Museum Mile Festival

The annual Museum Mile Festival traditionally takes place on the second Tuesday in June from 6–9pm in Manhattan, New York City, USA. It was established in 1979 to increase public awareness of its member institutions and promote public support of the arts in New York City. ["Museum Mile Festival held in New York" "UPI NewsTrack" (June 8, 2004)] The first Museum Mile Festival was held on June 26, 1979. [New drive promoting Fifth Avenue's 'Museum Mile', The New York Times, June 27, 1979]

These are the museums along Museum Mile:

*El Museo del Barrio at 104th Street
*Museum of the City of New York at 103rd Street
*International Center of Photography at 94th Street
*Jewish Museum at 92nd Street
*Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design at 91st Street
*National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts at 89th Street
*Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum at 88th Street
*Metropolitan Museum of Art from 82-86 Street
*Goethe-Institut New York at 82nd Street

During the past two decades, well over one million people have taken part in this annual celebration. Festival attendees can walk the Mile from 82nd Street to 104th Street and visit nine of New York City's finest cultural institutions open free that evening to the public. Several of the participating museums offer outdoor art activities for children. [Fass, Allison and Murray, Liz (2000) "Talking to the Streets for Art" "The New York Times" 11 June 2000, p.17, col. 2]

During the event, Fifth Avenue is closed to traffic and it becomes a strollers' haven. Special exhibitions and works from permanent collections are on view inside the institutions and live music from jazz to Broadway tunes to string quartets are featured in front of each museum. Additional street entertainers perform along Fifth Avenue all evening.

The 2007 opening ceremony were hosted by Paul Thompson, the new director of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.museummilefestival.org/ Museum Mile Festival website]