Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum is one of New York City’s premier cultural institutions. It ranks among the country’s largest and oldest art museums—and as the most visited NYC collection outside of Manhattan. The grand beaux-arts edifice opened on Eastern Parkway in 1897; today, there’s more to see inside than ever. The museum contains roughly 1.5 million works of art that span millennia and come from every corner of the globe.

The Brooklyn Museum houses a huge permanent collection categorized by culture, as well as visiting exhibitions from a wide variety of geographic locations and time periods. Your admission ticket gives you access to the Permanent Collection which includes American Art, Arts of Africa, Arts of the Americas, Arts of the Islamic World, Arts of the Pacific Islands, Asian Art, Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts and many more exhibition halls. It’s situated next to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and visitors can purchase discounted passes that allow them to tour both in the same day.

Below are some of the highlights of the Museum:

First Floor

Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden: This space contains architectural details (angels, lions, horses) that once graced the facades of New York City buildings dating from 1880 to 1910.

Second Floor

Arts of Asia and the Middle East: Arts of Korea

Third Floor

Ancient Egyptian Art: The collection of Egyptian art and artifacts encompasses 1,200 objects from as far back as 3500 BC. Make sure to see Head from a Female Sphinx and the Mummy Chamber, which features “Lady” Hor of the 22nd Dynasty (a scan proved the mummy to be male) and Thothirdes, a priest from the same dynasty.

European Art: Though small, it flaunts some big names: Rodin, Goya and Monet. The collection begins with the early Renaissance and runs up to the early 20th century.

Fourth Floor

Decorative Arts and Period Rooms: A large portion of the fourth floor is dedicated to presenting a picture of American and European life from the 17th to 20th centuries. Don’t miss the Jan Martense Schenck House, an entire (original) Dutch farmhouse from Flatlands, Brooklyn, that was part of the Dutch settlement in the late 1600s.

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: This space is the first of its kind dedicated exclusively to showcasing female artists. The centerpiece is Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, a banquet-table installation with 39 place settings that pay tribute to female artists, activists and leaders.

Fifth Floor

American Art: This section includes indigenous art from as far back as 4000 BC up to the modern day. A bust of Abraham Lincoln, inspired by his 1860 speech at Cooper Union, and Gilbert Stuart’s oft-reproduced portrait of George Washington are among the highlights.

Visible Storage Center: This library-like showcase holds about 2,000 works. It’s a behind-the-scenes look into the storage process of the museum, which cannot exhibit all of its works at once.

Find out more about Brooklyn Museum exhibits as well as Brooklyn Museum events.

Brooklyn Museum hours are Weds, Fri, Sat & Sun: 11am-6pm. Thurs: 11am-10pm The Museum stays open till 11 pm on the first Saturday of each month. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

You can see the Brooklyn Museum on our daily Brooklyn Tour!