This Weekend: Open House New York

This weekend, October 15 & 16, 2011, is the 9th annual Open House New York Weekend, where locations around New York will open their doors for free tours. I’ve been attending OHNY since the very 1st year, and it really is one of the best events going on in New York.

With Open House New York, you can can get into places that would normally cost money (museums, concert halls, hotels) as well as sites not usually open to the public (private clubs, municipal structures, churches, schools). There are even house and office tours – including a few of the city’s architecture & design firms.

Some sites that look good this year include: tours of the Kings County Distillery, the lobby of the Chrysler Building, the Grand Lodge of Masons, The East Harlem School, the Farber Center for Radiation Oncology, Tillett Lighting Design Inc., Caples Jefferson Architects, and Moynihan Station. Of course, there are a ton more.

Check out a new neighborhood, take a guided or self-guided tour, and basically just explore NYC’s architecture and design in all five boroughs. The complete program listing is here. One of your librarians, Maggie Portis, will be volunteering for OHNY at the Nighthawk Cinema on Saturday from 10-12, so if you make that part of your itinerary, say hi! It also looks like NYSID has signed up to be a site this year, so if you haven’t visited the Graduate Center yet, it’s open on Saturday from 10-3.

Open House at the Frick Art Reference Library Today

Photo from Flickr user Swerz

Today from 11-4, the Frick Art Reference Library is hosting an open house especially for students.

This is a great opportunity to visit a wonderful library, and should you ever need to do any research outside of NYSID’s Library, you’ll already be familiar with one of New York’s many fantastic libraries.

What: Student open house
Who: Undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2011
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. No appointment necessary. Introductions every half hour. First-come, first-served.

Cost: Nothing! Use of the Library is free.
Bring: Photo ID and an open mind
Where: Frick Art Reference Library, 10 East 71st Street (between Madison and Fifth Avenue)
Directions: 6 train to 68th Street, F train to Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street, 72nd Street crosstown bus, or M1, M2, M3, M4 buses (on Madison or Fifth Avenue)
Google map: http://bit.ly/gjNOXK
Questions: library@frick.org or 212-547-0641
Website: http://www.frick.org/library

*After visiting the Library, enjoy $5.00 admission to the museum with your student ID. The museum is open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursdays.

About the Frick Art Reference Library: The Frick Art Reference Library holds materials related to art of the Western tradition from the fourth century (C.E.) to the mid twentieth century, with a focus on paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and decorative arts. The Library works in conjunction with the libraries of the Brooklyn Museum and The Museum of Modern Art to provide access to shared collections and services through the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC).

This Weekend: Open House New York

This weekend, October 9 & 10, 2010, is the 8th annual Open House New York Weekend, where locations around New York will open their doors (FOR FREE!!!) for tours. I’ve been attending OHNY since the very 1st year, and it really is one of the best events going on in New York.

With Open House New York, you can can get into places that would normally cost money (museums, concert halls, hotels) as well as sites not usually open to the public (private clubs, municipal structures, churches, school). There are even house and office tours – including many of the city’s architecture & design firms .

Some sites that look good this year include: tours of the Apollo Theater, The East Harlem School, the Grand Lodge of Masons, Mancini Dufy, Mark Morris Dance Center, La Marqueta, and Building Green for Jamaica Bay. Of course, there are a ton more.

Check out a new neighborhood, take a guided or self-guided tour, and basically just explore NYC’s architecture and design in all five boroughs. The complete program listing is here: http://www.ohny.org/weekend/listings.cfm

A Busy New York Day

Today is Tuesday, June 8th, 2010, and it’s the second day of the summer semester here at NYSID. While we know that the summer semester can be rather intense because of the compressed schedule, hopefully you aren’t yet too busy to take advantage of everything New York offers in the summertime. Today two great events are taking place in the city, and they’re even related to your design studies. Best of all, they’re free!

The first is the beginning of a new lecture series at New York Public Library called Architectural Explorations in Books, and tonight’s topic is Uses of Archtectural History in the Digital Age. From the website:

Writer and Professor Suzanne Stephens leads a discussion with architects Thomas Kligerman and Joel Barkley of Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects. On the publication of Ike Kligerman Barkley: Houses, the topic will address the impact of the information age upon the process and product of a firm well-known for its engagement with the traditional canon of architectural history. These architects known primarily for their vividly referential domestic architecture will discuss how after coming of age in an era of the rediscovered eclecticism often found in the pages of books, the digital age has challenged and enriched their architecture’s access to past and present.

The lecture is at 6pm in Room 227 of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. For more info, look here.

The second of tonight’s events is Museum Mile, where nine museums along Fifth Avenue will be open (and free!) from 6-9 this evening.  Up and down Fifth Avenue are booths filled with art, music, and food. Go here for more information and a full list of museums.

The Whitney Biennial goes 24/7

Beginning today, there is no longer an excuse for not seeing the 2010 Whitney Biennial, and that’s because the Whitney Museum will be open for the next three days straight. That’s right, from midnight on Wednesday, May 26 until 11:59PM on Friday, May 28th the Whitney Museum (and gift shop) will be open non-stop

Ever have an urge to see art at 3AM? Well the semester is over, and now’s your chance. The early birds among us can stop in to the exhibition before heading to work. Both those trips will be free too because if you make it to the museum between 11PM and 9AM, you can pay-what-you-wish.

Not only is this convenient for those of us with less flexible schedules or a fondness for odd hours, the 72-hour non-stop schedule is also a work of art. The artist Michael Asher proposed this concept for his piece in the Biennial, and this is the modified result.

If any of you stop by the museum at an hour when it would normally be closed, please let us know what you thought. More info about this can be found here.