SoHo has long been synonymous with art galleries. Dranoff Fine Art, Nancy Hoffman Gallery, June Kelly Gallery, and Louis K. Meisel Gallery are just a few of those in the neighborhood representing established and emerging artists. SoHo is also home to Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, the world’s only museum dedicated to LGBTQ+ artists, and The Drawing Center, an exhibition space devoted primarily to, unsurprisingly, drawings. You needn’t be an art aficionado to love living here, however. SoHo and Hudson Square offer plenty of other activities and sights for adults and children alike.
Two of the Hudson River Park’s piers fall within the confines SoHo and Hudson Square. Runners who find inspiration in The stunning river views of Pier 34 delight both runners and more-sedentary people who simply want to savor the sunsets from one of the pier’s many benches. Pier 40, straddling the border of Hudson Square and the West Village, is the park’s largest pier, home to three all-purpose outdoor sports fields, a dog run, tennis courts, and the Trapeze School of New York, among other attractions.
“Museum” is something of a misnomer here: You won’t learn that the sweet treat is believed to have originated in ancient Persia, for instance. You will, however, get to slide through tunnels, jump around in a pit filled with oversize “sprinkles,” glide on a banana-shape swing, snap plenty of Instagram-ideal photos, and of course, sample plenty of ice cream.
Rivalling the Museum of Ice Cream for the title of “most Instagrammable venue” is this interactive exploration of color, beauty, and sheer joy. Jump among confetti, play in a ball pit, marvel at how lights of different colors transform a room’s murals, discover centuries-old names for colors (the Elizabethans were particularly vivid when it came to nomenclature), and tuck into sweet treats as you progress from room to room.
A horse-drawn fire engine (minus the horses, of course), uniforms and equipment dating back to the 19th century, and archival imagery of everything from firefighting boats to newspaper illustrations of firefighters in action are among the exhibits found here. Housed in a former firehouse built in 1904, the museum also includes a memorial to the 343 members of the New York Fire Department who died on 9/11.
