Spring Break in New York City

Spring break is that one tantalizing week when classes are canceled for five whole days and you can pretend that finals aren’t just around the corner. You can peacefully sleep your life away. Another common spring break option is to go on a vacation.  Everyone loves a good vacay, but as a student, they can be hard to come by. Maybe you’ve worked your ass off at some painstakingly boring minimum-wage job and have earned enough to afford a trip down to a tropical beach in Florida, good for you! Or maybe your parents have been kind enough to wire over that $500 you need for a flight to Mexico–then again, go you!

But going on vacation doesn’t mean you have to be the kind of tourist that stands in the middle of the sidewalk and points at things. For the unlucky few who have either been spending too much on bowling and beer, or for those who would actually prefer to stay in New York, we have a list for you. Sometimes the best vacation spots are right around the corner.

Concerts and Musical Events

The xx

Park Avenue Armory

March 20-29, 2014

Tickets: $55 (or the best you can find on Craigslist)

This original, soft-spoken trio will perform 11 consecutive nights for an intimate crowd of only 40 people at each gig. It’s sold out, but look for marketplace tickets on Craigslist because this will be a performance for the books!

 

Foodie Fun

Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg- Winter Markets

North 5th St. and Wythe Ave, Williamsburg

March 29+ 30, 2014- 10am- 6:00pm

FREE ENTRY

This is the last weekend the two markets will be indoors! Hoorah! Not only does that mean we are slowly getting closer to summer, but it also means that it will soon be back at the East River State Park. For now, go feast on ice-cream sandwiches and steaming rice bowls in the warmth.

Dominique Ansel Baking Company

189 Spring St. New York, NY

Cost: $3 apiece.

You’ve definitely heard of his Cronut, but now the innovative baker has gone on to bigger and better things with his new milk and cookie twist. The glass is made of cookie and the milk is inside. Pure. Genius.

Clinton Street Baking Company

4 Clinton St. New York, NY

Hours: Check website for specifics.

This is no hidden gem of the city. It’s pretty damn popular, with a waiting list of approximately TEN hours on the weekends. But since we’re on spring break and all those old people are working, you could probably pick any day of the working week to go and get seated straight away. DO IT.

Arts & Culture

Solomon R Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Ave (89th St)

Adults $22 Students/Seniors $18

Open SMTW 10:45-5:45 TR closed F 10:45-5:45 S 10:45-7:45 (5:45-7:45 pay as you wish)

Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video

Jan24-May14

This retrospective include photographs, text, audio recordings and video footage that traces the evolution of Weems career over the last 30 years. Her work features both autobiographical pieces as well as some more conceptual selections. Weems uses a variety of media and is geared towards closely examining the history and identity of her subjects who are primarily African American.

The High Line

High Line Channel 22, Seating Steps, on the High Line at West 22nd Street

Free

Open 7am-7pm everyday

Shigeko Kubota

Rock Video: Cherry Blossom

Mar13 – Apr20, 2014

6:00 PM to 11:00 PM

Sheigeko Kubota, a member of the Fluxus art movement in the 1960s was invited to move to New York from Tokyo in 1964 by the movement’s unofficial leader, George Maciunas. Her compositions of television monitors and other sculptural structures emphasize form and permanence unlike the deconstruction often associated with the Fluxus movement. Inspired by her Buddhist upbringing, Kubota depicts the movement of time in murals, hand scrolls and videos. Rock Video; Cherry Blossom (1986) shows cherry blossoms on a bright blue sky being transformed to create a convergence of the natural form of the blossom and the technological form on which they are captured.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue ( 82nd Street)

SMTWTR 10-5:30 FS 10-9

Pay as you wish

Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China

Dec11-Apr6

This is the first major exhibition of Chinese contemporary art ever mounted at the MET. The exhibit features artworks that add to the continuation of China’s traditional culture. Paintings, calligraphy, photographs, video and cultural history by thirty-five different artists over the span of 30 years explores the link between traditional calligraphy and contemporary art. The exhibit is broken into four parts: The Written Word, New Landscapes, Abstraction and Beyond the Brush. They demonstrate the re-interpretation of Chinese culture into new creative paths.

Fashion

The New York Historical Society

170 Central Park West

TWTR 10-6 F 10-8 S 10-6 S 11-5

Adults $18 Students $12 F 6-8(pay as you wish)

Bill Cunnigham: Facades

Mar14-Jun15

This exhibit looks at an eight-year project that Bill Cunningham, a New York Times fashion photographer, began in 1968. He photographed models in period costumes found in thrift stores and auction houses in historic settings like Grand Central Station and St. Pauls Chapel. The exhibit contains the majority of the 88 gelatin silver prints from the series that Cunningham donated to the New York Historical Society when the book was completed. With the help of his muse Eddita Sherman, a variety of whimsical clothing and historical architecture, Bill Cunningham shows almost two centuries of fashion and architecture.

The Museum at F.I.T.

Seventh Avenue at 27 Street

TWTRF 12-8 S 10-5

Free

Beyond Rebellion: Fashioning the Biker Jacket

Mar4-Apr5

The graduate students in the Fashion and Textile Studies program at F.I.T. organized an exhibit that explores the evolution of the biker jacket. What began as a utilitarian outwear garment has become an iconic symbol of cool. The exhibit features everything from from the classic 1928 Schott Perfecto leather jacket, to ready to wear and couture jackets by Yves Saint laurent, Rick Owens and Comme des Garcons.

Dover Street Market

160 Lexington Ave

M-S 11-7 S 12-6

Open to Public

Dover Street Market is the conceptual child of Comme des Garcon designer, Rei Kawakubo. The store was developed to create a market where creators from various fields could interact with each other and view their work with the same thread of strong personal vision. The new shopping center in Murray Hill has seven floors each with a unique visual identity. Every six months the market will close for a few days and undergo a complete transformation. Clothes are presented in an androgynous manner to encourage shoppers to shop for individual pieces instead of shopping based on gender. Though the store contains exclusive designer collaborations and expensive designer products, the real draw of the Dover Street Market is the experimental and avant-garde interior design.

Cinema

Videology

308 Bedford Ave, Williamsburg Brooklyn

S-TR 12-2am FS 12-4am

Events Free

Purple Rain

Saturday, Mar29th 8PM

The days of video rental are not over at Videology in Williamsburg Brooklyn. In addition to a huge selection of DVDs. They also host weekly events, free of charge. On March 29, they will be showing the cult classic, Purple Rain, starring Prince. Prior to the showing, Videology is also showing of variety of Prince films, TV appearances, music videos and other rare footage. There will be a Q&A session with Prince expert and author of The Prince Zine, Joshua James Amberson, on all things Princely. Costumes are welcome.

Anthology Film Archives

32 Second Avenue (2nd St.)

General Admission $10 Student $8

Tickets are available at Anthology’s box office on the day of the show only. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day. There are no advance ticket sales. Reservations are available to Anthology members only.

Bitter Tea of General Yen

Mar27 9pm

The Anthology is hosting a film series called Auteurs Gone Wild that focuses on the atypical works of various Hollywood film makers. In this Frank Capra film, a beautiful young missionary finds herself almost converted by a clever Chinese warlord. The film is an example of how Capra, an American evangelist, hoped that a cult of fascism could create a timeless monarchy and a dictatorship ruled by love.