By Mia Romanoff
With the Upper East Side and its rows of galleries just across the park, art was never at the center of my Upper West Side shenanigans growing up. For this guide to art in the neighborhood, I wanted to look beyond museums and galleries and go wherever I could gaze, flip through, listen, and prepare to craft.
While going to college in a small town, I missed the ease of accessing art in New York, and yet since being back in the city I find that I have quickly taken it for granted once again.
And while I definitely am no artist and have only friendship bracelets to show for the several craft-night-turned-wine-nights of my college days, I fear I have not dedicated enough of my time lately to non-screen based activities.
So to remedy that, let’s start at the Nicholas Roerich Museum on 107th Street near Riverside Drive, which is home to the works and writings of the Russian artist. The grand townhouse is filled with vivid paintings of the Himalayas and colorful mosaics. The museum holds about 200 of Roerich’s works, which depict mythic stories and natural landscapes all across the world.
His paintings are able to capture a sense of vastness and light that makes it easy to stare at each one for several minutes at a time. Roerich’s style is consistent, so the plus side is if you like the first paintings you see, you’ll like them all. And, given its location by Riverside Park, it is the perfect destination to combine with a long walk during these picturesque autumn days.
On this trip around the Upper West Side, I stopped at two different record stores. The first was Sweet Peanut Records on 82nd and Amsterdam. Full of new releases with merch in the back, the record store is shiny in an Urban Outfitters sort of way. While it’s definitely worth stopping by, I also am partial to Westsider Records on 72nd Street between Broadway and West End. Much like its bookstore counterpart on 80th and Broadway, Westsider Records is filled to the brim with used records and CDs. It is not focused on pop or new releases, but if you like classical music and classic rock, you’re in the right spot.
If flipping through records isn’t quite your speed, head over to Aperture on 78th Street and Columbus to flip through photography books instead. The space, which has been taunting the Upper West Side with “coming soon” signs for years, finally opened in September. Stopping in to see if the wait was worth the hype, I found out that it was. With photographs dotting the walls and all the books you could ever hope to glance through, Aperture doesn’t disappoint.
When it comes to film, I will recommend Film at Lincoln Center over and over again. Having recovered from the movie overload that was film festival season, I finally feel ready to go back to Walter Reade and Elinor Bunin Film Center, both on 65th between Amsterdam and Broadway. They are currently showing Fatherland, Possible Love, and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, which all originally showed at the NYFF this past month.
The popcorn might be expensive, but grab a seat in the back, turn off your phone, and remember that great things can happen when you sit in a dark room and pay attention for more than 90 seconds at a time.
If, like myself, you’ve found yourself in bed after work scrolling through your phone while TV episodes you’ve already seen play in the background, the solution to your screen time problems can be found at Knitty City, on 79th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway. The store sells with every type and color of yarn you could dream of, and I have found crocheting incredibly mediocre scarves to be a great way to occupy myself while I watch the new season of Adults. If your crochet and knitting ambitions extend beyond gifting your friends different versions of the same poorly made scarf, Knitty City also offers crocheting and knitting classes from basic stitches to more advanced techniques.
My trip to engage with art in the neighborhood was quite the success. My weekend jaunt through the Upper West Side just skimmed the surface of all the area has to offer, yet even this small dose was enough to get me excited about discovering more. On the list for next time: The American Folk Art Museum, The New York Historical Society, and, if I feel compelled to go visit ghosts of field trips past, a trip back to the Natural History Museum.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
