Museums & Galleries in Weehawken

Queens Museum of Art plumps imaginations and piques visual interest with an ever-growing collection of art and educational programs. A one-year membership guarantees family admission for the entirety of a 365-day period, a 10% discount at the museum store, four free passes to the museum, and a free game of catch with the docent of your choice. Once inside the art vault, guests are free to gambol with their legs and frolic with their eyes over exhibitions such as the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, which dazzles brainwaves with lampshades, windows, and more than 200 flat glassworks made for and used by Tiffany Studios.

New York City has her bustling waterways to thank for a rich history of art, industry, and cultural development—perhaps more than any other factor. The sea carried in a stream of tens of millions of immigrants and fueled the industrial age in one of the country’s most accessible portals to the world. South Street Seaport Museum’s massive gallery space in Schermerhorn Row Block pays tribute to a bygone age while bridging it to the city’s modern aquatic-shipping and transport industry. Some exhibits illuminate the past, such as the pseudo-marketplace at Coffee, Fish, and the Tattooed Man and the immaculately preserved hotel at Remains of the Stay, while others highlight modern issues such as the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Weighted with history, the museum’s fleet of tugboats, schooners, and sloops stays stalwartly afloat, each with its own story to tell; built in 1885, the Wavertree was one of the last wrought-iron sailing ships commissioned, and the Pioneer has spent more than 120 years feeding the economy with boatloads of lumber, stone, brick, oyster shells, and tourists. The majestic four-masted bark Peking represents the famous German Flying P-Liners, designed to be crewed entirely by birds.

First a family home and then a Brooklyn Museum storage facility, the Adams House comes from less than illustrious origins. That held true until 1899, when program directors decided to transform the old mansion into a museum geared toward children. Anna Billings Gallup headed up the first crew of curators, who transformed the space into the Brooklyn Children's Museum, one of the earliest youth-geared institutions of its kind in the world.

Though it has since changed locations, the museum preserves Gallup's world-renowned passion for educating children along with more than 30,000 objet d'anthropology, from shark jawbones to tribal masks. Six standing exhibits aim to entertain kids and families and include an exploration of world culture through the lens of a sneaker factory in the Global Shoes exhibit. The Sensory Room provides an interactive experience for special-needs children, with visual, auditory, and motor-skills-related activities. The museum also teaches future generations about sustainability with a curriculum based on the building's own inner workings, which are certified green by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program and other people who are not colorblind.

Standing at the intersection of contemporary art and design, The Museum of Arts and Design explores the way that artists and designers from around the world translate ideas in masterpieces that range from traditional to bleeding-edge. At its stunning Columbus Circle headquarters, visitors marvel at its glass-and-terracotta exterior before exploring a rotating collection that ranges from jewelry and delicate glass works to ceramics to architectural designs and furniture. This meshing of masterpieces has attracted more than a million visitors to the museum since it opened in 2008. The jewelry collection illustrates the transformation that took place in the world of studio jewelry from post–World War II to today, while woodwork by generations of well-known artists charts the evolution from handcarved pieces to astonishing works of machine-aided art. Other rotating exhibits the museum hosts explore topics such as glassworking, scent, and sculpture.

In the 19th century, the Tenderloin district of New York City lured visitors with bordellos, dance halls, and saloons. These days, the area houses the Museum of Sex, which explores the historical and cultural significance of the types of human sexuality considered taboo in the Tenderloin era. The more than 15,000 sexual artifacts in the museum's permanent collection include vintage vibrators, period photography, and copies of Playboy's predecessor, Philandering Archduke. Rotating exhibitions also delve into current sexual scholarship; past exhibits have explored the history of condoms, sexuality in 1930s comics, and Japanese erotic art.

After exploring the museum's galleries, visitors can reenergize with a bite or a drink from the museum's in-house bar, which blends traditional aphrodisiacs into cocktails and housemade sodas. Suggestively named edibles are also available in the museum's store, alongside artwork and contraceptives. For further education, visitors can peruse the events calendar to sign up for classes offering sex tips.

Filling a need for a local space where artists share vision as well as physical area, Brooklyn Art Space houses much of the foundational equipment artists need to create their work without being forced to rent private studios. The loft offers many work-area options to its members such as a 4,000-square-foot shared studio space, semiprivate spaces, a gallery, and a writers’ room. Each member is granted open access to equipment such as tables, easels, drying racks, and slop sinks, and can come and go as they wish 24 hours a day.

Alongside the working studio, artists teach workshops including a diverse lineup of classes that range from traditional 2-D painting and drawing courses to sewing and mixed-media projects. Reflecting the space’s commitment to fostering a community of artists, the staff also holds frequent figure-drawing sessions, gallery shows, feedback forums, and an art-talk series.