Lecture at The Frick Collection

Join the head horticulturists from The Frick Collection, The Met Cloisters, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for a panel discussion about the unique experience of caring for museum gardens. Maeve Turner, Carly Still, and Erika Rumbley will highlight the challenges and joys of caring for dynamic green spaces within and beyond a museum’s walls. This will be the first time the three institutions convene to discuss their horticultural endeavors. The conversation will be moderated by Aimee Ng, the Frick’s Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator.

This summer, Anna Hull is hosting a free monthly Saturday gathering to connect, journal, and meditate on the themes of the season.

• afternoon outdoor nidrā meditation

• sunny guided journaling session

• community circle / seasonal chitchat 

Exhibition at POSTER HOUSE

April 23 through November 1

This exhibition includes book-related posters from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Germany printed during both world wars. All of these nations relied on public book donations and fundraising to supply soldiers with reading material, and many posters aimed to mobilize the public to give. While some encourage escapist fiction and recreational reading, educational books were also acquired for troops to help them prepare for promotion within the Army, future jobs, or civilian life. By World War II, books had also become a powerful symbol of freedom and democracy for America and its allies.

West Side Fest: Reading Under Fire Curatorial Tour

July 11, Saturday, 4:00–5:00 PM
Free; advance registration is required.

Recruiting all bookworms! Join curator Molly Guptill Manning for an in-depth tour of Reading Under Fire: Arming Minds & Hearts During Wartime. Learn how posters produced during World Wars I and II shaped an international movement to promote reading and support morale, education, and connection during wartime. 

Exhibition at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Shelby Cullom Davis Museum, Vincent Astor Gallery

Through July 11, 2026

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a surge of magicians began to refine their art, finding larger audiences and building communities of practice. This period has come to be known as the Golden Age of Magic. The history of magic and magicians has long been documented through text and image as a form of theater by the Billy Rose Theatre Division at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Now, the exhibition Mystery and Wonder: a Legacy of Golden Age Magicians in New York City displays our rich and historic archival materials related to the art of magic and the fascinating lives of magicians performing in New York City during the Golden Age.

Magic performance in this period was deeply intertwined with the traditions of spiritualism, vaudeville, circus, and mainstream theater, and innovations in publishing, science, and technology were also a major influence. The exhibition explores how magic knowledge was passed down through communities and lineages of magicians within an evolving cultural and social context.

Mystery and Wonder Exhibition Gallery Tour

July 11, 2026, Saturday, 11:00 AM–12:00 PM
Free; advance registration is required.

Exhibition at COOPER HEWITT

OPENS June 26, 2026

Occupying the entire first floor of the museum’s Carnegie Mansion, Design Across Time expands public access to Cooper Hewitt’s collection and includes significant works newly brought out of storage. Through objects spanning time, geography, and discipline—including graphic design, product design, fashion, textiles, furniture, wallcoverings, digital design, and architecture—this exhibition highlights the breadth of the national design collection.

Design Across Time organizes the museum’s vast collection around thematic clusters to explore some of the many approaches designers use in their creative process. Designers Play and Tweak to experiment and iterate ideas. They Repeat elements to reinforce messages; Transform materials into sustainable solutions; Show Off craftsmanship to create objects of beauty; or Simplify complex shapes and information.

Educator Tour + Resource Share: Design Across Time

July 9, Thursday, 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Free; advance registration is required.

K-12 Educators, kick off your summer with creativity and connection! Enjoy a free tour of our new exhibition Design Across Time led by curator Emily Orr, then stay for conversation with other educators. You’ll also get introduced to Design Skill Builders, a new collection of fun, ready– to-use activities that bring design thinking skills into any classroom and subject area. Come for inspiration, leave with ideas you’ll actually use.

A PROJECT OF THE POETRY SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Join us on Sunday, June 28, at 11:00 a.m. for a walking tour of the Poem District, the Poetry Society of America’s newest public art initiative. The Poem District is an open-air anthology of poems installed on the walls and windows of buildings in the neighborhoods surrounding the Poetry Society’s storefront on Smith Street. On this roughly one-mile walk along Smith and Court streets, beginning at Atelier Ariana (478 Smith Street) and concluding at the Poetry Society (119 Smith Street), attendees will view seven installations, read the poems and learn about the poets, and take in the vibrant small business communities of Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens.

About the Poem District
The Poem District is an ambitious new public art project that aims to place dozens of poems on the walls and windows of neighborhood buildings, making poetry part of daily life for residents and visitors as they commute to work, walk home from school, shop for groceries, or meet up with friends. Sites include bookstores, retail shops, community gardens, cafes and restaurants, and local civic and cultural organizations. The project is supported by the NYC Department of Small Business Services through the Public Realm Grant program and the Destina Foundation.