13 Art-Oriented Day Trips from New York City
New York offers some of the world’s top cultural experiences, from historic museums to edgy galleries. However, for all those New Yorkers looking to escape the city for a day, the opportunities for seeing quality art outside of the five boroughs are surprisingly plentiful. No matter your art preferences, there are nearby design-centric destinations for everyone to explore. Whether you prefer an outdoorsy experience in a sculptural park or an air-conditioned gallery oasis, all you need is a car or a train ticket, and you’re ready to make your move. From an iconic contemporary home to an 18th-century church to acres of sculptures in the Hudson River Valley, the following thirteen venues are about a two-hour trip from New York—and well worth the time!
Photo by Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.1/13Parrish Art Museum
Founded in 1898, this historic museum boasts some of the area’s best contemporary art. In 2012 the institution relocated to a gorgeous new building designed by Herzog & de Meuron that has raw, minimalist interiors pairing exposed beams with concrete flooring. You’ll find indoor and outdoor installations, with past artists including Chuck Close and Dan Flavin. 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill, New York; parrishart.org
Photo by UIG via Getty Images2/13Yale Center for British Art
The largest English art collection outside the U.K., the newly remodeled Yale Center for British Art is a little over two hours by train. It holds masterpieces by artists including J. M. W. Turner, Thomas Gainsborough, George Stubbs, and more. It’s also right across the street from the Yale University Art Gallery and part of the university’s gorgeous campus (the Old Campus was built in 1752!), making for a lovely day full of historic art and architecture. 1080 Chapel St., New Haven, Connecticut; britishart.yale.edu
Image courtesy of the Glass House.3/13Philip Johnson Glass House
The Glass House, designed by architect Philip Johnson in 1949, when floor-to-ceiling windows were a novelty even in office buildings, is a work of art in itself. But there’s much more art to be found on the lush grounds of this famous home in New Canaan, Connecticut. Amble on over to the Painting Gallery, which houses large-scale works by Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cindy Sherman, among others, or the Sculpture Gallery, featuring works by such artists as Michael Heizer, George Segal, Frank Stella, and Bruce Nauman. 199 Elm Street, New Canaan, Connecticut; theglasshouse.org
Image courtesy of Dia Beacon.4/13Dia Beacon
A former printing factory on the Hudson River, just 80 minutes north of Manhattan by train, Dia Beacon is a pageant of powerhouse talent. Displaying the works of 25 minimalist and conceptual artists, from Gerhard Richter to Donald Judd, Dia has attracted attention as much for its art as for its sawtooth skylights, hardwood floors, and cavernous 240,000-square-foot space. 3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York; diaart.org
Photo by Mike Peters.5/13The Newark Museum
Located in the Downtown Arts District of Newark, New Jersey, this colossal museum features 80 galleries including noteworthy displays of American, Asian, and African art, as well as the most comprehensive collection of Tibetan art in the Western Hemisphere. The institution also encompasses a planetarium, a sculpture garden, and a beautifully restored 1885 mansion. Pop into the museum gift shop, which carries gifts and jewelry from around the world, and wrap up your cultural outing in Newark with lunch or dinner at an authentic Portuguese restaurant in the city’s Ironbound neighborhood. 49 Washington Street, Newark, New Jersey; newarkmuseum.org
Image courtesy of Storm King.6/13Storm King Arts Center
Storm King is a 500-acre open-air museum with one of the largest collections of contemporary outdoor sculptures in America. Established in 1960 in Mountainville, New York, as a museum for Hudson River School paintings, it has grown into an important sculptural exhibition space, showcasing works by the likes of Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Richard Serra, and Roy Lichtenstein. Artist Maya Lin, perhaps best-known as the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., made one of the most recent additions to the collection in 2009 with Storm King Wavefield, which comprises seven long rows of undulating land forms. 1 Museum Road, New Windsor, New York; stormking.org
© 2004 Peter Aaron / Esto.7/13The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
The only museum in Connecticut solely dedicated to contemporary art, the Aldrich is located in bucolic Ridgefield. Founded by the late fashion designer Larry Aldrich in 1964, the museum features rotating exhibitions of works by national and international emerging and mid-career artists. Notables such as Olafur Eliasson, Eva Hesse, Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Whitten, and Jackie Winsor all exhibited here in the early stages of their careers. 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Connecticut; aldrichart.org
Photo by Alon Koppel.8/13Art Omi
Wear your walking shoes and head to the historic town of Ghent, New York, where outdoor sculptures and architectural pavilions are gracefully strewn across 120 acres of verdant landscape at Art Omi. Cool off with a visit to Babble, Pummel, and Pride II, where gliding benches suspend the viewer next to a peaceful pond and a large fountain that occasionally offers visitors an unexpected but refreshing misting. Check out Atelier Van Lieshout’s surreally industrial Blast Furnace, and discover if Brian Tolle’s Eureka inspires any brilliant breakthroughs as you view it. Don’t miss Arlene Shechet’s commanding Tall Feather, and be sure to immerse yourself in the color and light of architect Hou de Sousa’s Prismatic, a kaleidoscopic fantasy construction that you can interact with on a monumental scale. Stop and take in rising star artist Tschabalala Self’s paintings and prints at the Newmark Gallery on the property before you leave. 1405 County Route 22, Ghent, New York; artomi.org
Photo by Clint Spaulding/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.9/13The Brant Foundation
Nestled amid the spectacular mansions and rolling fields of Greenwich, Connecticut, the Brant Foundation celebrates its 10th anniversary with a major show of sculptures and paintings by Urs Fischer, the first artist to stage a solo exhibition there. A canopy of oversized plaster raindrops suspended from the ceiling alternately obscures and reveals surreal sculptures and silk-screened “Problem Paintings,” so-called for their darkly humorous juxtapositions. Bread House, an amusingly savory take on Hansel and Gretel’s candy cottage, has been reconstructed from fresh loaves and wood beams—see it soon, as the work literally decays with the passage of time. Fischer’s sculpted candles also evoke a sense of ephemerality, burning down through the run of the show and transforming from cast sculptures into puddles of wax. Dreamy paintings and unexpected sculptural compositions add to the current of playfully dark, surreal humor that runs throughout the artist’s oeuvre. 941 North Street, Greenwich, Connecticut; brantfoundation.org
Photo by Dean Kaufman.10/13Grace Farms
In New Canaan, Connecticut, architect SANAA’s stunning River Building lies at the heart of Grace Farms, its undulating lines and sleek glass pavilions conjuring an immediate feeling of cool harmony. Housing a library, an amphitheater, a studio, performance spaces, and a tea bar, the space is also home to several site-specific art installations commissioned by acclaimed curator Yuko Hasegawa. Check out a library book to read while relaxing in one of Arne Jacobson’s elegant Swan Chairs in the pavilion, admire the cascading light effects of Teresita Fernandez’s 10,000 silvered Double Glass River, and catch a performance by up-and-coming talents while you wander the complex. Designed to foster community bonds and positive collaboration, Grace Farms illustrates the powerful impact of art and architecture on society. 365 Lukes Wood Road, New Canaan, Connecticut; gracefarms.org
Photo by Jeremy Lawson. Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.11/13Jack Shainman’s The School
In picturesque Kinderhook, New York, a celebrated Chelsea gallery owner has transformed a former school into an arts sanctuary at Jack Shainman’s The School. This summer offers The School’s biggest blockbuster yet: Basquiat x Warhol, an exhibition that celebrates the work of each contemporary art master alongside the works that they made together, deftly cocurated by Shainman and eminent art adviser Nilani Trent. The collaborative works by these artists offer insight into both of their practices, as well as illuminating the complex relationship between these two cultural icons. Initially panned by critics, the collaboration pieces have long been overlooked, and there is much here to spur a reevalution of the value and quality of these works. Eggs, a large canvas tinged with violet and infused with iconography that features in both artists’ canons, evokes joyful memories of dyeing Easter eggs while simultaneously grappling with themes of life, death, and rebirth. This work, and the other collaboration paintings, strike a particularly poignant chord when one realizes that both artists would be dead within two years of their production. 25 Broad St, Kinderhook, New York; jackshainman.com
Photo by Marco Anelli.12/13Magazzino Italian Art Foundation
In Cold Spring, New York, art lovers Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu have created a vast haven for their exceptional collection of Italian Arte Povera masterpieces at Magazzino. Housed in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse designed by Spanish architect Miguel Quismondo, works by Arte Povera masters including Michelangelo Pistoletto, Alighiero Boetti, and Mario and Marisa Merz illuminate this foundational movement in Contemporary Art History. Arte Povera is known for being both highly conceptual and often irreverent, so there’s plenty here to stimulate the mind and tease the senses. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in postwar Italy while viewing Jannis Kounellis’s assemblage that features fragrant coffee beans held in a framework of iron girders, and track political changes in the modern world by navigating Boetti’s redefined maps. 2700 U.S. 9, Cold Spring, New York; www.magazzino.art
Photo by Jenn Morse Photography.13/13T Space Gallery
A passion project of famed architect Steven Holl, Dutchess County’s T Space Gallery invites the visitor to dive into lush greenery and multidisciplinary arts programming. Explore the outdoor sculptures that dot the grounds, and pause to take in a music or poetry performance en plein air during your peregrinations. This summer, T Space plays host to artist Brice Marden’s Cold Mountain drawings, experimental works by the artist that influenced the creation of his seminal Cold Mountain paintings. For bonus points, check out the poetry of ninth-century monk Hanshan, which, along with the natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley, inspired these works’ conception. Don’t miss a stroll through the T Space archives, where the current exhibition celebrates the works of influential architect and educator Astra Zarina. 137 Round Lake Road, Rhinebeck, New York; tspacerhinebeck.org
