Artists without formal training produced the 7,000-plus works in the collection at the American Folk Art Museum, New York City’s only museum dedicated to folk and self-taught artists. The permanent collection—spanning four centuries and many mediums, from paintings and photographs to sculptures and textiles—portrays everyday American life. Diverse exhibitions change every few months.
Located in Battery City Park in Lower Manhattan, the Irish Hunger Memorial is dedicated to over a million lives lost during the great Irish famine of the mid-1800s, when hundreds of thousands of immigrants fled Ireland for New York. The distinctive design—with the stone ruins of a famine-era cottage and thick, marshy grass— is meant to evoke the Irish landscape.
Overlooking the Hudson River in the Bronx, Wave Hill is both a public garden and a cultural center. Spanning 28 acres (11 hectares) of lush gardens and woodlands, the site is also home to an art gallery, and it offers a wide range of programs, including walks, talks, workshops, nature and art programs, live performances, and seasonal events.
Don’t just take the Staten Island Ferry for the views—get off and explore a site with centuries of history. Now an excellent public park, Fort Wadsworth was a British stronghold until 1783. Nowadays, it’s less about cannons and more about walking, biking, and jogging, as well as learning a bit about New York’s past.
