I went to the Whitney Museum of American Art with my friend, David. Others have to pay for entry, but we were lucky enough to get in free with our Baruch IDs. The museum is fantastic – built without permanent inner walls to make the space super flexible and designed to look over the city in a way that encompasses its past and present. From one terrace the view to where the docks were and from another down to one of the few remaining meat packing plants. The permanent collection is rich enough in American art to warrant a visit but to make the most of it, explore the temporary exhibitions too, it will depend what’s on. Take up the offer of the free tours as these are said to be high quality and detailed. I didn’t take the tour, but you should! A big plus is if the weather’s half decent you can get onto the high line and it’s amazing. Even bigger plus is if you are walking distance to the galleries, you can enjoy the beautiful view and the arts outside of the museum.
I took the elevator to the 8th floor and started with the Calder Mobile Exhibition. My only complaint is that there were too many other visitors to see the art properly. Sometimes you want to stand back and look at a large piece from across the room. The Whitney does have large spaces, but they were so full of people it was impossible to stand back without what you wanted to look at being blocked by the crowd. I think that is why I enjoyed the outdoor spaces of the Whitney so much. You could look down upon the large art installed out doors with out anyone blocking your field of vision. I loved the Calders and I also really enjoyed Larry Bell’s Pacific Red II on the 2nd floor deck.
I would recommend going to the museum on a weekday, when you are less likely to run into such big crowds. I know it would be hard to find parking around there, but I took the train, and I would recommend it. The building is completely handicapped accessible. I did not try the restaurants as there were some really cool looking ones in the immediate neighborhood, but I thought it would be too expensive. Overall, I enjoyed the Whitney Museum and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested about history, or just wants to have a fun learning experience.

-Shokhrukh Abdulloev