Bronx Museum of the Arts

This is a tiny gem of a place in the Bronx. It is very well curated and has a calm feeling. It does not take long to get through, more like a galley than a museum. Go here, and then walk down to 161 and the Grand Concourse and visit the Beer on Tap on Gerard Ave on the north side of 161 next to papa juan cigar room. Or just walk and explore Yankee Stadium. Enjoy, also lots of really good mom and pop restaurants there on 161.

What’s not to to love? Well-​curated exhibits, great community events, and free admission. You won’t spend all day here like you will at the Met, but you’ll definitely see something thought-​provoking and insightful. My favorite thing about the Bronx Museum are the community events they host. I’ve been to lectures from artists, brainstorm sessions for community development, concerts, and more. There’s a real sense of accessibility and responsibility to the community here. Check it out!

Beautiful, intimate, approachable space with tons of free programming not to mention free entrance. Absolute community gem!

I came on a trip to this museum and it wasn’t what I expected it to be. But on a footnote my favorite part about this museum was seeing Martin Luther King and that time period. The photo graphs were good and I loved every moment of it. You would think tho that the museum is bigger.

I have loved the events there. The last couple of exhibits I’ve checked out were very well done. The space is small, but makes sense for the mission. The member events are a great way to gain appreciation for the collections.
Younger kids might not be amused, but the three year old nephew enjoyed the Lords along with the eight year old.
The staff is knowledgeable and friendly.

Not bad for a museum with free admission. The staff are very polite and friendly though the exhibitions are just limited.
I loved how they feature works of contemporary and upcoming artists. They also have a number of mixed media art which are so interesting and really creative.
They have a small museum store and I’m not sure but I don’t think they have a café.

Coming here is always nostalgic and takes me back to my childhood. I used to live right off the concourse on 165^th and Carol Place. When I was growing up BMA was never here. The neighborhood was ridden with violence and crack. I can’t begin to express how refreshing it is to see something like this in a neighborhood that was once labeled «bad».
People who never venture outside of their comfort zone now have the opportunity to participate in educational programs, forums, exhibitions and contemporary art work.
I attended a forum not long ago which covered gentrification. This is a subject that hits close to home and I was able to meet with others who understood that.
If you aren’t from the Bronx then don’t be afraid to stop by. Forget the negative, antipathetic attitudes that are inaccurately associated with the Bronx. There are a lot of hidden gems and you learn something new each day.

If you’re in the area, then definitely a cool spot to check out. The staff was incredibly friendly, the museum is spacious and clean, and the artwork was intellectual. Probably not an institution I would go out of my way to head towards again but I would recommend it if you’re in the Yankee Stadium area. Definitely a great institution, and a friendly place, to support.

A friend recommended I go to the Bronx Museum. Free entry, although i gave a twenty dollar donation. Great show, friendly staff, well worth the trip!

Nice museum. just stay away from the woman at the front desk. Her inability to communicate effectively is exacerbated by her rudeness and by her laughing moronically at you as you try to understand what she’s talking about.
From another Unilocaler: «My only gripe is with the lady at the reception desk.»
And still another: «The staff is pretty rude».

Decided to actually bite the bullet and visit this museum this past Friday. It was ok. Not many exhibits. I was expecting art contributions from other nationalities other than Latino. There is a large amount of Italian and Jewish communities (people) in the Bronx. Hopefully there will be a rotation of art that reflects other nationalities that represent the Bronx. There is a small gift shop. Although the museum is free, paid $ 17.00 to park in garage across the street. I guess I was expecting parking to be cheaper.

Getting to the Bronx Museum of the Arts was a trek, but I was really excited to check this museum out. This museum is known to have innovative contemporary art works and exhibitions and also offer education programs for cross-​cultural dialogues. I love how this museum is an advocate in making art accessible to the community. My favorite pieces include Shimomura’s ‘Rape of Nanking,’ Biggers’ ‘Afropick,’ Taylor’s ‘Untitled,’ Kwami’s ‘Lanier Place Goddess II,’ and Osorio’s ‘The Scene of the Crime (Whose Crime?).’ Bright space with lots of natural light, I really enjoyed checking this museum out! :D
+having art accessible to the community: D

I’ve lived in NYC for six years but I only made it to the Bronx Museum a couple weeks ago, and wow. What a great little museum! I feel guilty admitting this but I was not expecting to enjoy it so much. After visiting I really feel certain that the «neighborhood» museums (Studio Museum in Harlem, Queens Museum, and this one) are the best places to see art in New York – not as sterile or predictable as the famous ones in uptown and downtown Manhattan.
There were three exhibitions up when I visited. One was of a Brazilian artist, Paulo Bruscky, in two galleries. The first one featured works where the artist inserted himself in maps, urban space, and the postal system with his drawings, collages, and performances. I really liked one piece called «I’m Pickling Myself (1974) where he put a photo of himself in a pickle jar, as well as his experiments putting his head and body parts in a copy machine, a new office technology at the time. It all had a do-​whatever, anything-​goes spirit. The second gallery was more somber: about the artist’s use of medical technologies to record his existence as a biological organism, shuffling through the qualities of life and archives. I liked the work in the first gallery better but the shift in tone was a smart way to highlight the range of the artist’s work.
The big galleries had sculptures by Tony Fehrer, which were colorful, simple, ingenious, and delightful. He’s the kind of artist who looks at the properties of ordinary things and finds beauty in them. The walls were almost bare, except for some small pieces of cardboard torn off boxes, and so viewers ended up navigating the space by encountering all sorts of assemblages on the floor or hanging from the ceiling, which animated the gallery. Tables of colored glass bottles, filled with various levels of liquid, doodads and washers arranged in a circle – there was a shamanistic aura around this dollar-​store detritus. I noticed that several visitors seemed particularly enchanted by a collection of colored mop sticks laid out like a sunburst or a blooming flower.
The last gallery featured photographs taken at a beach in the Bronx. They were large-​format, high-​quality photojournalistic images. I personally preferred the other exhibits but this was a cool thing to have at a community museum and rounded out the experience with another kind of art-​making. Everybody takes photos at the beach so in a way, like the Paulo Bruscky and Tony Fehrer, the photo exhibit is encouraging viewers to find (and make) art in everyday life and that’s great.

Few exhibits there, but in turn it created an intimate setting to observe the select pieces. Not too crowded, easy to navigate.

Went there to see the clear plastic bottles semi-​filled with blue liquid hanging on a rope. But was impressed with the 350 coke bottle delivery crates stacked to form a red cube with the logos erased.

This place is fantastic. First of all it’s free. Second of all it has a good/​interesting collection of artwork. It’s only one level but there is quite a bit to see and some pieces really drew me in. If you are ever headed to a Yankees Game, stop by for 30 minutes or so.

I was amazed at the present space the museum occupies, its great. My son recommended that I go after he had recently visited, he informed me that he was very impressed by the changes the museum has made. As a pre –teen he attended art classes here and therefore speaks with some familiarity of museum’s past. My son was right I was pleasantly surprised, I will definitely put this museum on my list of museums that I visit during the year! I was also fortunate to learn about first Fridays, and attended «African Simo 7» (Film Festival) at the Joyce Kilmer Park that same !
WOW the Bronx Rocks

Bronx Museum is all about access to Art and Culture, so the museum is free/​donation-​based. They have events throughout the month to engage the community. Most of the exhibits have are more contemporary and urban. They also have live music at some events.

This is a somewhat small museum apparently oriented to contemporary art, just one floor of exhibits, but I found this to be one of the most interesting museums I have been to of any sort. Every artwork or short film I saw there I found to be an intellectually rewarding experience that raised questions and many challenged some of my conceptions about things. Often when I go to museums I start to get sleepy after awhile, not the case here everything was fascinating. Apparently they change exhibits pretty often. The Cuban «Revolution Not Televised» exhibit is great, don’t miss the short films, although if you don’t speak Spanish you will miss out on a lot in those; and I loved the graffiti exhibit and the Rituals of Chaos photography. They frequently have special events with live music or other stuff going on, I went to their 40^th anniversary party in Oct 2012 and it was awesome, a very wide variety of entertainment. Eager to check out some of their other special events. I really love this place.

This is a great space to visit if you’ve never been… or if you have, you should go back! The exhibits chance periodically, so you should check out their website for new exhibits! Also, they have First Fridays and can feature live music, and other performances!
There is a current showing of graffiti as art… and there are some gorgeous pieces. Check it out… you won’t be sorry!

On my last trip to New York I wanted to go to some of the smaller museums and sites I didn’t get to see on my first trip several years ago. I took the subway up to the Bronx to go to Wave Hill, but decided to go to the BMA instead. I’d heard a lot of good things about the BMA
I went in and loved loved it. This was one of my favourite attractions that I went to. The exhibits were interesting, the museum was a good size, not too big and not to small. The admission is by donation, but you should put in the $ 5 they suggest because its well worth it.