//
Photo: Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Yet another unique but rich treat on 5th Avenue, the AIHS is a non-profit organization that educates visitors on Irish American culture and history. Immersive and traditional events are held often along with exhibits showcasing the array of unique art and music. If performing and visual arts aren't your thing, you can visit the library instead with over 10,000 books, newsletters, newspapers, and pieces of literature dating back to the 1700s that feature a wide variety of otherwise unknown topics that are great for anyone interested in European culture and history.
The American Irish Historical Society (AIHS) is a historical society devoted to Irish American history that was founded in Boston in the late 19th century. Non-partisan and non-sectarian since its inception in 1897, it maintains the most complete private collection of Irish and Irish-American literature and history in the United States, and it publishes a journal entitled The Recorder. The society also holds various cultural events at its headquarters at 991 Fifth Avenue in New York City.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
The Ukrainian Institute has a plethora of history on the culture-ridden Eastern European country of Ukraine, promoting the variety of art, music, and literature from the past centuries. In fact, you can not only be educated on but learn the Ukrainian language here. Art exhibits, concerts, films, lectures, literature readings, poetry, and even educational programs for both adults and children all contribute to the education of this fascinating yet too often forgotten culture.
Museum for German and Austrian Art
A vast collection of early-20th century Austrian and German art and design, including famous artists such as Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh alongside less well-known, equally fascinating designers and artists. They host a German-language film series, which is a good value if you can get tickets. Due to the unprotected display of many fragile items, children under the age of 12 are not permitted in the museum except during special family events, though they are allowed to go in the café and the museum store.
Probably the most famous of the Guggenheim foundations (others found in Bilbao and Venice), which hold avant-garde modern art by artists such as Kandinsky and Mondrian, the New York branch is housed in a unique and famous building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and rendered in a rounded, organic form and completed in 1959. Be sure to take the elevator to the top floor, then follow the spiral viewing floors downwards to the street level. One of eight buildings by Wright to be listed as a world heritage site.
The former home of steel baron Henry Clay Frick, this sprawling mansion is filled with Frick's enormous personal art collection, displayed as he left it. It's worth a visit for the house alone, which is explained nicely in the audio tour. The collection is impressive, including works by Whistler, Corot, El Greco, Turner, Renoir and Rembrandt.
A branch of the Smithsonian Institution, the Cooper Hewitt is devoted to over 240 years of contemporary and historic design, with changing exhibits.
The Asia Society is a unique educational organization like no other in the area promoting relationships and understanding among and of leaders, people, and organizations of Asia. It features a vast array of Asian art including art, business, culture, and education, promoting collaboration and a new, progressive understanding of Asian relations. The opportunities for discovery here are endless, with lessons about art, calligraphy, language, literature, politics, and religion.