Whitney Museum of American Art

About Whitney Museum of American Art

The Whitney Museum of American Art sits at the southern end of the High Line in the Meatpacking District, between Gansevoort Street and the Hudson River. Founded by sculptor and collector Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1930, the museum focuses entirely on American art, with a permanent collection that runs from the early 20th century to work being made right now. Artists like Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jasper Johns, and Alexander Calder anchor the collection, and the Whitney holds the largest group of Hopper's works anywhere.

The current building opened in 2015, designed by Renzo Piano. It was built to make the most of the location: wide column-free galleries for hanging large works, plus a series of outdoor terraces and stairways on the upper floors that look out over the Hudson on one side and the Manhattan skyline on the other. Those terraces are one of the reasons people linger here longer than they expect. The museum is also known for the Whitney Biennial, a survey of contemporary American art that has run in various forms since the 1930s and tends to spark a fair bit of debate.

Most visits run two to three hours, more if you take your time on the terraces or there's a big temporary show on. Entry is a paid ticket, and the Whitney runs regular pay-what-you-wish evening hours, so it's worth checking current arrangements before you go. The building connects directly to the High Line, which makes it easy to pair a visit with a walk up the elevated park toward Chelsea, and the surrounding Meatpacking District has plenty of places to eat afterward.