Day Trip: Art on a Budget

The New York City gallery scene quiets down a bit in the summer, with some of the bigger names taking a vacation and others leaving their shows to run for longer than normal. Several of those exhibits tend to be group shows, frequently organized with a seasonal theme.

If you are an art lover and not inclined to spend $20 to enter the Museum of Modern Art, for example, you should head to Chelsea. It's a nice walk from Penn Station and there are hundreds of galleries to choose from.  

Being partial to photography, we found Jill Greenberg's images of swimmers in high heels, taken underwater, to be our favorite. Paul Bobko's dramatic shots of crashing waves were also very impressive.  

In one afternoon we managed to see painting, sculpture, mixed media and some cultural history as well (The Kitchen's look back at it's Soho years is a nostalgic trip for anyone into avant-garde music and performance) and we barely scratched the surface. 

If you head into Chelsea, it's a good idea to do some research. Time Out, The New Yorker and New York magazines all have listings. There are numerous sites online that will also be helpful.

And you might want to take the twenty bucks that you saved and eat at Cookshop (http://cookshopny.com/), where the food was delicious and the servings very generous.