Gay New York ~ Museums

American Museum of Natural History 
Central Park West (btwn 77th and 81 sts.)
This is one of the hottest museum tickets in town, thanks to the Rose Center for Earth and Space, whose four-story-tall planetarium sphere hosts the excellent Harrison Ford-narrated Space Show "Are We Alone?," the most technologically advanced sky show on the planet. Prepare to be blown away. The show is short -- less than a half-hour from start to finish -- but phenomenal. (New York magazine has called it "the world's largest, most powerful virtual-reality simulator.")

Morgan Library 
29 E. 36th St
This New York treasure, boasting one of the world's most important collections of original manuscripts, rare books and bindings, master drawings, and personal writings will be closed for a major renovation until late in 2006. Renovations will include a welcoming entrance on Madison Avenue; new and renovated galleries, so that more of the library's holdings can be exhibited; a modern auditorium; and a new Reading Room with greater capacity and electronic resources and substantially expanded space for collections storage.

Museum of Modern Art 
Btwn Fifth and Sixth Aves
After two years of being temporarily ensconced in Queens, MoMA returned to its original Manhattan location in late 2004. And though the address is the same, the building is now, with over 630,000 square feet, almost twice the size of the original. 

New York Public Library 
Fifth Ave. and 42nd St
The New York Public Library, adjacent to Bryant Park and designed by Carrère & Hastings (1911), is one of the country's finest examples of Beaux Arts architecture, a majestic structure of white Vermont marble with Corinthian columns and allegorical statues. Before climbing the broad flight of steps to the Fifth Avenue entrance, take note of the famous lion sculptures -- Fortitude on the right, and Patience on the left -- so dubbed by whip-smart former mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. At Christmastime they don natty wreaths to keep warm.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 
1071 Fifth Ave
Permanent exhibits of 19th- and 20th-century art, including strong holdings of Kandinsky, Klee, Picasso, and French Impressionists.

The Cloisters 
At the north end of Fort Tryon Park
This remote yet lovely spot is devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Atop a magnificent cliff overlooking the Hudson River, you'll find a 12th-century chapter house, parts of five cloisters from medieval monasteries, a Romanesque chapel, and a 12th-century Spanish apse brought intact from Europe. Surrounded by peaceful gardens, this is the one place on the island that can even approximate the kind of solitude suitable to such a collection. Inside you'll find extraordinary works that include the famed Unicorn tapestries, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, ivory, and precious metal work.

The Frick Collection 
1 E. 70th St
Come here to see the classics by some of the world's most famous painters: Titian, Bellini, Rembrandt, Turner, Vermeer, El Greco, and Goya, to name only
a few.