Alliance for the Arts Spring Activities
The Alliance for the Arts serves the entire cultural community through research and advocacy and serves the public through cultural guides and calendars. See below for information on arts and cultural events in New York City this spring season.
BRONX
Ongoing
Bronx River Art Center and Gallery
AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM
When school’s out, children can learn art skills at the Bronx River Art Center. That’s where they’ll find free classes in painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and ceramics, film and animation and more, all taught by professional artists.
Through May 16
Lehman College Art Gallery
INFORMED BY FUNCTION
This exhibition explores sculptural objects influenced by furniture. Drawing on sources ranging from industrial design to the natural world, the artists present hybrid installations, sculpture and drawings.
Though June 30
Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center
MIND-BUILDERS WORKSHOPS
The Bronx-based center promotes African-American culture and positive lifestyles to the young people in its community. It does so through professional instruction in dance (tap, ballet, jazz, modern, step, African), music (piano, strings, woodwinds, percussion, guitar, voice) and theater arts (acting, dancing, singing).
March 7–May 12
Bronx Museum of the Arts
TWO GIRLS WORKING
Artists Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki present an installation about how individual personalities are revealed during a collaborative project.
April 5, 12, 19 & 26
Bartow-Pell Mansion
THE MANSION COMES TO LIFE
Dancers from the Ajkun Ballet Theatre portray the life of the Bartow family through their innovative choreography. Set to music and moving from room to room, the dancers capture the everyday activities of a family and its staff living in the 1840s in a country manor house.
May 24–Nov 2
New York Botanical Garden
HENRY MOORE SCULPTURE AT THE GARDEN
The abstract sculptor Henry Moore took his inspiration from nature. This show of his works is the largest outdoor installation of his sculpture ever in the United States. Special events and activities for adults and children will be held in the garden for the duration of the exhibition.
BROOKLYN
Through April 13
Puppetworks
CINDERELLA
This Nicholas Coppola adaptation of the classic fairytale features a cast of elaborate, hand-made marionettes. The music comes from Massenet's opera which is based on the timeless story.
March 6 & 22, April 5, 19 & 28, May 10, 19, 24 & 30, June 8, 14 & 23
Big Onion Walking Tours
BROOKLYN BRIDGE & HEIGHTS
Families will enter the Brooklyn Bridge walking path from Manhattan and hear the epic story of how it was built. After crossing the river, the tour strolls through the tree-lined streets of Brooklyn Heights, exploring Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church and places linked to famous authors Walt Whitman, Truman Capote and Arthur Miller. The tour concludes on the promenade in Brooklyn Heights, with its panoramic view reaching from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge all the way to the Chrysler building.
March 21–June 15
Brooklyn Museum
UTAGAWA: MASTERS OF THE JAPANESE PRINT, 1770–1900
On display in this retrospective exhibition are over 70 prints, each a colorful representation of the Utagawa School, which dominated the Japanese print market for more than a century. The images were often made in defiance of the government, and they feature the pleasures of urban life and leisure, with famous places, landscapes, warriors and kabuki actors as their subjects.
April 5–May 4
HANAMI: CELEBRATING THE CHERRY BLOSSOM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Hanami is the Japanese cultural tradition of viewing and cherishing the blossoms of the cherry tree. The botanic garden invites visitors to track the progress of the blossoms online and plan their visit at the height of these trees' blooming beauty.
April 11–June 6
UrbanGlass
DAVID TABORN
Taborn's works are on display at the largest glassworking studio in the world. Visitors to the studio may watch glass being blown, see the products of those efforts in the studio's gallery or purchase newly blown glass art in the gift shop.
April 25–June 22
Billie Holiday Theatre
BIRTHRIGHT
Jackie Alexander's newest drama depicts two sets of siblings struggling to deal with the demons of their childhood.
MANHATTAN
Ongoing
South Street Seaport Museum
A LIFE IN WHALING
This newly-opened exhibition takes visitors through each stage of a whaling voyage to show what life was really like for sailors on the high seas in a bygone era. It includes original tools and artifacts used for hunting aboard whaling vessels as well as the only film ever made aboard one, Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), starring Clara Bow.
Ongoing
Museum of Chinese in the Americas
EXPERIENCE CHINATOWN TOURS
On these weekly walking tours, docents with roots in the neighborhood lead participants through the narrow, historic streets of Chinatown, making such stops as Chatham Square, the Church of the Transfiguration and Doyers Street, to explore the history of the densely packed district’s diverse residents and the role immigration has shaped in developing the community.
Ongoing
Andrea del Conte Danza Espana
FLAMENCO CLASSES
Andrea Del Conte Danza Espana is dedicated to interpreting and preserving the Spanish dance tradition for audiences of all ages, with an emphasis on flamenco and the relationship between its components of dance, song and music.
Feb 1–May 31
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
CAI GUO QIANG: I WANT TO BELIEVE
With more than 80 works that range in date from the 1980s to the present, this exhibition of the contemporary Chinese artist’s work includes gunpowder drawings, explosion events, stampedes of flying wolves and other large-scale installations as well as social projects—areas where the artist engages the visitors.
March 1–Dec 31
Whitney Museum of American Art
2008 BIENNIAL EXHIBITION
This will be the 74th in the world-famous series of Whitney biennial exhibitions that were inaugurated in 1932 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The many contemporary artists on display include American installation artist Phoebe Washburn, Argentine sculptor Mika Rottenberg, Israeli conceptual artist Seth Price, French sculptor Agathe Snow, Venezuelan installation artist Javier Téllez and Swiss painter Olivier Mosset.
March 14–Oct 13
Rubin Museum of Art
FROM THE LAND OF THE GODS: ART OF THE KATHMANDU VALLEY
This exhibition surveys Nepalese artwork from the museum's collection that originate from the Kathmandu Valley. The show highlights the unique blend of Shaiva, Vaishnava and Buddhist influences on Nepalese art as well as Nepal’s artistic influence on its surrounding regions.
QUEENS
Ongoing
Queens County Farm Museum
EGGS-PERIMENT
This workshop focuses on the three-week-long development of a chick from an embryo to the day it hatches from its egg. Young kids will make a visit to the chicken coop in this farmyard tour.
Through April 6
Socrates Sculpture Park
MICHAEL MERCIL: SHADOWS FROM A DREAM OF THE 20TH CENTURY, 2003–2006
Using black stone sculpture, the artist explores the ideas of origin and temporality.
Through June 28
Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College
CROSSING THE BLVD: STRANGERS, NEIGHBORS, ALIENS IN A NEW AMERICA
This multimedia exhibition follows the lives of several recent immigrants to the multiracial, multiethnic borough of Queens, where more than 180 languages are spoken.
March 29–April 6
Thalia Spanish Theatre
CONCIERTOS EN PRIMAVERA
These concerts feature performances of zarzuela, jazz/flamenco fusion, Afro-Cuban roots music and Latin romantic songs.
April 20–June 30
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
TAKE YOUR TIME: OLAFUR ELIASSON
Contemporary Scandinavian artist Olafur Eliasson's immersive environments, sculptures and photographs portray extreme landscapes and atmospheres. This show includes his crystalline tunnel of mirrors and natural worlds made of moss, stone and water.
May 9–18
Queens Theatre in the Park
LITTLE WOMEN
Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, this musical by Allan Knee follows the adventures of four women as they grow up during the American Civil War.
STATEN ISLAND
Ongoing
Noble Maritime Collection—Snug Harbor Cultural Center
JOHN A. NOBLE'S HOUSEBOAT STUDIO
This detailed re-creation of the studio of John A. Noble (1913–1983), a maritime artist who documented the last decades of the Age of Sail, is an historically accurate environment, showing visitors where and how he chronicled the working ships of the 20th century through his paintings, drawings and lithographs.
Ongoing
Historic Richmondtown
TOYS!
The exhibition features 200 of the most popular toys from the 1840s through today, setting them in specific contexts to show how objects shape the way that children see the world. Activities encourage visitors to see toys as tools for self-discovery and socialization
Ongoing
Staten Island Museum
LENAPE: THE FIRST STATEN ISLANDERS
This new permanent installation tells the story of the Lenape Indians with pieces dating back 10,000 years, showing their way of life on what was once a harsh and frozen tundra.
Ongoing
Staten Island Zoological Society
AFRICAN SAFARI
With live animals, crafts and discussions, students take an imaginary safari to learn about the many different animals that inhabit the savannahs of Africa.
Through May 4
Staten Island Children’s Museum
BRAIN TEASERS
Problem solving is the theme of this exhibition which features puzzles, games and riddles for visitors to solve.
March 5–May 5
Alice Austen House Museum
I WALK ALONE IN FAITH OR BITTERSWEET: A COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARLENE GOTTFRIED
This exhibition displays the photographs of Arlene Gottfried, who has documented New York City life since the 1970s. It is on display in the vine-covered gingerbread cottage that was home to pioneer photographer Alice Austen.