Category: VisitingaMuseum.com

New York Transit Museum Gallery 89 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10001

New York Transit Museum Gallery 89 East 42nd Street New York, NY 10001

New York Transit Museum Gallery

89 East 42nd Street

New York, NY 10001

(212) 878-0106

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Transit_Museum

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d9873833-Reviews-New_York_Transit_Museum-New_York_City_New_York.html

The NY Transit Museum Gallery inside Grand Central Station on the first floor

It is amazing to be in a building a record number of times and miss a small gallery that makes an impact on a visitor. This is how I felt when I entered Grand Central Station recently and discovered the New York Transit Museum Gallery. This little gem is tucked into a corner away from the ticket booths and Grand Hall and is free to the public.

The Gallery is a branch of the larger New York Transit Museum in downtown Brooklyn. This smaller space can be toured in about an hour which is perfect in case you need to spend some time in the terminal before your train.

The Gallery was showing an exhibition entitled “Transit Sketches” by six artists who were based in New York City over the last 100 years. It was nice to see different perspectives of the artist though the overall theme was still the same.

“Transit Sketches” at the New York Transit Gallery

Video by Burning Hammer Productions

Tired people going to and from work. Works featured were from artists Ebony Bolt, Marvin Franklin, Naomi Grossman, Joseph Solman, Amy Tenenouser and Hank Virgona. Each artist represented a different time in the subway system, and it was nice to see that nothing really has changed over the years with the exception of the iPhone has replaced the newspaper as a place to do your work on the subway.

Each artist had their own mini gallery show in each section of the museum gallery and all the works showed people after either getting to work in the morning or after a long day at work. It showed the human side of riding the subway and just wanting to get to our destination.

Artist Ebony Bolt created a series entitled “The Bolt Dairies”, where she drew sketches of people either reading or sleeping on the subways and most of the faces were looking down. I took this that she was secretly drawing them while they were content being distracted by whatever means possible from the other riders and the books were full of overlapping faces.

Artist Ebony Bolt on her work on the inspiration of the people on the subway

https://www.theboltdiaries.com/

Artist Naomi Grossman show her works with an interesting approach of capturing the moods of the passengers as they spent their time on the train almost wishing to get off at the next stop. It was a way of looking at the patrons and capturing them after a long day at work.

Artist Naomi Grossman

https://www.naomigrossman.com/

MTA worker and Artist Marvin Franklin’s work

Artist Marvin Franklin

http://thejadesphinx.blogspot.com/2015/06/sketches-of-marvin-franklin.html

Artist Marvin Franklin was an MTA worker who worked the lines as a track worker who died on the job in 2007. He was on the job with another worker picking up a non-working dolly on the track whose lights were out and the train operator who hit them did not see them (NY Times.com). His vision to see the people who disappeared after work and became part of the fabric of the City. He showed their stories in his art.

Joseph Solman Artist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Solman

Joseph Solman work on riders on the subway

Joseph Solman used to sketch people when they were involved in just trying to ignore what was going on around them. He caught people in a part of time of just trying to keep their space on the subway.

Artist Amy Tenenouser

https://amytenenouser.com/home.html

https://www.facebook.com/people/Amy-Tenenouser/646628208/

Artist Amy Tenenouser’s work also gives the patron a Birdseye view of average people living their lives and capturing them in a moment in time. She has a good view of the riders on the subway and a whimsical approach.

Artist Amy Tenenouser captures the everyday person.

Artist Hank Virgona

https://www.hankvirgonaart.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HankVirgona/

Hank Virgona’s work shows people in a state of mind

Hank Virgona’s career goes back to the Great Depression, and he captures like many of the artists in the exhibition the everyday person on the subway. Being a native New Yorker, he looks at the riders keeping an uncomfortable position keeping their space. I liked his work on the written word.

The newest exhibition is on the tunnel extension from Grand Central Terminal called the “Grand New Connection”:

The plans for the new tunnel in 1968

The East Side Access program

The new plans for the tunnel

The updates and pictures of what the tunnels are going to look like when finished

The exhibition was interesting at looking what progress in transportation can be in the modern age of New York City. The new boring machines can do a lot more that manmade labor was able to accomplish at the same time. It was interesting to see all these pictures.

In the corner of the gallery there is a very extensive gift shop that features hats with subway numbers and letters representing the routes they take, games, puzzles and books that are all railroad themed catering to both children and adults. It has a nice selection of products to choose from.

The best part of the New York Transit Gallery is that it is free and a nice way to spend the afternoon while waiting to get on your train.

The gift shop at the NY Transit Museum Gallery

The History of the Transit Museum:

(From the museum’s website)

Founded in 1976, the New York Transit Museum is dedicated to telling and preserving the stories of mass transportation-extraordinary engineering feats, workers who labored in the tunnels over 100 years ago, communities that were drastically transformed and the ever-evolving technology, design and ridership of a system that runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Housed underground in a authentic 1936 subway station in Downtown Brooklyn, the Transit Museum’s working platform level spans a full city block and is home to a rotating selection of twenty vintage subway and elevated cars dating back to 1907.

Visitors can board the vintage cars, sit at the wheel of a city bus, step through a time tunnel of turnstiles and explore changing exhibits that highlight the cultural, social and technology history and future of mass transit.

The New York Transit Museum is a self-supporting division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Friends of the New York Transit Museum, a 501c3 not-for-profit organization was established in 1995 to promote and raise funds for the Museum’s operations and programs.

Society of Illustrators Museum/Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art 128 East 63rd Street New York, NY 10065

Society of Illustrators Museum/Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art 128 East 63rd Street New York, NY 10065

Society of Illustrators Museum/Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art

128 East 63rd Street

New York, NY 10065

(212) 838-2560

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Illustrators

Homepage

Open: Sunday-Tuesday Closed/Wednesday-Saturday 11:00am-5:00pm

Admission: Adults $15.00/Seniors and Students $10.00/Members and Children under 10 free/US Veterans with Disability Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d136147-Reviews-Society_of_Illustrators-New_York_City_New_York.html

The entrance to the Society of Illustrators at 128 East 63rd Street

It is always nice when you discover a new museum. In all my years of walking around the Upper East Side, I had never noticed the Society of Illustrators, nor had I heard of it, but I am glad I have now. The museum is home in a stylish brownstone on a residential block away from the traditional “Museum Row” on Fifth Avenue.

The exhibits were on the main and lower floors of the main building with the special exhibitions on the third and fourth floors. The museum also had a very nice restaurant with an open terrace when it got warmer on the fourth floor. The restaurant has been closed since COVID closed the museum, but the bar is open for a drink.

The front door of the museum

On the first floor and lower level, the exhibition “Illustrators 64: Advertising, Institutional, Uncommissioned, Surface/Product Design categories”. The exhibition is a presentation of outstanding works of the year by leading contemporary illustrators worldwide. This exhibit had all sorts of interesting pieces ranging from advertising art to pastels and drawings of all sorts of subject matter. There was everything from animals skateboarding to commercial portraits. There were also unique works based on national brand companies and New York City themed works.

Society of Illustrators plaque

The second floor was the “Eric Godal: A Cartoonist’s Fight for Human Rights” exhibition that had cartoons that are still prevalent to today. As I read and admired the works by the illustrator, I can safely say that his works are just as contemporary now as they were then dealing with antisemitism during WWII in Europe. His works ridiculed the party and the Third Reich’s power over people who they deem “unsatisfactory”. He also showed the rise of the labor movement and big businesses reaction to it.

Artist Eric Godal’s works on social justice

In the fourth-floor restaurant, was the “Kent State: 4 Dead in Ohio” exhibition on the May 4th, 1970, incident on the Kent State campus. The college students there like college students all over the country were protesting the war and there had been many incidents over the months leading to the shooting.

The illustrated story boards tell the whole story of the four people who had been killed and how the whole incident had happened. It was fascinating to see how each of the people involved how their lives came about during that time and how it led them to that horrible day.

The book and exhibition by Derf Backderf’s book “Kent State”

The “128 Bar & Bistro” is currently only open at certain hours and the bistro part of the restaurant is currently closed and according to the bartender being revamped. It has not been that busy before the pandemic, so they have the bar section open only.

The outdoor terrace with its breathtaking views and planted edges will make for a nice place for a cocktail in the warmer months. The space is a nice place to relax after a long afternoon of touring the museum.

This is one of those rare museums in New York City that is fun to find and explore.

The Dining Room/Lounge that is a bar area for now

The History of the Society of Illustrators:

(From the Museum Website)

The Society of Illustrators’ mission is to promote the art of illustration, to appreciate its history and evolving nature through exhibitions, lectures and education and to contribute the service of its members to the welfare of the community at large.

The Society of Illustrators is the oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to the art of illustration in America. Notable Society members have been N.C. Wyeth, Rube Goldberg and Norman Rockwell among many others.

On February 1st, 1901, nine artists and one businessman founded the Society of Illustrators with the following credo: “The object of the Society shall be to promote generally the art of illustration and to hold exhibitions from time to time.” This simple dictum has held true for over a century.

At the time when illustration was in what has been called its Golden Age, the first monthly dinners were attended by prominent artists including Howard Pyle, Maxfield Parish, N.C. Wyeth, Charles Dana Gibson, Frederic Remington, James Montgomery Flagg, Howard Chandler Christy and special guests such as Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie.

Our museum of Illustration was established in 1981 under the stewardship of them president John Witt. We offer year round themed exhibitions, art education programs and annual juried competitions. Our Permanent Collection houses 2,500 pieces that are cataloged for scholarly use and displayed periodically. In 2012, we created the MoCCA Gallery with a focus on curated exhibitions of comic and cartoon art.

The Society of Illustrators is an organization of many layers, one which provides illustrators a center to discuss, demonstrate and exhibit their work, contributes to future artists and to the community at large, honors its preeminent practitioners, takes a stand on legal and ethical issues affecting the profession-and has a great dining room to boot!

As it faces the challenges of a swiftly changing future, the Society will continue to “promote generally the art of illustration,” as its founders dictated.

Ginseng Museum Cafe by CheongKwanJang 315 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016 (Store is Closing August 2025)

Ginseng Museum Cafe by CheongKwanJang 315 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016 (Store is Closing August 2025)

Ginseng Museum Cafe by CheongKwanJang (Store Closing August 2025)

315 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10016

(212) 685-1003

https://kgcus.com/

Open Sunday 12:00pm-6:00pm/Monday-Saturday 11:00am-7:00pm

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60763-d6809267-Reviews-Korean_Ginseng_Corp-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The Ginseng Museum Cafe by CheongKwanJang is a combination small museum of the development of the ginseng root for tea and its history, part cafe for tea and part store. This small store front is packed with information on the history and processing of ginseng.

The Ginseng Museum Cafe at 315 Fifth Avenue

To the right of the store, is the video history of the company and how they process and produce their product which is very interesting. The conditions that the ginseng is processed under may have advanced over the years but not by much. There is still a lot of care that is used to make the tea. There is also a display on the extractions.

The museum section of the store describes the process of producing ginseng

Next to it is the video history of the ginseng from its development to the processing and then the export and business of the product for trade from the 1800’s to today. It is impressive how the product is still very specialized and very expensive to produce and sell.

To the right of the store are all the products that the store sells from the extracts and teas to the roots themselves. Some of these items are worth several hundred dollars telling me that this is for a very particular customer.

The retail section of the Ginseng Museum Cafe

The combination store/museum tells the whole story of ginseng and a nice place to stop and not just sample the product but learn its story and history. There are also beautifully wrapped products for sale for all occasions.

It’s a beautiful little store in the heart of Koreatown in Manhattan.

The National Museum of Mathematics 225 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010

The National Museum of Mathematics 225 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010

The National Museum of Mathematics

225 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

(212) 542-0566

https://momath.org/

https://www.facebook.com/MoMath1/

Open: Sunday-Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm

Fee: Adults $25.00/Seniors-Children-Students $20.00/Members are Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d3726207-Reviews-National_Museum_of_Mathematics-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The Museum of Mathematics at 225 Fifth Avenue

https://momath.org/

In 2020, COVID had closed this unique little family orientated museum when I visited the NoMAD neighborhood earlier last year and it finally reopened for business right before the holidays. I could see the reasons why in that the museum is very interactive and there are a lot of activities and displays that warrant families touching objects and getting involved with the exhibitions.

The entrance to the new museum at 225 Fifth Avenue

Like most museums in Manhattan, the MoMATH or the Museum of Mathematics is quite pricey at $25.00 ($26.00) for an adult and for students, children over 12 and seniors over 60 it is $20.00. While it may be lot for an average family, a trip there is an eye-opening experience at least to me it was that day.

The sign welcoming you on Fifth Avenue

In 2021 when it reopened, the museum was two full floors of exhibitions with a spiral staircase separating the floors and a gift shop at the entrance. On the main floor there are interesting interactive exhibitions such as the Shapes of Space that show how different shapes fit together on a curved surface. I was not too sure what the point of it was, but the kids seemed to enjoy it and it was interesting to see how they connected. The Square wheeled Trike was interesting as you rode a square wheeled type of bike on a bumpy surface to check velocity. The kids and young parents really liked this.

The “Shapes of Space” exhibition

In 2024, the museum was moved around the corner until the permanent location could be finished. The museum was on one floor with a art gallery in the front of the museum and the back of the museum was all the interactive activities.

The Math “Fractorals” Gallery Exhibit at the Museum of Math

The “Fluids and Fractals” exhibition of artist Karl Sims

The Art Gallery exhibition

The art in the Gallery

The art gallery at the Museum of Mathematics

‘Light Grooves’ by artist Matthew Brandt

Artist Matthew Brandt

https://matthewbrandt.com/

Matthew Brandt is an American born artist. Matthew Brandt received his BFA from Cooper Union and MFA from UCLA. Brandt has been the subject of institutional solo shows at the Newark Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art and SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (Artist bio).

“Light Grooves”

The interactive display

The interactive display

The displays I enjoyed in the old museum were Motionscape, where you had to walk as fast as you could on the track to check the relationship between velocity, your position and acceleration. It was interesting to see how your body movements when walking affects the way you react. The other display that was really popular was Hoop Curves which was always busy. The exhibit used statistics and a robot arm to shoot the basketball. The kids got a real kick out of this when trying to make a basket.

In 2021, the museum was two stories but in 2024, the museum moved to the new Fifth Avenue location and all the interactive displays were on the first floor, along with an explanation of the math along with the creators of the theory. I found that interesting because you could see who all the mathematicians were who the projects were based on or who had contributed to them.

I started with the “Self-Reflections” exhibit where shapes and sizes mattered, and the use of symmetrical patterns shaped our faces and observations. I got to see how the shapes altered my reflection in the mirrors.

The use of mirrors and shapes

The use of shapes and colors in the experiment

The signage

How we look at ourselves in the mirror

Taking pictures in the ‘mirror’

One of the first interactive displays that I enjoyed was the Tessellation Station, where you could create displays with magnetic tiles on a large board. Later I learned about Tessellation as a form of making shapes fit together in a pattern and then the theory behind that. It was a fun way to use your creativity. This exhibition was very popular in the old museum as well but had been a much bigger interactive display.

The “Tessellation Station” exhibition is a lot of fun

Another was the Tree of Life, where the computer copied the movements of myself and then used them to show the how I moved my arms and legs in a pattern. It was funny to see myself repeated over and over again like a tree with branches. It really did measure the movement of my body. This was a lot of fun because you got to see smaller versions of yourself attached to you.

Me playing with the Tree of Life

Me having fun by the Tree of Life exhibition

The Twist and Roll display showed how to put different shapes and sizes together and show their movement on the board.

The Twist and Roll hands on display

The one display that all the kids got a kick out of was the Math Board, where the colors and shapes of the section of the floor lit up when you walked on them and was controlled by the way you walked on them.

The “Math Morphing-Formula Morph” replaced the “Math Board”

The Museum of Mathematics is a great museum for younger children who want to get physical and have a good time and like the interaction. I learned a few things too about the fundamentals of math and some of its background theories.

The geometrics of the Museum of Mathematics

Still, it is a great museum for kids under the age of twelve and their younger parents. I think anything over that age would warrant a trip to the American Museum of Natural History or the Liberty Science Center with more exhibits that are age appropriate. It is a museum you should visit once or twice with small children who are at the learning stage and just want to have fun.

The Gift Shop

The Museum Gift Shop

The History of the National Museum of Mathematics:

(From the museum website)

The National Museum of Mathematics began in response to the closing of a small museum of mathematics on Long Island, the Goudreau Museum. A group of interested parties (the “working group”) met in August 2008 to explore the creation of a new museum of mathematics-one that would go well beyond the Goudreau in both its scope and methodology. The group quickly discovered that there was no museum of mathematics in the United States, and yet there was a incredible demand for hands0n math programming.

Interactive objects at the Museum of Mathematics

Accomplishments to date include: opening Manhattan’s only hands-on science center, welcoming more than one million visitors; creating the popular Math Midway exhibition, which has delighted millions of visitors at museums throughout the United States and internationally; leading math tours in various U.S. cities; running dozens of Math Encounters and Family Fridays events; delivering a broad array of diverse and engaging programs for students, teachers, and the public to increase appreciation of mathematics and creating the largest public outdoor demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem ever.

The “Monkeying Around” exhibition at the museum

The Museum Mission:

(From the Museum website)

Mathematics illuminates the patterns that abound in our world. The National Museum of Mathematics strives to enhance public understanding and perception of mathematics. Its dynamic exhibits and programs stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity and reveal the wonders of mathematics. The Museum’s activities lead a broad and diverse audience to understand the evolving, creative, human and aesthetic nature of mathematics.

The “Weights and Balances” exhibition at the museum

Math Geographics

Video on the displays

The displays are so interesting