Photo by Flickr user Shinya Suzuki
For one evening this week, a stretch of Fifth Avenue that usually hums with traffic will go quiet, the curbs will fill with crowds, and some of the most famous museums in the city will throw their doors wide open without charging a dime.
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That night is the Museum Mile Festival, and it returns Tuesday, June 9, from 6 to 9 p.m. Now in its 48th year, the block party shuts Fifth Avenue to cars and turns the Upper East Side’s grandest corridor into a free, open-air celebration of art.Eight institutions take part, all clustered along Fifth between roughly 82nd and 110th Streets: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Neue Galerie, the Cooper Hewitt, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, El Museo del Barrio and the Africa Center. Each one waives admission for the evening.
The result is a rare chance to wander from a Klimt at the Neue Galerie to design at the Cooper Hewitt to the galleries of El Museo del Barrio on a single ticket — which is to say, no ticket at all.
The festivities kick off with an opening ceremony at 5:45 p.m. at El Museo del Barrio, at 1230 Fifth Avenue. From there, the avenue fills with outdoor programming, live music and hands-on activities for kids as the sun goes down.
The Met plans to close out the night in style, with the L Train Brass Band performing on the museum’s iconic steps from 8:30 to 9 p.m.
The event runs rain or shine, and no registration is required — just show up. The festival is free and open to all.
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