Museum Mile NYC

There’s a copious concentration of culture, art, and artifacts from all around the world, and it’s all smack dab in the middle of a major metropolis. This happening haven for art aficionados is just a stone’s throw from NYC’s iconic Central Park. We’ll meander around the amazing mecca known as museum mile on this week’s episode of FYI!

Transcript

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there's a copious concentration of culture art and artifacts from all around the world and it's all smack dab in the middle of a major Metropolis this happening Haven for art aficionados is just a stone's throw from New York City's iconic Central Park we'll Meander around the amazing Mecca known as Museum mile on this week's episode of f why I welcome to for your info English you got it hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of f y i and we are gonna go high brow I don't know how you would say this highbrow is kind of like an intellectual humor so this is a high brow show we're going to talk about culture art and yes even artifacts today we're gonna visit Museum mile baby and I'm not talking about the one in London I had no idea there was a museum mile located in London so when I Was preparing this I said wait a second New York City isn't the only city that has a museum mile so let me clear that up right from the get-go we're gonna talk about Museum mile New York City and I don't know about you but I love going to museums let's pronounce the word museums it's got that sound like easy Museum but maybe we'll do an episode in the future on London's Museum mile who knows you never know if you guys ask you shall receive and while we're on the topic if you have any ideas for upcoming topics on the show suggestions things you'd like to hear please let me know you can contact me on social media or just go to my website Alberto alonso.com and you can find links to everything some of the greatest shows have been suggestions from you guys so keep them coming let's start off by taking a look at our intro right now because there's a copious amount of vocabulary and I think you know the word copious because I believe it has a a Latin root I said there's a copious concentration of culture pronounce it with me please culture no culture culture art and artifacts from all around the world and it's all smack dab in the middle smack dab in the middle means in Spanish of a major metropolis and then you heard a beep or a hunk they're both onomatopoic words then I said this happening Haven and happening is happening it's Lively and the word Haven I think we've looked at it on past episodes but the word Haven is Refugio this happening Haven and not to be confused with heaven heaven we take out one of the E's and we change the pronunciation that means Refugio it's a Haven for art aficionados what aficionados well why did I mispronounce it well I'm pronouncing it like we pronounce it now normally we say fans but you can say aficionados see you guys aren't the only ones who copy we copy you too then I said it's just a stone's throw atiro de Piedra same expression a stone's throw or you could say a hop skip and a jump from New York's iconic Central Park Then I said will Meander to meander is like de ambular I think you say it's to walk around aimlessly you don't have a particular purpose and I think you know the word Mecca so are you guys ready to discover Museum mile let's start off by talking about museums and New York City in general I'm going to ask you guys to guess how many museums do you think there are in New York City now this is give or take maso menos what did you say did 100 nope higher 145 museums in New York City now remember museums are opening up every day and some are unfortunately closing down but this is just the tip of the iceberg New York has museums and they've got stuff for everybody it doesn't matter what you like it doesn't matter what you're into there's something for everybody and we're going to talk about some of the quirkier or lesser-known museums in the bonus episode and I guess this is a good moment to remind you guys that every week you can get a bonus episode you can get vocabulary sheets that have all the vocabulary that I say and you can be in class with me that's right once a week we review the vocabulary from the past weeks episode and then once a month we have a master class all of this is happening over on patreon if you you want to check it out it's patreon.com Alberto Alonso and thank you thank you thank you to everybody who supports what I do and everybody who enjoys what I do I want to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students Marta candy Javier Roberto David Jose Maria Mila Alex and God and Aina and don't forget about my Interstellar students Lina Issa Paco Diego and the lovely Carmen if you guys want to get some more information about how you can join our curious Community go on over to patreon.com Alberto Alonso the moment you sign up you'll have access to hundreds of posts here's my question for you what are you waiting for join us more information at patreon.com Alberto Alonso so I guess we should start by defining Museum mile what is Museum mile where is Museum mile well it's located in the Upper East Side the Upper East Side is a neighborhood that is on the east side of Central Park to be a little bit more specific it's called Carnegie Hill La Colina de Carnegie now it's not to be confused with Carnegie Hall the famous place where people play music and there are symphony orchestras I mean I think Pavarotti The Beatles everybody has played Carnegie Hall no no this is Carnegie Hill now they're both named after the same person obviously and this is a section of Fifth Avenue and be careful we don't say five we say Fifth Fifth Avenue between 110th Street and 82nd street so it is literally a little patch of land in New York City in the center of New York City but if you want to be a stickler it's technically 1.4 miles but that just didn't have the same ring to it Museum 1.4 miles Museum mile sounds perfect oh and speaking of Central Park we've got an episode on Central Park if you haven't discovered it yet give it a listen but the first thing I would do is a little bit of research because Museum mile even though it's a little bit over a mile it's huge there's so much to do there's so much to see so you need to figure out what's important to you do you want to see a couple smaller museums or do you want to spend the day in a museum such as the Met which is the first one we're going to talk about and it's probably the most famous One the Metropolitan Museum of Art AKA the Met not to be confused with Moma which is the Museum of Modern Art but that's not on museum mile I'm talking about the famous met and I think as in true New York Fashion we're gonna do this in a logical way we will start downtown and then work our way uptown New York is so logical Uptown downtown Midtown the East Side the west side as I just said the first one is the Met but there are some people who say if you just go down the block a little bit to 70th Street and Fifth Avenue you have the Henry Clay Frick house or as it's called the frick collection and some people say that this should be included in museum mile it isn't but hey if you've got a little extra time in your itinerary you should check it out as well because they've got works by by Bellini Goya Rembrandt Turner velafketh Vermeer and many many others and we haven't even touched Museum mile yet it's called the frick collection I'll give you guys all this information over on patreon so the first official Museum On Museum mile is the Met it's located at 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street and it is the largest art museum in the Americas let's take a guess how many Works do you think they have in their permanent collection a hundred fifty thousand a hundred thousand what about 2 million Works they have two million Works in their collection and that is why this is an institution by area as well it is one of the world's largest art art museums the building itself as in many of these that we're going to look at the building itself is a work of art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art or as we lovingly call it the Met was founded in 1870 and its Mission I like this I like to teach this a mission statement is our mission statement is to provide quality English classes blah blah blah you can check out a lot of companies on their website they'll have it our mission statement and their mission statement is to bring art and art education to the American people and they've been doing that since 1870. there are all kinds of things in their collection you've got stuff from ancient Egypt paintings sculptures from nearly all the European Masters American and Modern Art African Asian Islamic Art I mean you name it and when I say art I don't just mean paintings and sculptures they have musical instruments antique weapons I mean it is absolutely fascinating there's a reason why it is what it is it's the met and it is the anchor of Museum mile next up you've got the new Gallery it's kind of old no I'm joking in fact it is the newest one as the name suggests Now new is spelled in German so I don't know if I pronounced it correctly in German I know in English it's new although I've heard some British people say new the new Gallery but that sounds a bit pedantic if you ask me and this is absolutely beautiful it's located at the William star Miller house it's at 86th Street and 5th Avenue and it's one of these old mansion slash palaces that was turned into a museum it was established in 2001 and as I said it is one of the most recent additions to museum mile you can find Klimt there Kandinsky and so many others the next one will be very well known to Spaniards because we have our own Guggenheim that's right there's a Guggenheim in Bilbao but no I'm talking about the one located at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street and this is a building that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright you guys can hear all about him in our Chicago episode he's an amazing architect and he's the one who did falling water as well you know that uh that house that's built into a waterfall oh it's absolutely gorgeous and it was quite controversial at first finally it was completed in 1959 but it took 15 years to design and build and the collection has continued to grow such as the organization as well I mean as I said they're in Bilbao now and you can find them with Collections and many other major cities they have about 8 000 Works in their collection next up we've got the Cooper Hewitt Smithson onion design now we call it the Cooper Hewitt Museum and it's located at 2 East 91st Street between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue if you've noticed every address I've given you is like a grid we always say that when you ask me Alberto where did you live in New York City I'll say 28th between 7th and 8th and this way you can pinpoint exactly where something is we are logical people as I said we come from the Dutch what's cool about the Cooper Hewitt is it's a Hands-On Museum it's one of those museums where you can go and touch things because normally I mean if you go to the Louvre don't you dare touch anything in fact you're not even allowed to use Flash photography but here you can interact with the exhibits and that is awesome you know it's a place where future Engineers or designers or Architects are formed so this museum has a practical element as well well and it's part of the Smithsonian which if you recall in our Washington DC episode we talked about the Smithsonian institution and the Smithsonian is exactly that it's an institution kind of like National Geographic if you want to learn more about that obviously go over to the Washington DC episode and give it a listen the next one on our list and we're moving Uptown as I said this one is the Jewish Museum and we can't take the Jewish element out of New York City there's such a huge part of the building of that city of you know the even now the city there's a huge Jewish influence well you can see influence from every culture but I couldn't imagine New York City without the Jewish influence in food even in the language and this is an art museum which is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue 2 at East 92nd Street Fifth Avenue el numero Fifth Avenue and that's something you can only do in New York well any city that is a grid I know Barcelona has certain parts that are a grid what's interesting about this museum is it is the first Jewish Museum in the United States as well as the oldest existing Jewish Museum in the world and their collection contains more than 30 000 objects The Collection was established in 1904 but the museum did not open until 1947. remember some of these institutions started in somebody's living room you know looking at a couple pieces of Art and then well they outgrew the living room and then they needed bigger spaces until they became institutions the next one is the Museum of the city of New York this one is located at 12 25th Avenue at 103rd Street and they have 1.5 million items remember 1.5 million items that is incredible and most of them if not all of them have something to do with New York and the people who settled New York as well as modern day New York as well let's put it this way if you love all things New York you have to go to the Museum of the city of New York you can find photographs featuring New York City residents costumes Furniture antique toys I mean this is the first Museum in the world that had a department for toys that's a great reason to go in and of itself they've got ship models rare books manuscripts I mean you can find anything thing and everything from Broadway memorabilia to stuff from the nyfd the New York fire department if you love New York you've got to go there then we've got El Museo Del Barrio well I'm not going to translate it that's the name El Museo Del Barrio and it's located near the Northern end of Museum Mile and this is a museum that was founded in 1969 it specializes in Latin American and Caribbean art and you'll see a lot of stuff from Puerto Rico focuses on the boricua culture and it's fascinating I've been there and and I loved how it meshed the Latin culture with the American culture because as we said with the Jewish people you can't take Latinos and Caribbean people out of New York it wouldn't be New York the story would be different they are a part of the fabric and last but not least the Africa Center formerly known as the museum for African art but now it's called the center for African art or the Africa center it's located at 110th Street in East Harlem and this Museum was founded in 1984. it's dedicated to and I quote dedicated to increasing public understanding and appreciation of African art and culture it joined the Ensemble I think you that's a French word we use Ensemble we say ensemble in 2009 and this was the first new Museum constructed on the mile since the Guggenheim which was in 1959 and this museum opened in 2012. so as you can see these museums reflect the diversity that is New York this is a way of traveling around New York not just today but yesterday and and in the future and seeing what New York has to offer and it's all located in this mile or mile point four as we said before of culture art artifacts and amazing things to do and if you had enough art for the day you can go on over to Central Park and have a cup of Joe that's right a cup of Joe is a cup of coffee hey wait we have an episode on coffee too all right well we're gonna wrap up here but I sure hope you'll join us in the bonus episode where we're going to talk about the real estate the price per square meter in museum mile we'll also take a look at movies that took place there and we'll look at the difference between the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side as well as fun facts and lesser-known New York City museums I sure hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's F watch foreign