Tag: Exploring Greenwich Village

Working the Halloween Parade-A Night of Ghosts and Ghouls and things that go Bump in the night October 31st, 2026

My nephew, Kyle, created this interesting pumpkin as a birthday present to me and represent Halloween 2026

I still can’t believe that Halloween is over. I swear I blinked my eyes on the Forth of July and I am now seeing Christmas decorations. One moment it is sunny and eighty degrees and the next the leaves changed colors early and there was October, which seemed to zoom by. What is funny is that Grace, who I report to in the parade, contacted me in July to see if I was volunteering and that made time go faster.

Arriving in Manhattan to a pop up Halloween store in the subway at 42nd Street

I knew it would be a busy time for me so I glad the goal at work that all my exams and papers would be done and graded for my students so could enjoy the Halloween weekend as well and just relax. It would be full steam ahead for them as well. All the days leading up to the holiday were busy so there were a lot of late nights. I could relax and just be part of the parade on Halloween night.

Don’t be fooled by the holiday. Halloween is the new start to the Christmas holidays and people spend big money on decorations, parties, costumes and entertainment and not just in the City. The suburbs where I live Halloween decorating of homes is huge and for four years I ran our Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest to showcase our residents work.

My blogs on the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Halloween House Decorating Contest:

https://mywalkinmanhattan.com/tag/hasbrouck-heights-mens-association-halloween-house-decorating-contest

This is the tip of the iceberg on my neighbors decorating across the street

My across the street neighbor puts up this evil scarecrow every year

My blog on ‘Giggles’

Day One Hundred and Eighty-One: The Legend of “Giggles the Scarecrow”-Halloween continued October 31st, 2020

My video on their scarecrow

My across the street neighbor just loves pointing him in my house’s direction all through Halloween. The funny part is that when you Google “Giggles” the scarecrow, he now has his own byline on the Internet. Funny how things work out!

You really have to tour our town on Halloween Night to really experience the lights and decorations. People really spend a lot on decorations and some homes really decorate to the hilt. This house is decorated right near my bus stop when I return home from the City. You should see it at Christmas time as well.

My neighbors house by the bus stop into the City decorated on Halloween night

The decorations at the bus stop from Manhattan when I returned home on Halloween night

I had to be in Manhattan by 3:00pm to report to my Marshaling duties at Dominick Street in lower Manhattan so I left early for the City and ate lunch in Chinatown before I arrived at the Village. We have lucked out with the weather every year as a warm spirt seems to arrive just before Halloween and it was a beautiful but cool day that got warmer as the sun rose.

https://jinmeidumpling.com/#google_vignette

My TripAdvisor review:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d5451975-r1079427463-Jin_Mei_Dumpling-New_York_City_New_York.html

My review on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com:

Dumplings (Jin Mei) 25B Henry Street New York, NY 10002 (Takeout and delivery-Limited seating outside)

My first stop was Dumplings (Jin Mei) on Henry Street in Chinatown for their fried dumplings. This place is really catching on as the line was ten deep when I got there and twenty deep when I got to the front of the line. Their dumplings are worth it. Fifteen for $5.00 in this economy make them very popular right now. That and they are really good!

My lunch before the parade. Fried dumplings and a Coke

The Pork and Chive Fried Dumplings are so good

This was the view from the park that I eat at when I am in Chinatown just off Catherine Street

I walked to the parade route from Chinatown and I could see the City was preparing for both the Halloween Parade and the Marathon on Sunday. It was going to be a very busy weekend in the City. There was sidewalk barriers all over Lower Manhattan and the police were being placed for the night’s activities. I also saw lots of people in costume arriving in Chinatown preparing to walk in the parade.

Arriving on Dominick Street where the heart of the parade and puppet rehearsals

Preparing the puppets to start the parade

Dominick Street is where the magic of the parade starts as the puppets that were created in the Hudson Valley studios are assembled and then the puppeteer’s who perform in the parade practice before they head uptown at the beginning of the parade. Most of these puppets you will see later on YouTube at the beginning of the parade.

Lining the puppets up before the volunteers arrive

I was not too sure what this was meant to be but it really was creative

The puppets lined up in a row

These maiden witches have participated in many parades

While I checked in and started my duties for the parade, volunteers and entertainers started to arrive and thus the people started to want to sneak into the parade. This went on all night long as it usually does. Everyone ‘lives in the building in the parade route’ or everyone is ‘going to dinner’ just ‘across the street’ knowing full well the streets are blocked off and it is chaos in the streets behind us.

The puppet volunteers arrived between 4;00pm and 5:00pm to practice

The day turned into night as time zipped by and the frantic behavior of getting inside that parade route went on from 5:00pm to 7:30pm. Trying to get performers and musicians and their friends who do not have passes inside takes a lot of coordinating. We had stragglers still trying to get in at 8:00pm when their floats were long gone.

The park on Sixth Avenue and Dominick Street

We were finally able to shut the street operations at Dominick Street by 8:45pm. The parade had started at 7:00pm and most of the floats had already headed uptown. One woman was crying at 8:00pm that her friends texted her to join their float and she did not have a pass to get in. We told her to go home. These are the things I listen to all night long.

The staging area on Spring Street for all the floats

The staging is where the magic comes to life and one of the most chaotic areas of the parade. I can’t understand why people want to sneak to see it here. It is so busy and the volunteers here have a lot on their hands. Everyone is trying to get all the entertainment organized in the parade and get them uptown all while letting all the costumed people into the parade to fill in around the floats.

Letting the bands into the parade takes a lot of work

The costumed characters entering the parade at Spring Street

This part of the parade route is trying to keep things organized and not a place where the public should be standing around gawking. The whining and complaining I hear every year from these people trying to sneak in thinking that they are going to sit down on some grand stand and watch the beginning of the parade is a pipe dream. There is so much going on to run this parade and there is no place to sit down.

Our favorite coordinator in his annual costume dressed as little pig

Getting the floats ready to travel uptown

The floats on Spring Street heading uptown

I had to do everything from being in everyone’s way to get some pictures in. For people reading this blog on the Halloween Parade, this is NOT the area to best see the parade so stop trying to sneak in. Go four blocks uptown and you will see much more.

The floats kept leaving the Shute to head up Sixth Avenue

The float heading uptown

The crowds heading uptown

The costumed crowds heading uptown

The crowds and floats heading uptown

The costumes were so creative.

The crowds continued their route uptown

The Balloon women

Skaters making their way uptown

Looking downtown at the last of the floats heading uptown

The costumed characters heading uptown

The costumes were really creative this year

The Central Park skaters heading uptown

The last of the costumed characters heading uptown before I left at the parade route to head uptown for the Volunteers Dinner.

The last float heading uptown at the end of the parade

I walked uptown through the parade up Sixth Avenue and could not believe the crowds that night. People were packed along the parade route. The crowds thinned a bit in the Village as people saw the end of the parade coming.

The crowds in the restaurants all over lower Manhattan were packed with people. There was not one restaurant, bar, fast food place or pizzeria anywhere around the parade that was not busy. Even the neighborhood Walgreens had lines ten deep with people buying snacks and drinks. I think with everything going on from the economy to the wars to politics and justly general life, people were here just wanted to blow off some steam.

As I passed Christopher Street and the Stonewall bar, the birthplace of the Gay Liberation Movement, the place was packed with people both inside and outside the bar restaurant

I saw this painted on the wall as I walked

The decorations on top of the buildings on Christopher Street

The scary skeleton on the side of that building

The witch in one of the display windows off Christopher Street

People all over the Village devoted their homes for the Halloween holiday

I walked the entire way up to da Umberto’s Italian restaurant for our Volunteer dinner and the restaurant was already packed with volunteers who were starved from a long day working the parade. I was glad I had the dumplings earlier that day because I was now ready for dinner. The food here is wonderful and we are always grateful to the sponsors who donate this dinner to us.

Arriving at da Umberto’s at 107 West 17th Street for dinner

https://daumbertonyc.com

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d423279-r816965634-Da_Umberto-New_York_City_New_York.html

The entrance to the restaurant that night

Joining the rest of the volunteers at the parade for dinner

Enjoying the buffet dinner. Here we have the Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary and Olive oil

The staff at da Umberto’s does a nice job and the service here is always so friendly. The food is really good here and I really enjoyed the buffet dinner they provided especially the Chicken Parmesan and the Squash Ravioli.

Here we have the pastas on the buffet line Penne Vodka and Fall squash

My dinner that night

The biscotti for dessert

After dinner was over and a nice conversation over dinner with other volunteers at the table, it was time to head home. Some people were heading for Brooklyn for the big ‘After Party’ at Industrial City. I was exhausted between work, Midterms, yard and housework and laundry, I just wanted to head home.

I walked from 16th Street up Seventh Avenue to Port Authority and I can tell you the City was packed that evening. All the restaurants above 23rd Street were just as mobbed as the ones that surrounded the Village. This was the largest crowd I have seen for the parade since before COVID when it was 72 degrees in 2019. From West 16th Street to West 42nd Street, there was not one eating establishment that did not have a crowd. Even the $1.50 Pizza Slice places had long lines long after the parade was over. The pizzeria in Port Authority, which is never that busy, had a line with people eating before they went home (their food is really quite good).

The lights of Midtown

I walked by Bryant Park and just enjoyed the views. All the lights were on in the buildings surrounding the park. It was just the perfect night to walk around. This is when the City works its true magic.

Looking downtown on Fifth Avenue to the Empire State Building

Looking up at Fifth Avenue

I walked around Bryant Park on the way back to Port Authority. The night lights around the park are dazzling.

The lights in Bryant Park

The lights around the park

The New York Public Library at night

The fountain in the park

The face in the fountain gushing that evening

With mild 60 degree weather and clear starry skies, it was a spectacular night in Manhattan for both the parade and for Halloween. The streets were packed all along the way and even around Port Authority, all the restaurants and bars were packed with people wanting to have a good time. I have never seen the City so busy on Halloween night. People were desperate for a good time and I am sure they had one. It looked like people just wanted to blow off some steam. What a night for the parade!

Happy Halloween! Boo!

Jack o Lantern

Merchant’s House Museum 29 East 4th Street New York, NY 10003

Merchant’s House Museum

29 East 4th Street

New York, NY 10003

(212) 777-1089

Home

Open: Sunday 12:00pm-5:00pm/Monday-Wednesday Closed/Thursday-Saturday 12:00pm-5:00pm

Admission: Adults $15.00/Seniors (over 65) and Students $10.00/Members are free/ Special Guided tours are $20.00

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d285699-Reviews-Merchant_s_House_Museum-New_York_City_New_York.html

The Merchant House at 29 East 4th Street in NoHo

The Historic Plaque

The house is part of the NYCParks system

(from the museum’s pamphlet):

The Merchant House Museum, the former home to four generations of the Treadwell family, was built in 1832 and is designed in the late Federal style of brick and marble. When the house was built, elegant Greek Revival style rowhouses of red brick and white marble flanked the tree lined streets of this fashionable residential enclave, known then as the Bond Street Area.

The house was the home of wealthy merchant, Seabury Tredwell, his family and their four servants. Over the next 98 years, the family lived there and saw the neighborhood and the city grow, change and prosper. In 1936, after the death of the last living relative, the house opened as a museum, complete with Tredwell family’s original furnishings and personal possessions.

At the Midcentury, cast iron made its first appearance and commercial buildings and factories came to dominate the area. By the century’s end, it would be a commercial district with the Tredwell’s being the last holdouts of the area. The house was saved by the last relative’s grand nephew who bought the home to preserve it as a museum.

The home is now part of the NoHo Historic District that includes about 160 buildings, 11 of which are distinguished as individual NYC landmarks

The Entrance Hallway where you would be greeted when you enter the house

The Merchant House Kitchen ready for dinner to be prepared

the Dining Room was set for the Dutch New Year gathering

The Christmas holidays were not a big tradition in the early 1830’s when the house was built. The Dutch tradition of visiting on New Year’s Day and making calls to your friends was what many fashionable families would do to socialize with their neighbors. Tea, Coffee and punch would be served along with cakes, sweets and savories. These calls would only last about ten to fifteen minutes before you would move onto the next house. This tradition continued until Victorian times when homes were spread further apart and the family Christmas celebrations with gift giving and a Christmas tree came into fashion due to Queen Victoria and the spread of English and German traditions.

The punchbowl ready for guests on New Year’s Day

Refreshments ready for the New Year’s Day gathering

The broken pieces of the china collection of the Treadwell family. There is not a full collection of china that the family had to entertain with for formal affairs. They also did not have any china or silver of the family’s. I think that this might have been passed down to the heirs.

The Parlor of the Merchant House Museum

The piano in the Parlor of the home

The fireplace in the Parlor

The Parlor is where the family would gather after meals for entertainment and to converse with guests. This would be the main part of the house for socializing as the formal dining room and living rooms would be used for more formal affairs.

The Living Room in the Merchant House

The stairs are rather narrow and steep when you are heading upstairs to the bedrooms so you have to hold on to the rails. The bedrooms are normal size by today’s standards but back then they were pretty big plus people had their own rooms. They were nicely furnished with family heirlooms and antiques.

Mr. Treadwell’s bedroom

The portrait of Mr. Treadwell in his bedroom

Mrs. Treadwell’s bedroom

In Victorian times, the wealthy would have separate bedrooms for the husband and wife. Bedrooms would not just be a place to sleep but they were also a place of business where the family members would do their paperwork, write correspondence and arrange social events. Also, in the case of birthing, the child would be in the bedroom with their mother.

The “Valentine’s Day Card” exhibition “19th Century Valentines: Confections of Affection” on the second floor is part of the house’s extensive collection. ‘Delicate and lacy, these expressions of love celebrate the whimsy and romance of the Golden Age of Valentines’ (from the pamphlet).

The Children’s bedrooms on the third floor were closed off and used as offices for the staff so I made my way up to the Servant’s Quarters on the top floor. These people really got their exercise climbing those stairs up and down every day. The stairs seemed to get more narrow as you headed higher and God forbid there ever be a fire. You would be trapped up there with no way out.

The Servants Room on the fourth floor

The Servants Room on the fourth floor was pretty spare

Looking for the paranormal

Looking for a ghost on the fourth floor

During October, the museum hosts “Gaslight Ghost Tours”, where you tour the home by candlelight. There have been strange noises in the house ever since Gertrude Tredwell passed in 1934. She had been born in the house in 1840 and lived here until she was 93. She had never married and now it is said that her spirit is still part of the home (museum pamphlet).

After viewing the Servants Quarters and not finding any ghosts, I headed back downstairs to the main hallway leading into the house. There I saw the timeline of the family and all the family members that had lived in the house. It seemed that the last living relative, Gertrude, died in the house in 1934 and her grand-nephew bought the house and all its debts at the height of the Depression to preserve the home as a museum. Talk about insight! The nephew knew how important this home would be one day.

The Treadwell family tree in the hallway downstairs

The last part of the tour was the gardens in the back of the home. It was not a formal yard but a well landscaped walled in garden with a small fountain in the back of the gardens. The flowers were just starting to come up and there were crocuses and daffodils One of the curators was the Master Gardener for the property and did a nice job landscaping the property.

The back of the Merchant House Museum in the late Winter in the Gardens

The Gardens of the Treadwell house in the late Winter

The fountain at the gardens was off but now means to come back in the late Spring

There is a more formal tour a couple of times a day of the home but that is by reservation only and there is a separate fee. The holidays offer more themed tours on Halloween and Christmas. The Candlelight tour of the hour for Halloween is really intriguing.

The Merchant House Museum at night before Halloween

I recently went on the Haunted House tour at the Merchants House for Halloween in 2023 and that was interesting. We walked the first two floors of the house in the dark by candlelight hearing stories about the family.

Costumed characters greeted us in every room but none of us saw a ghost. Still the house had a creepy feeling to it as we walked room by room discussing the lives and deaths of the Treadwell family. We started off in the Parlor on the first floor with displays of seances and ghost pictures dotting the displays.

The display of seances and ghost pictures.

It can be a bit spooky walking through a house by flashlight, but the docents made the conversation interesting and fun. We got to hear about all the haunted tales of the house. A highly suggestive tour around Halloween.

The Parlor at night on the Candlelight tour of the house on Halloween.

The home is very engaging at Christmas time as well as you are welcomed into the Treadwell Home for the Christmas holidays with their annual Christmas Eve Reception and preparations for Christmas lunch. The house was decked out in garland and bows with several Christmas trees in the room. The house was very festive for the holidays and you were welcomed into the world of 19th century New York City at the holidays.

The Merchant House at the Christmas Holidays.

The outside of the house decked out for the holidays.

You are welcomed to the home at Christmas time.

We started our tour in the gardens which had gone dormant for the season but still you could see the greens in the bushes and the pine trees. It had been a warm morning in the low 50’s with a treat of rain but later that afternoon. For now, it had just been gloomy. We had a nice conversation about the house and its history even though we could barely hear the tour guide as he talked so softly.

We next toured the kitchen where the cooks were busy cooking and baking for the Christmas holidays. The 19th Century was all about manners, traditions mostly Dutch and entertaining. The Treadwell’s were people who both entertained the neighbors and their family as well. So there would be teas, receptions, open houses and then the formal Christmas Eve festivities and then Christmas lunch after church service the next day.

The holiday meal being cooked in the downstairs kitchen.

Christmas dinner with the Treadwell’s must have been special.

We moved next to the upstairs parlor that was set for receiving guests from the neighborhood. The Treadwell’s like most families at that time received guests for New Year’s Day punch and refreshments as the men of the neighborhood made their social calls during the holiday season. This tradition stopped around the time of the Civil War when families during the Industrial Revolution acquired money and people did not want to ‘entertain just anyone’.

The Parlor by the front door ready to received guests for the holiday season.

The Parlor on the first floor receiving guests for New Year’s Day.

The mantle was beautifully decorated for the holidays.

We next toured the formal Dining Room and Living Room on the second level where the family entertained relatives and friends for the holidays. It must have been some celebration as the Dutch traditions disappeared and the Victorian rules and elaborate traditions started some still practiced today. Now we call it the “Norman Rockwell” and “Martha Stewart” standards.

The formal Living Room with the Table Tree decorated for the holidays. The Table Tree was the precursor for the modern Christmas tree.

The tree is the focal part of the room.

The fireplace was decked out for the holidays as well.

The Dining Room was set for the Christmas Eve Open House and in preparation for receiving guests in the formal room. The finest silver, china and crystal would have been used to show off the family position in the neighborhood and was meant to impress.

The Dining Room was set for receiving guests for the Open House.

The Dining Room set for a feast.

The family would receive guests all day, replenishing foods so that there was plenty for everyone who visited. Women would be busy all day entertaining neighborhood men who would be calling all day long.

The bannisters were beautifully decorated with garland.

During the Victorian Age gift giving during the holidays became very important.

Christmas presents of the Victorian Age.

Gifts of the Victorian Age.

We then toured the upstairs bedrooms and saw how they decorated. The rooms were nicely decorated for Christmas. I have never seen rooms decorated like this for the holidays.

Mrs. Treadwell’s bedroom

Mrs. Treadwell’s Bedroom

Mr. Treadwell’s bedroom

Mr. Treadwell’s portrait in the bedroom standing guard.

It was an interesting look at both Edwardian and Victorian times in New York City.

The New Year video on celebrations on the “New Year’s Day Visiting” day

During the Summer months, the Merchant House Museum is hosting a series of “Music in the Garden” concerts. The first one I attended was in June 2024 with Flutist Cheryl Pyle. What a nice relaxing evening in the gardens that were all in bloom.

The gardens were in full bloom that June evening

Flutist Cheryl Pyle performing in the gardens that evening

https://cherylpyle.bandcamp.com/

The Concert that evening for everyone to enjoy too!

The gardens are this hidden gem in the neighborhood. The volunteers have done such a beautiful job taking care of this marvelous historic site.

The gardens looking at the back of the house with the wine and snacks and information table

The gardens closer to the back entrance of the house

The left side of the back garden

The right side of the gardens

The entrance to the gardens from the park next door

The fountain staring back at us in the gardens

This little bird even joined us in the garden for the concert and stayed and listened contently

The museum is currently having a fight to keep construction away from the home. The ten-year battle to keep a hotel from being built has been a problem for the museum. The foundation and structure of the home are in danger due to the fragile state of the building. The Landmark Preservation Commission of New York is researching and looking over the proposal.

The museum now has to defend itself from building next door

The museum is a perfect way to see how residents of a Upper Middle Class family lived in Pre-Victorian times and show the last vestiges of the neighborhood when it was a fashionable section of the City.

Day Two Hundred and Four: Halloween Returns Part I: The Gotham City Ghost Tour/Michigan vs Michigan State Game October 30th, 2021 — mywalkinmanhattan.com

I had a busy Halloween weekend with the Michigan State versus Michigan game and a Gotham City Ghost tour in the afternoon. Halloween searching for ghosts.
Day Two Hundred and Four: Halloween Returns Part I: The Gotham City Ghost Tour/Michigan vs Michigan State Game October 30th, 2021 — mywalkinmanhattan

Please print this guide to haunted sites of Lower Manhattan and have a nice afternoon walking around. It is a nice tour!

Grey Art Gallery New York University (NYU) 18 Cooper Square New York, NY 10003

Grey Art Gallery, New York University

18 Cooper Square

New York, NY 10003

(212) 998-6780

https://greyartgallery.nyu.edu

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d136958-Reviews-Grey_Art_Gallery_NYU-New_York_City_New_York.html?m=19905

The front of the Grey Art Gallery at NYU

I am finding more and more that the university art galleries are mounting very interesting and clever exhibitions and some as edgy as their large museum counterparts. I recently attended the ‘Art After Stonewall’ exhibition which is created as a two part exhibition with the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art to showcase the post Stonewall riots to the beginning of the AIDS crisis.

“Art After Stonewall” exhibition

The exhibition was an interesting mix of pictures, video, graphic paintings and posters and documentary work combined to show the mood of the times. Some of the most impressive works came from clips of documentaries on Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory Movies’, and the documentaries on ‘Tongues Untied’ and ‘Paris is Burning’ about the gay crisis about men of color and the racism that they faced even within the Gay Community.

The East Village Art Community from the 1980’s “Art After Stonewall”

Some of the photos of then fringe neighborhoods are funny to see as they have been gentrified beyond what anyone could have thought thirty years ago from the early 1980’s. The East Village of back then and of today are world’s apart.

The College did a good job mounting the show and telling the story that is both humorous and sad at the same time. Also, the Grey Gallery is small so you can get through the exhibition in about an hour.

The Grey Gallery exhibition “Art After Stonewall” This is a Keith Haring poster.

The most recent exhibition that I visited “Mudd Club 1978-1983: The Stephen Mass Papers” and the people who had visited the club at that time.

(from the museum website)

MUDD CLUB 1978-1983

THE STEPHEN MASS PAPERS

February 3 – March 9, 2024

Broadway Windows and Project Space

The Broadway Windows of the “The Mudd Club” exhibition in the NYU Broadway building.

In collaboration with NYU Fales Library and Special Collections, 80WSE Gallery presents an exhibition featuring materials from The Stephen Mass Papers, focusing on the legendary Mudd Club venue in New York City (1978-1983) through photographs and extensive notes. Located at the street-level Broadway Windows gallery and Project Space, the exhibition materializes the file structures of the archive and select visual documents contained within the collection.

The Broadway Windows of “The Mudd Club”.

The archival extracts provide rare insight into an important epicenter of downtown art, music, fashion, and culture at a transitional point in New York City and American life marked by rapid urban gentrification and the dawn of The Reagan Era. Within this atmosphere, post-punk musicians, independent designers, contemporary artists, and celebrities coalesced to animate the Mudd Club ‘cabaret’.

The Broadway windows of the “The Mudd Club”.

Acquired by Fales in 2019, the Stephen Mass Papers spans 16.75 Linear Feet in 24 manuscript boxes, 3 half manuscript boxes, 2 small flat boxes, 2 oversize flat boxes, 1 media box, 1 oversize folder in shared housing, and 1 sound reel in shared housing, including 33.92 Megabytes in 167 computer files, 1 sound tape reels , 1 videocassettes (u-matic), 10 audiocassettes, and 6 film reels.

The Broadway Windows of the “Mudd Club”.

“Stephen Mass is an entrepreneur who co-founded the Mudd Club located at 77 White Street in downtown New York City in 1978 along with art curator Diego Cortez and Anya Phillips. The venue became a focal point of the downtown music, art, and cultural scene in the late 20th century, showcasing the intersections of popular and avant-garde performance culture, gender and sexuality, celebrity culture, music, visual art, fashion, film, and nightlife.

The opening sign from the Grey Gallery on the NYU Campus.

The Stephen Mass Papers (inclusive dates 1940-2019, bulk dates 1978-2009) documents the founding and operation of the Mudd Club in New York City, Mass’s other entrepreneurial ventures in New York, and his nightclubs and restaurants in Berlin, as well as his personal life and family history. Consisting of both paper and electronic formats, the collection includes extensive notebooks and notes containing the planning and working notes for Mass’s various endeavors, financial and legal documents, promotional materials for events (such as posters, flyers, and newsletters), ephemera (differentiated from promotional material, as promotional material Mass collected from other clubs or organizations), press coverage, and photographic materials such as prints, negatives, and slides.”

The Grey Gallery exhibition of the “Mudd Club 1978-1983: The Stephen Mass Papers”.

—Fales Library and Special Collections

The Fales Library & Special Collections comprises 350,000 volumes of book and print items, over 11,000 linear feet of archive and manuscript materials, and about 90,000 audiovisual elements.

In 2024, the Grey Gallery moved to its new home at 18 Cooper Square and has a whole new contemporary look to it.

The history of the Grey Gallery on the NYU Campus.

Works from the permanent collection at the new “Grey Gallery” at 18 Cooper Square.

The front of the gallery for the “Americans in Paris” exhibition

I was invited to a new exhibition open to students at NYU “American’s in Paris”, an exhibition of American artists who had been living and creating their art in the City of Lights after WWII until the 1960’s.

The sign for the “American in Paris” exhibition.

The entrance to the new Grey Galleries.

The back Galleries for the “Americans in Paris” exhibition.

The works of the artist “Kimber Smith” in the “American in Paris” exhibition.

The exhibition “American’s in Paris” with artist Joan Mitchell’s work.

The exhibition “American’s in Paris” work by artist Ed Clark.

The works of artist Henry Cousin’s in the exhibition “American’s in Paris”.

The galleries of the Grey Art Galleries

Peter Saul’s “Man in Electric Chair”

“Man in Electric Chair”

The Jazz band entertaining us at the opening of the “Americans in Paris” exhibition.

As an Alumnus of NYU, I now come for the exhibitions and just enjoy myself. I came in for the newest exhibition.

The exhibition in 2024 was “Make Way for Berthe Weill”: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde

The main sign from the exhibition

(from the Grey Gallery website)

Make Way for Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde surveys the groundbreaking career of the first woman modern art dealer. Berthe Weill (1865–1951) championed many fledgling masters of modern art early on—such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Amedeo Modigliani—as well as numerous others who did not achieve wide acclaim. Yet her role in early 20th century modernism has been omitted from most historical accounts.

The exhibition will feature some 110 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture—many of which were shown at her gallery during the first four decades of the 20th century. Examining Weill’s contributions to the history of modernism as a gallerist, a passionate advocate of contemporary art, and a Jewish woman, it brings to light the remarkable achievements of a singular figure who overcame sexism, antisemitism, and economic struggles in her quest to promote emerging artists (From the NYU-Grey Gallery website).

The timeline of her career

The gallery that night

The art featured were artists promoted by the art dealer

The artwork by female artist Emilie Charmy

The work by artist Mark Chagall

One of my favorite pieces in the show by Mark Chagall

The Mission of the Grey Art Gallery:

The Grey Art Gallery is New York University’s fine arts museum, located on historic Washington Square Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village. As a university art museum, the Grey Art Gallery functions to collect, preserve, study, document, interpret and exhibit the evidence of human culture. While these goals are common to all museums, the Grey distinguishes itself by emphasizing art’s historical, cultural and social contexts, with experimentation and interpretation as integral parts of the programmatic planning. Thus, in addition to being a place to view the objects of material culture, the Gallery serves as a museum-laboratory in which a broader view of an object’s environment enriches our understanding of its contribution to civilization (NYU Grey Gallery History)

The History of the Grey Art Gallery at New York University:

The Grey Art Gallery is located within New York University’s Silver Center-the site of NYU’s original home, the legendary University Building (1835-1892). Winslow homer, Daniel Huntington, Samuel Colt, George Innes and Henry James all lived and worked there, as did Professor F.B.Morse, who established the first academic fine arts department in America on the site now occupied by the Grey Art Gallery.

Demolished in 1892, the original building was replaced by the Main Building (renamed the Silver Center in 2002). Here was located, from 1927 to 1942, A. E. Gallatin’s Museum of Living Art, NYU’s first art museum and the first institution in this country to exhibit work by Picasso, Leger, Miro, Mondrian, Arp and members of the American Abstract Artists group. Gallatin aspired to create a forum for intellectual exchange, a place where artists would congregate to acquaint themselves with the latest developments in contemporary art. In 1975, with a generous gift from Mrs. Abby Weed Grey, the Museum’s original space was renovated, office and a collection storage facility were added and the doors were reopened as the Grey Art Gallery (Museum history).

Exhibitions organized by the Grey Art Gallery encompass aspects of all the visual arts: painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking, photography, architecture and decorative arts, video, film and performance. In addition to originating its own exhibitions, some of which travel throughout the United States and abroad, the Gallery hosts traveling exhibitions. Award-winning scholarly publications, distributed worldwide are published by the Grey Art Gallery. In conjunction with its exhibitions, the Grey also sponsors public programs including lectures, symposia, panel discussions and films (Museum history).

The new Gallery is at 18 Cooper Square.

(This was taken from the Museum’s website).

Enjoying a evening at the Grey Gallery

The new exhibition in the spring of 2025 was ‘Anonymous was a Woman’ , an execution on the ‘Anonymous was a Woman’s and the great programs effects on mid-Career female artists in the Unit.

The information sign in the front gallery

The entrance of the gallery the night of the exhibition

The entrance to the Grey Art Museum

This was the sign inside for the exhibition

The inside gallery at the start of the show showcasing the collection on display

The main gallery at Grey Gallery

These were the pieces from the show that I found most impressive:

One of the more unusual paintings from the exhibition ‘Monalisa’ by artist Ida Applebroog

The sign for ‘Monalisa’ by Artist Ida Applebroog

The sculpture ‘Rom’s Delhi’ by artist Judy Pfaff

The sign for ‘Rom’s Delhi’

The painting ‘Svati: Now and Then’ by Artist Chita Ganesh

The sign for ‘Svanti: Now and Then’

The sculpture ‘Untitled #1242’ by Artist Petah Coyne

The sign for the sculpture

The sculpture ‘Bones 2000’ by Artist Polly Apfelbaum

The sign for the sculpture

The painting ‘Flamethrower’ by Artist Carrie Moyer

The sign for the painting

The crowd at the end of the evening at the

‘Opening Night’

This unusual sculpture in the middle of the room

Astor Court at the end of the evening at the Grey gallery

I recently attended the ‘Irrititja Kuwaiti Tjungu‘ exhibition on Aboriginal art. It was a very interesting look at Native Art from Australia. This exhibition opened in February of 2026 and the artists were in attendance to talk about their works.

https://greyartmuseum.nyu.edu/exhibition/irrititja-kuwarri-tjungu-contemporary-aboriginal-painting-from-the-australia-desertjanuary-20-2026-april-11-2026/

(from the NYU/Grey Gallery website):

Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu celebrates fifty years of Papunya Tula Artists. It features nearly 120 paintings, including some of the most iconic works of Indigenous Australian art. Rather than being arranged chronologically, the paintings are displayed according to Indigenous principles of genealogy, place, and ancestral travels. In doing so, the show reveals the deep, ongoing relationship between Aboriginal artists, the places they paint, and Tjukurrpa, which exists in a constant state of past and present together—or, in Pintupi, irrititja kuwarri tjungu.

The exhibition also recognizes the long association between Papunya Tula Artists and New York University forged by Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Fred Myers. Since 1973 Myers has served as one of the movement’s most prominent international advocates. His continued involvement with the community brought the exhibition Icons of the Desert to the Grey Art Museum in 2009. While that exhibition showcased early works from Papunya, Irrititja Kuwarri Tjungu honors and extends the legacy of the company’s founding artists.

The promotion sign for the exhibition

The art exhibition in the main gallery

Some of the works in the main gallery

(from the NYU/Grey Gallery website):

Fifty years ago, a painting movement emerged at Papunya in Australia’s Central Desert. It arose with such force and conviction that one could be forgiven for thinking it had existed forever, as though etched from the earth by the slow passage of time. In fact, formed in the aftermath of colonization, the enduring art movement is as much a product of recent historical circumstances as the ancient traditions on which it draws.

Now widely recognized in global contemporary art, painting at Papunya began in 1971 when a small group of Aboriginal men in the community started to represent once-secret ancestral designs of ceremony and ritual, using acrylic paint on scraps of cardboard, linoleum, and Masonite. Their seemingly abstract paintings revealed living ancestral connections known as Tjukurrpa (Dreaming), which fueled powerful artistic experiments with color, line, and space. The following year, in an act of unprecedented corporate sovereignty, the artists formed Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd., the first Aboriginal-owned arts enterprise in Australia. The company’s economic success has allowed generations of men and women artists to stay on their ancestral lands, and continues to provide vital opportunities for local community development.

These were some of my favorite pieces of art from the exhibition: