Guggenheim’s First Fridays – Art After Dark
It is virtually impossible to be bored in the City that Never Sleeps, however if you’re looking for nightlife that goes beyond your usual dive sports bar or industrial nightclub, head on over to Fifth Avenue at 89th Street and check out the Guggenheim. An art museum? For nightlife? Well why not. On the first Friday of just about every month, the rotunda at the Guggenheim turns into a hybrid event of cocktails, dance music and art, aptly named “Art After Dark”.
First Friday party at the Guggenheim
In full swing since 2005, the Guggenheim has been drawing around 2,000 people a night to this event but as expected with a large crowd of yuppies, hipsters and self-proclaimed sophisticates, the party is not without it’s caveats. You can prepare for this and fully enjoy everything the experience has to offer however, by following 3 helpful pieces of advice.
First of all, arrive early. The party kicks off at 9pm and if you stroll in anytime after that, you will be required to freeze your fedora off for at least 45 minutes on the long line snaking around the outside of the building. To improve your chances of getting right in, your best bet would be to arrive before 8:30pm.
Secondly, bring cash. Admission at the door is $25 and will need to be paid for in cold, hard dinero. After you get in the door, check your coat and scan the room for the watering hole, you’ll notice that you need to buy yourself some drink tickets at a separate desk prior to ordering your first cocktail. Again, you’ll need to pay in cash. I also recommend dialing back to your Skee-ball days and stocking up on these little gems in order to avoid spending half of your night waiting on two lines each time you near the bottom of your Bordeaux.
Finally, if you plan on seeing and being seen at more than one First Friday, you would bode well with becoming a member of the museum and coughing up the $75 yearly fee. As a member, you will bypass the long line to get in and admission will be ”free”. After 3 First Fridays and taking advantage of the many other member benefits the museum offers, you will be sure to have got your money’s worth.
Bottom line: If you enjoy sipping tasty cocktails, listening to the sounds of music spun by live DJ’s and viewing exceptional works of art, Art After Dark is a refreshing sensory experience that breaks away from the monotony of the bar and club scene. The party starts tomorrow night, December 4th at 9pm and features the extraordinary work of abstract artist, Vasily Kandinsky.
Kandinsky - Several Circles, 1926
