NYC Arts: The Complete Guide to Art and Culture

The American Folk Art Museum is one of the leading institutions dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of American folk art. Its permanent collection of 5,000 objects, many of them masterpieces, offers a telling glimpse of the social and historical settings in which they were created.

On view any given day at the museum are fine examples of portraits, landscapes, seascapes, trade signs, weather vanes, whirligigs, decorated tin, furniture, pottery, decoys, quilts and other objects dating from the late-1700s to the present. Several short-term shows are mounted annually. Exhibition-related lectures, gallery tours and workshops help visitors acquire a fuller understanding of the cultural, social and historical context of the works.

The Henry Darger Study Center, established by the museum in 2000 to foster open inquiry and multidisciplinary research into the life and work of the self-taught artist (1892-1973), houses all four of his manuscripts and more than two dozen double-sided paintings, as well as approximately 3,000 items from Darger’s archive of ephemera and source material. 

The museum, founded in 1963, is next to the Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street, and also has a branch location at Lincoln Square.

• Directions: Subway: E, M to Fifth Avenue - 53rd Street; B, D, F to 47-50th Streets - Rockefeller Center
  Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4 to 53rd Street

• Disability Access: Fully accessible. Two wheelchairs available for use; inquire at the admission desk.
• Disability Assistance: Contact the education department, (212) 265-1040, x381, or grouptours@folkartmuseum.org, for more information and to reserve tours.
  Hearing: American Sign Language interpretation for gallery tours and auditorium programs is available by request with one-month advance notice. Auditorium has infrared assistive listening devices, inquire at the admission desk.
  Vision: Tours with verbal imaging and tours of touch objects are available by request with one-month advance notice. Large-print copies of labels and wall texts available at the admission desk.
• Gift Shops: Handmade and one-of-a-kind objects, also books on folk and decorative arts; open all week, Mon 11 am-6 pm; Tues-Sun 11 am-7:30 pm
• On-Site Food: Cafe serves hot and cold snacks and beverages; open Mon-Thurs 10:30 am-4:30 pm, Fri 10:30 am-7:30 pm, Sat-Sun 11:30 am-4:30 pm
• On-Site Parking: On streets or in commercial lots nearby