A walking route through Lower East Side's art galleries
A 12-stop walking route through the art galleries of Lower East Side, ordered so you walk 1.2 mi instead of doubling back.
- 12galleries
- 1.2 mitotal walking
- 25 minwalking time, not counting stops
The Lower East Side has the highest gallery-per-block density in the city outside Chelsea, and the spaces are small enough that you can see a show properly in five minutes. That makes this the single best route for anyone who wants to see a lot of art in one afternoon.
The galleries here tend to show younger and less established artists than the uptown rooms, which means a higher variance in what you find and a better chance of seeing something before anyone else does.
Getting to the start: F to Delancey St, J/M/Z to Essex St, or B/D to Grand St.
Lower East Side has 32 galleries on our map. This route takes the 12 that sit closest together — the walkable core of the district — because a 32-stop walk is a list, not a route. The full Lower East Side directory has the rest.
Practical notes for this walk
Best time to go. Saturday afternoon, when the largest number of spaces are reliably open at once.
Worth knowing. The spaces here are small, so each stop takes less time than it would in Chelsea. Twelve galleries in an afternoon is comfortable rather than ambitious.
Combine it with. The East Village is immediately north across Houston Street, and the New Museum sits on the Bowery at the district's western edge.
The route
- Foreign & Domestic — website ↗↓ 0.1 mi to the next stop — about 3 min on foot
- Amos Eno Gallery — website ↗↓ a few steps to the next stop — about 1 min on foot
- McBride / Dillman — website ↗↓ 0.2 mi to the next stop — about 5 min on foot
- Hashimoto Contemporary — website ↗↓ a few steps to the next stop — about 2 min on foot
- Equity Gallery — website ↗↓ a few steps to the next stop — about 1 min on foot
- International Center of Photography — website ↗↓ a few steps to the next stop — about 1 min on foot
- Cuchifritos — website ↗↓ 0.1 mi to the next stop — about 3 min on foot
- The Clemente Center — website ↗↓ a few steps to the next stop — about 2 min on foot
- Lichtundfire — website ↗↓ 0.1 mi to the next stop — about 2 min on foot
- HARMAN PROJECTS — website ↗↓ 0.2 mi to the next stop — about 5 min on foot
- Abrons Art Center — website ↗↓ a few steps to the next stop — about 2 min on foot
- LUNCH (NADAProject Space) — website ↗
How this route was built. We ordered these stops by their actual coordinates, using a nearest-neighbour path improved with a 2-opt pass, so the sequence is close to the shortest walk that visits every stop once. The walking times assume a steady city pace of about 4.5 km/h including traffic lights, and count only the walking — not the time you will spend inside.
Galleries close, move and change their hours. Check before you set out, and treat this as a suggested order rather than a schedule.