The Museum Mile Festival is a museum open house block party, put on by the museums on Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile. It’s usually on the second Tuesday in June. Fifth Avenue closes to traffic. The street fills with people and family-friendly entertainment. You can visit the museums for free. It’s one of the highlights of summer in New York City.
Museum Mile Festival 2024
The Museum Mile Festival 2024 is on Fifth Avenue, from 82nd Street to 109th Street, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neue Galerie, Guggenheim Museum, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Jewish Museum, Museum of the City of New York, El Museo del Barrio, and Africa Center, in Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, rain or shine from 6-9pm. FREE.
Museum Mile
Museum Mile is Fifth Avenue from 82nd St to 109th St.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art at 82nd St
- Neue Galerie New York at 86th St
- Guggenheim Museum at 89th St
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum at 91st St
- Jewish Museum at 92nd St
- Museum of the City of New York at 103rd St
- El Museo del Barrio at 104th St
- The Africa Center at 109th St
Museum Mile Festival
The Festival was started in 1978 during a time in our history when support for the arts was declining. The festival brings together New Yorkers from all walks of life to enjoy the cultural riches of our city.
Why Museums are Important
Jean-Michel Basquiat was Brooklyn artist with a Haitian Puerto Rican heritage. His talent took him from a homeless kid in the Lower East Side to the first Black international art star in the 1980s. In 2017, one of Basquiat’s paintings became the most expensive piece of art ever sold by an American artist, by a Black artist, and by a contemporary artist painted after 1980.
Basquiat’s mother took him to the museum when he was a little boy. He started dreaming of becoming an artist. That’s why museums are important.
See you at the Museum Mile Festival!