A BUFFET OF MUSEUMS
Beyond the world-famous venues, quirky Manhattan spots that cater to a variety of interests
The Met. MoMa. The Whitney. Manhattan is renowned for its museums, but not all are world-famous tourist magnets. There are plenty of smaller spots off the beaten path highlighting quirkier subjects. Here are a few:
KGB Espionage Museum (245 W. 14th St.)
After displaying his unparalleled collection of KGB spy and technology artifacts in his native Lithuania, Julius Urbaitisesp decided he wanted to show it off to a bigger audience. He opened the KGB Espionage Museum on W. 14th St. with his daughter Agne last year.
The museum’s Russianborn guides reference “The Americans” more than James Bond, while showing off a weaponized umbrella, a handbag camera and dozens of other gadgets. Some items feature fascinating stories, like the Great Seal bug, a listening device designed by Leon Theremin (inventor of the eponymous musical instrument) that was hidden, undiscovered, inside a gift to the American ambassador in Moscow for years.
The damage done by the KGB to Soviet citizens — imprisonment, torture and killing — is largely downplayed.
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (155 Avenue C)
While the KGB museum strives to be apolitical, MoRUS is explicitly political. Founder Bill Di Paola says he sees his space in a Lower East Side building reclaimed by squatters less as a museum and “more a strategy to save our grassroots history, to hold on to these things and and show young people who don’t think change is possible what direct action can do.”
The museum’s displays show how community gardens, recycling and the push for bicycling rights started in the neighborhood before expanding citywide and showcase causes like Occupy Wall Street. Upcoming exhibits will be on “green mapping” and quilts made of recycled materials.
“We’re a living archive of urban activism,” Di Paola said. He and his volunteers also offer tours of the neighborhood and community gardens.
In those gardens, they have workshops on raising bees, composting and bicycle repair.
Museum of the American Gangster (80 St. Marks Place)
In 1964, Lorcan Otway’s father started transforming a former East Village speakeasy and nightclub into Theater 80, a moviehouse that showed revival films. They discovered two safes belonging to a Prohibition-era gangster-turned-spy in the basement, and the idea for the Museum of the American Gangster was born.
Just two rooms, the museum, opened and curated by Otway, has limited artifacts, including John Dillinger’s death mask and bullets from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and the shooting of Pretty Boyd Floyd.
In his tours, Otway weaves a narrative that starts with the Founding Fathers, through the OK Corral shooting to the reign of Al Capone. Some stories, like allegations of John Hancock’s smuggling and Dillinger escaping death, do make speculative leaps.
The most riveting tale is the one about the basement safes and a murder Otway believes was linked to the millions of dollars in gold certificates the father and son found inside. When the tour heads down to the basement’s secret rooms, you’ll understand why Otway has been fascinated by this building and its stories for 55 years.
National Museum of Mathematics (11 E. 26th St.)
America’s only math museum features numerous hands (or feet)-on exhibits, giving kids a chance to shoot baskets using a robot arm, create math-driven art and ride a square-wheeled tricycle.
“We are not teaching kids a new way to do long division here,” said CEO and Executive Director Cindy Lawrence. “Our goal is to change perceptions of mathematics and how it’s relevant to everything around us. We created exhibits that are visually engaging and fun to use, but there’s deep math underneath it all.”
The robotic ball shooting is a data science exhibit, while figuring out what surface the trike could ride on is an advanced calculus problem. The museum downplays the actual math unless you seek it out. “Not everyone’s interested in diving that deeply,” Lawrence explained. “But the fact that math makes something possible that seems like it should have been impossible is the message.”
Some exhibits, like the Mathaneum, where visitors transform basic shapes into 3D sculptures, and the Math Square, where museumgoers walk to change patterns, are more about encouraging patrons to see the esthetic value of the discipline.
“We want you to see a certain innate beauty you can celebrate,” Lawrence said.