The Lakeside rink in Prospect Park is a wonderful family friendly escape. Spend a day gliding along their two rinks totaling 32,000 square feet of ice! One rink covered, the other open to the elements. Activities go on all day, but it can get crowded! Particularly around holidays. The Bluestone Café onsite with great food and warm drink, or feel free to bring your own food and relax at one of the many outdoor tables available. Located in the Southeast quadrant of the park, with lovely views, and easily accessible by public transportation. Open from October to March. Please check website for schedule updates.

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is without a doubt one of the least recognized jewels of New York's cultural scene. Dedicated to providing innovative learning opportunities which interpret New York City's rich political, social, intellectual, artistic, and cultural heritages, the Museum makes for a fascinating visit. As the museum underwent extensive renovations, it will probably garner a lot more attention by visitors and native New Yorkers alike. Among the recent additions: a two level 3,000 foot glass-clad gallery pavilion, a vault which holds the museum's silver collection, and a new research room. The exterior façade has also been restored and re-landscaped with a 4,700-square-foot front terrace facing Fifth Avenue. The museum also has full disability access. The Museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions, in coordination with educational programming and publications, reflect the complexity of the history of New York City, the scope and depth of the Museum's collections, and the diversity of the Museum's audiences. The Museum's collections are among the most substantial and voluminous of their kind. There are an estimated 1.5 million objects under the auspices of the Museum, of which 2,000 are paintings ranging in date from the seventeenth century to the present. Among the Museum's most celebrated holdings are its prints, photographs and drawings. Representative of the very best in fine art photography and printmaking, as well as some of the City's most intriguing and valuable visual documentation, this collection is known for its comprehensive archives of architecture, businesses, maps, and photojournalism. The Museum is also home to collections of work by photographer Berenice Abbott, journalist Jacob Riis, and printmakers Currier & Ives, among others. The Museum also boasts the most complete collection devoted to New York professional theater including 3,500 costumes, props, costume sketches set designs and models, production photographs, playbills, scripts, and theatrical memorabilia. The MCNY Costume Collection features garment types worn by New Yorkers from seventeenth-century Dutch women to today's fashion leaders. The holdings are matchless in their breadth and variety, from christening gowns and swaddling bands to sports uniforms and outerwear. The collection has emerged as one of the most preeminent resources for fashion scholarship. A wealth of other New York-related artifacts, part of the cultural patrimony of New Yorkers, is also part of the MCNY collection. Rare and unique toys, fire-fighting equipment through the centuries, ship's figure heads, transport vehicles including - an omnibus, Bellevue Hospital ambulance, nineteenth-century police paddy wagon and 1980 Checker cab - join Yankee Stadium seats, the trademark hats of Congresswoman and women's rights activist Bella Abzug, a Vera Maxwell-designed war workers jumpsuit, and an early 20th-century barber's chair are just some of the types of artifacts that chronicle the history of the City on display at the Museum.

The Drawing Center has been a unique and dynamic part of New York City's cultural life since 1977. The only not-for-profit institution in the country to focus on the exhibition of drawings, it was established to demonstrate the significance and diversity of drawings throughout history, to juxtapose work by master figures with work by emerging and under-recognized artists, and to stimulate public dialogue on issues of art and culture. Called "one of the city's most highly respected small art museums" by The New York Times, The Drawing Center has become the country's preeminent venue for important contemporary and historical drawing exhibitions, attracting more than 55,000 visitors annually from the local area, across the country, and around the world. The Drawing Center has presented more than 230 exhibitions, published over 70 catalogs, and toured its exhibitions to prestigious museums around the world, including: Tate Britain, London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (The Stage of Drawing); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain (The Prinzhorn Collection); and the Santa Monica Museum of Art (3 x Abstraction). The Drawing Center's acclaimed exhibitions encompass a wide range of drawing traditions, such as Shaker Gift Drawings, Rajasthani Miniatures, Plains Indians Ledger Drawings, and Norval Morrisseau/Copper Thunderbird. Through a uniquely interdisciplinary approach, The Drawing Center's exhibitions have also related drawing to science (Ocean Flowers: Impressions from Nature), architecture (Constant, Inigo Jones, Louis Kahn), literature (Victor Hugo, Henri Michaux), theater (Picasso's Parade, Theater on Paper), film (Sergei Eisenstein), music (Musical Manuscripts), and choreography (Trisha Brown). Historical Exhibitions focus on both acknowledged and under-recognized masters (such as Michelangelo, J.M.W. Turner, James Ensor, Marcel Duchamp, and Hilma af Klint) while Contemporary Exhibitions illuminate unexplored aspects of works by major living artists (such as Richard Serra, Louise Bourgeois, Ellsworth Kelly, Anna Maria Maiolino, Ellen Gallagher, and Richard Tuttle), and Selections Exhibitions present innovative work of emerging artists who are contributing to new interpretations of drawing. In the Drawing Room, which was opened across the street from the main gallery in 1997, emerging and under-recognized artists are encouraged to create experimental, cross-disciplinary work and site-specific installations. Examples of artists whose work was first introduced to a wide public at The Drawing Center are: Terry Winters, Glenn Ligon, Janine Antoni, William Kentridge, Kara Walker, Shahzia Sikander, Margaret Kilgallen, and Julie Mehretu. The Drawing Center's Viewing Program has encouraged the development of thousands of emerging artists through one-on-one portfolio reviews with a curator, and through its curated public Artist Registry of over 2,500 emerging artists. The Edward Hallam Tuck Publication Program provides new scholarship and critical context on contemporary and historical drawings through its scholarly catalogs for major exhibitions and its inventive Drawing Papers publication series, which accompanies each exhibition. A lively array of Public Programs — including gallery talks, panel discussions, and literary programs — engage audiences more deeply with the work on display. The Drawing Center's Michael Iovenko School Programs, offered free of charge, has served 75,000 local public school students through drawing activities and discussions inspired by the approaches of the exhibiting artists. In addition, the Internship Program has introduced hundreds of college students to the workings of a small and active museum.

The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long (22 blocks) abandoned elevated railway, that stretches from the Hudson Rail Yard at 34th Street down through the West Chelsea gallery neighborhood where it continues on to Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking district. It has recently been developed into one of New York City's more remarkable public parks. Opened to the public in June 2009, just a few years ago the High Line's demolition seemed imminent. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the High Line's restoration is at the "core of the administration's plans to revitalize the Far West Side," forming "a necklace of dynamic waterfront communities, each with their own assets." The High Line reveals a lot about New York City history. The following history is from Friends of the Highline, an activist group founded by Joshua David and Robert Hammond to advocate for the High Line's preservation and reuse as public open space: Before the High Line In 1847, the City of New York authorized the street-level railroad tracks running down Manhattan's West Side as far south as Canal Street to allow freight to run between New York City and Albany. Days of Death Avenue As soon as traffic started running on the new line, accidents began occurring between trains, pedestrians, horses, and other traffic. So many fatalities occurred that 10th Avenue became known as "Death Avenue". Men on horses had to ride in front of trains waving flags. They were called the West Side Cowboys. The West Side Improvement Project After years of public debate about these hazardous conditions and how to eliminate them, the New York Central Railroad, the City of New York, and the State of New York, came to an agreement in 1929 for the West Side Improvement Project, which included the High Line. This project as a whole was 13 miles long, eliminated 105 street-level railroad crossings, and added 32 acres to Riverside Park. It cost over $150 million in 1930 dollars—more than $2 billion in today's dollars. The High Line ran from 35th Street down to St. John's Park Terminal, which covered four riverfront blocks between Clarkson and Spring Streets. The structure was designed to go through the center of blocks, rather than over the avenue, to avoid creating the negative conditions associated with elevated subways. It connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside the buildings. Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods could come and go without causing any street-level traffic. Decline of Rail Traffic and Partial Demolition In the 1950s, the rise of interstate trucking led to a decline of rail traffic on the High Line. Parts of it were torn down in the 1960s, and trains stopped running on it in 1980, when the northern end of the structure and its easement were rerouted to accommodate construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center. At the southern end, a five-block section of the Line was torn down in 1991, bringing the Line's southern terminus to Gansevoort Street. The Threat of Demolition Since the mid 1980s, a group of private property owners who purchased land under the High Line at prices that reflected its easement have lobbied for demolition of the entire structure. Much credit for the fact that the High Line survived the demolition efforts in the mid- and late 1980s goes to Peter Obletz, a Chelsea resident, activist, and railroad enthusiast, who challenged demolition efforts in court and tried to reestablish rail service on the Line. The High Line Festival In May 2007 the first annual High Line Festival took place, featuring curator and co-founder David Bowie headlining this ten-day program of movies, music, visual arts, dance, and the customary over-the-top Chelsea nightlife.

Glide under the stars on the Rooftop at Pier 17. With stunning views of Lower Manhattan, the 3 bridges over the East River, and the Brooklyn waterfront, Winterland at Pier 17 provides an amazing, magical and romantic experience. Enjoy the shops and restaurants on Pier 17, or grab a snack and drink at the rinkside concessions.

Pier 17 is located just South of the Brooklyn Bridge, on the Eastern edge of the South Street Seaport district. The Rooftop at Pier 17 is New York City’s most dynamic open-air entertainment venue, set against panoramic views of the Lower Manhattan skyline. The inaugural Summer Concert Series launched on The Rooftop in 2018 with opening nights from Amy Schumer and Kings of Leon. A total of 23 shows that first year earned The Rooftop multiple accolades, including being named the “Best New Concert Venue” by Pollstar. Concert goers can again expect to see their favorite artists in an intimate atmosphere (3,500 capacity), all from one of NYC’s only locations that has direct views of such iconic landmarks as the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and One World Trade Center.