Annual Museum Mile Festival
The Museum Mile Festival is an annual event that takes place in New York City, where nine of the city’s most renowned museums come together to celebrate art and culture. It is an annual block party celebrated in NYC on Museum Mile between 79th and 110th Streets on Fifth Avenue. Fifth Avenue is closed to traffic, and participating Museums open their doors to the public between 6pm and 9pm, and offer free art exhibitions, performances, and activities. In 2022, the Festival was on 14th June, and held in person after 2 years which made it extra special. The streets were packed with people enjoying the open roads and activities.
I managed to make it into the Met where the lines were not too long, and didn’t even try waiting in line for the other museums as the lines all wrapped around the block. There were plenty of activities at the Met for all ages. It all started with the Slavic Soul Party on the iconic steps of the Met.
The Met was loud and buzzing with people chatting and laughing, quite unlike the usual quiet halls that I’m used to at Museums!
Going inside the Met, they had tables and activities set up, and people were all over making the keychains and lanterns.
Coming out of the Museum, I encountered the Puppetry Exhibit, with puppet buffaloes, butterflies and birds on the sidewalk.
There were also drawing classes outside the Met!
The last table I came across outside the Met was a table that had Messages from Ukraine, which was an initiative by ThoughtMatter that commissioned Ukranian artists to create posters to communicate what they would like New Yorkers to know about the war in Ukraine. These two posters actually got me interested in posters and have started on building a poster collection, which I had never thought of doing before.
The Met is great at organizing events, such as the Lunar New Year celebrations.
Moving on, there was a very interesting character outside the Guggenheim that was dressed like a Kusama work of art, and even had her face on his outfit!
There were plenty of activities for kids with chalk and paintbrushes provided to create art on Fifth Avenue.
There were very interesting characters in costumes walking around in the area outside the Guggenheim.
Last but not least was New York City’s Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corp Marching Band that was keeping everyone entertained.
All the other museums had lines that were just too long, so I didn’t even try to make my way in as there was plenty happening on Fifth Avenue to keep me busy and entertained.
All in all an evening well spent!
