21st century.

The Tenement Museum is a leading cultural and educational institution in New York, welcoming more than 278,000 visitors annually. Established in 1988 by historian Ruth Abram and social activist Anita Jacobsen, the museum focuses on the American story of immigration.

Dr Annie Polland became the museum’s president in 2021, succeeding Dr Morris J Vogel. “What the Tenement Museum does is nothing short of magical – bringing strangers together on an immersive tour of history, inspiring them to draw connections between past and present, and in the process forging connections with one another,” said Polland.

The Climate Museum is the first museum in the US dedicated to climate change. It seeks to inspire action on climate change through arts and science programming that raises awareness, connects people, and advances fair solutions.

The museum was founded in 2015 by the former civil rights lawyer Miranda Massie, who spoke to blooloop about its climate mission.

She says: “The way people embrace that invitation to become a climate protagonist has just blown us away. It’s profound. It exceeds our wildest hopes and dreams.”

The museum’s 2023/4 exhibition The End of Fossil Fuel examined the industry’s history of racism and deception.

Exhibitions are shown in temporary gallery spaces and public spaces in New York City. In 2024, the Climate Museum announced that it had secured a permanent home in New York. A new 24,000-square-foot space at 418 11th Avenue in Hudson Yards will be designed by architecture firm FXCollaborative.

Another of New York’s top museums is the Morgan Library & Museum. Previously known as the Pierpont Morgan Library, this is a museum and research library in Manhattan that started out as the personal library of financier, collector and cultural benefactor J.P. Morgan.

Its collection includes manuscripts, rare books, music, drawings and works of art. The main building was constructed between 1902 and 1906 for $1.2 million.

The largest expansion in the Morgan Library & Museum’s history, designed by Renzo Piano, was completed in 2006. The project increased exhibition space by more than 50 percent and added visitor facilities including a performance hall, café, restaurant, shop, reading room and collections storage.

Henry Collins Brown founded The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), a history and art museum in Manhattan, in 1923. The museum was originally located in Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York City. MCNY’s current home on Fifth Avenue was completed in 1932.

This New York-based museum‘s collection includes approximately 750,000 objects, spanning prints, photographs, decorative arts, costumes, sculptures, toys and paintings.

Whitney Donhauser served as director and president of the Museum of the City of New York from 2016 to 2022. “I think our ability to capture the excitement of New York and to be a thought leader for everything around New York, is all building towards that celebration,” she told blooloop.