New York Park Exhibits This Fall: Staten Island's America 250 Show and Two More

Staten Island's America 250 exhibit

Conference House Park sits at the southern tip of Staten Island, and the Lenape Gallery inside its Visitor Center is showing Voices of 1776, an America 250 exhibit about the people and events around the historic peace conference of the American Revolution. The Conference House Association runs it with NYC Parks, and it is an ongoing display rather than a single weekend. Voices of 1776 listing

Getting there is the hard part, not the exhibit itself. Count on most of a half day from Midtown, and do not try to slot it between two Manhattan stops. Start with our Staten Island guide.

Terracotta in Tottenville, trees in Central Park

On the west lawn of Biddle House, Alice's Terracotta Garden gathers antique architectural ornaments from Tottenville's Atlantic Terra Cotta Company. NYC Parks and the Tottenville Historical Society present it as a record of turn-of-the-twentieth-century building styles common in New York and across the United States. It is outdoors, so weather decides more than any timetable. Alice's Terracotta Garden

If you are staying in Manhattan, the Arsenal Gallery in Central ParkCentral ParkThe 843-acre engineered wilderness at Manhattan's heart, designed by Olmsted and Vaux in 1858. is running New Dendrology, a group show with eleven artists whose work studies trees. Two details make it worth the detour: a street tree tarot deck by Matthew López-Jensen and commitment ceremonies officiated by Laura Nova. New Dendrology at the Arsenal Gallery

Both venues are small Parks spaces with limited hours. Twenty to thirty minutes is realistic at either one, so check the listing page the morning you go instead of turning up and hoping.