Light Rain, Ballet West at Joyce Theater. Photo: Cheryl Mann

Fall 2025 Arts Guide

Besides the usual highlights, such as new seasons for the Met Opera, NYC Ballet, Joyce Theater and City Center, the fall arts season in New York City comes with history-related festivities and fascinating debuts. Carnegie Hall looks back on 250 years of music in a citywide celebration, various institutions look at democracy and immigration, the American Folk Art Museum reopens and Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood inaugurates a new festival. Meanwhile, Renoir, Monet, American surrealism and Black LGBTQ+ life during the Harlem Renaissance are among the subjects of major exhibitions. Find time for all your calendar.

FALL EXHIBITS IN NYC

Several people walk past a large, colorful sculpture of a head wearing a turquoise face mask, set on a city sidewalk surrounded by tall trees and greenery.
Sep 3, 2025 - Aug 2, 2026
Outdoor Art Spaces
Upper East Side

Monira Al Qadiri

The Public Art Fund is behind this installation at the southeast corner of Central Park.

Interior of the Armory Show
This event has already occurred
Museums & Galleries
Hells Kitchen

The Armory Show

This top international art fair features exhibits and events devoted to the most important artworks of the 20th and 21st centuries.

A child in a leopard-print outfit kneels on the beach, holding a large seashell to their face. Windswept hair and blue, abstract tree branches frame the scene under a vibrant sky.
Daily Except Mon, Sun
Museums & Galleries
Rosebank

She Sells Sea Shells

This contemporary show at Alice Austen Museum explores queer women's relationships with the seashore.

An elegant vintage evening gown with short sleeves, beaded details, a fitted bodice, and a long flowing train adorned with lace and fabric draping, displayed on a mannequin against a black background.
Daily Except Mon, Tues
Museums & Galleries
Chelsea

Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis

Explore the intersection between fashion and psychoanalysis at the Museum at FIT.

The Village Trip ensemble
Sep 19, 2025 - Sep 28, 2025
Events & Festivals
Greenwich Village

The Village Trip

A festival of music and readings celebrates the Village counterculture of the 1950s.

A black-and-white photo of a brick building with a vintage Pegasus sign on top and a faded advertisement on the wall in the background. Fire escapes and railings are visible on the adjacent building.
Daily
Museums & Galleries
Upper East Side

Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World

Celebrate the photography of the late artist at the Museum of the City of New York.

A person in safety gear inspects a large, exposed jet engine suspended in an industrial facility. The engine’s complex inner components and wiring are visible, and the person appears small beside the machinery.
Sep 21, 2025 - Mar 1, 2026
Museums & Galleries
Upper East Side

Made in America

The Cooper Hewitt puts on a show covering the artist’s decade-long photographic look at the processes of industry.

A person wearing a white tuxedo and top hat poses confidently with a cane, standing against a plain background in a vintage black-and-white photograph. Partial typewritten text is visible along the edges.
Oct 10, 2025 - Mar 8, 2026
Museums & Galleries
Upper West Side

The Gay Harlem Renaissance

The queer culture that underpinned the Harlem Renaissance takes the stage at New York Historical.

Oct 10, 2025 - Apr 5, 2026
Museums & Galleries
Upper East Side

Robert Rauschenberg: Life Can’t Be Stopped

On the centennial of Rauschenberg’s birth, the Guggenheim explores his work with a new focus.

A person sits alone on a bench in a modern art gallery with intricate hanging sculptures and artwork displayed on white walls. The space is bright with a patterned wooden floor and a high ceiling.
Oct 19, 2025 - Feb 7, 2026
Museums & Galleries
Midtown West

Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective

The Museum of Modern Art makes the centennial of the ’s sculptor’s birth.

A collection of pro-choice and abortion rights buttons with slogans like “Keep abortion safe and legal,” “Abortion: a woman’s right to choose,” and images of coat hangers.
Daily Except Mon
Museums & Galleries
Midtown West

Designing Motherhood

The Museum of Arts and Design covers parenting-related products in a wide-ranging exhibit.

A beige canvas featuring multiple incomplete and overlapping sketches and paintings of women, some nude, with soft, pastel colors and delicate lines, alongside small landscapes and faces in various poses and expressions.
Daily Except Mon
Museums & Galleries
Midtown East

Renoir Drawings

An exploration of the artist's use of drawing as part of his artistic practice.

Abstract painting with vivid colors featuring a face with black and white markings, a bright yellow sun-like shape, a red figure lying down, looping lines, and bold geometric shapes on a surreal landscape background.
Daily Except Tues
Museums & Galleries
Meatpacking District

Sixties Surreal

Explore the impact of surrealism on American Art in this survey at the Whitney Museum.

Daily Except Mon, Tues
Museums & Galleries
Long Island City

Ayoung Kim

This exhibit is the first time Kim’s “Delivery Dancer” trilogy is on view as a complete piece.

Three people stand inside a large golden cage outdoors. One wears modern clothes, another wears a grass skirt and red glasses, and the third wears elaborate indigenous attire. A crowd and a photographer are visible outside the cage.
Recurring Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun
Museums & Galleries
Upper East Side

Coco Fusco

At El Museo del Barrio, find decades’ worth of Fusco’s films, performances and installations.

Daily Except Mon, Sun
Art Galleries
Chelsea

Whose America?

The National Academy of Design highlights the various influences that have shaped our country’s cultural landscape.

Daily Except Mon, Tues
Museums & Galleries
Upper West Side

An Ecology of Quilts

This exhibition opens the American Folk Art Museum’s renovated galleries.

A blurred, black-and-white portrait of a person with short, wavy hair and large, darkly emphasized eyes staring directly at the camera, creating a surreal and intense effect.
Daily Except Wed
Museums & Galleries
Upper East Side

Man Ray: When Objects Dream

Explore the impact of the photographer’s rayograph on art in this Met retrospective.

Two people kneel on the floor, assembling a structure made of large clear bulbs in a workshop filled with tools and pegboards. Another person sits nearby with their back to the camera.
Daily Except Mon, Tues
Museums & Galleries
Harlem

Tom Lloyd

This exhibition marks the Studio Museum's reopening with the work of an artist who was part of their inaugural show.

Daily Except Tues, Wed
Museums & Galleries
Upper East Side

Anish Kapoor: Early Works

The early part of Kapoor’s career in sculpture gets the spotlight at the Jewish Museum.

An impressionist painting of a curved wooden bridge over a pond, surrounded by lush green, pink, and purple foliage, with the bridge and plants reflected in the calm water below.
Daily Except Mon, Tues
Museums & Galleries
Prospect Heights

Monet and Venice

The first exploration of the artist’s Venetian views are on view in the Brooklyn Museum.

FALL PERFORMANCES IN NYC

The Apollo Theater at dusk, with its bright vertical neon sign and marquee lit up. Nearby, there are storefronts for Banana Republic, GameStop, and Cinderella Eyebrows, with cars parked along the street.
Aug 17, 2025 - Dec 11, 2025
Performing Arts
Harlem

Apollo Theater's 2025 Fall/Winter Season

The Apollo's programming continues at the Victoria and in partner venues across the City.

Sep 11, 2025 - Jun 27, 2026
Performing Arts
Upper West Side

New York Philharmonic 2025-2026 Season

This year's Philharmonic season, at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, includes a wide range of programming for all audiences.

Eight ballet dancers in colorful leotards perform on stage, extending one leg and both arms gracefully in unison, creating a symmetrical and dynamic formation against a dark background.
Sep 16, 2025 - Oct 12, 2025
Performing Arts
Upper West Side

New York City Ballet Fall 2025 Season

Enjoy four weeks of six expansive repertory dance programs at David H. Koch Theater.

Six ballet dancers in pastel and bright colored costumes perform on stage; two are holding hands as one leaps, while others pose and interact gracefully under soft lighting.
Sep 16, 2025 - Apr 26, 2026
Performing Arts
Midtown West

New York City Center 2025–2026 Dance Season

City Center presents a full year of dance programming on its stages.

A group of dancers in nude-colored costumes stand close together on stage, reaching their arms upward and outward dramatically against a dark background. Their bodies and movements create an intricate, expressive formation.
Sep 16, 2025 - Mar 1, 2026
Performing Arts
Chelsea

Joyce Theater 2025–2026 Season

Enjoy dance milestones, retrospecitves and debuts on the Joyce’s stages.

A grand opera stage features ornate, golden, Asian-inspired architecture. Performers in elaborate costumes surround a central figure seated on a throne, while others stand or kneel, creating a dramatic, theatrical scene.
Sep 21, 2025 - Jun 6, 2026
Performing Arts
Upper West Side

Met Opera 2025–2026 season

The iconic opera returns to Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House with favorites and new productions.

A surreal stage scene features performers in abstract, colorful costumes posed against a backdrop of newspaper clippings and bold shadows, creating an avant-garde, theatrical atmosphere.
Sep 25, 2025 - Dec 13, 2025
Performing Arts
Gowanus

Powerhouse: International

A cross-section of performing arts and performance works fill Powerhouse Arts’ spaces.

NYFF, theater,
Daily
Film & TV
Upper West Side

New York Film Festival

NYC’s premiere film festival features screenings, lectures, panels and sneak previews.

Fashion designers in white coats work on garments at large tables in a studio. Mannequins, sketches, fabrics, and finished dresses are on display, with photos of spring 2023 designs hanging above.
Oct 8, 2025 - Jan 17, 2026
Events & Festivals
Fort Greene

BAM Next Wave

New York City’s most daring survey of avant-garde performance takes place in Brooklyn.

Oct 15, 2025 - Nov 1, 2025
Performing Arts
Upper West Side

American Ballet Theatre Fall Season

A premier ballet company returns with fall repertory performances.

A man with short brown hair wearing a green jacket over a buttoned-up light gray shirt stands in front of a plain blue background, looking directly at the camera with a slight smile.
Nov 7, 2025 - Nov 16, 2025
Comedy
Citywide

New York Comedy Festival

The festival includes the biggest names in comedy celebrating the craft in all its forms.

Four people, dressed in semi-formal attire and carrying instrument cases, walk together and smile inside a large, ornate train station with high ceilings and a prominent clock overhead.
Jan 1, 2026 - Jun 30, 2026
Performing Arts
Citywide

United in Sound: America at 250

Carnegie Hall dedicates their annual festival to America 250.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Exterior of MoMA PS1
Article

Free NYC Museums

These NYC museums, monuments and art-filled attractions are either free today, on specific days or at certain times during the week. Find one near you.

a bunch of musical instruments sitting next to each other.
Article

Top Jazz Clubs in Manhattan

Head to these classic nightspots to hear great live music and see jazz legends up close.

Brooklyn Museum, exterior
Article

NYC Art Guide

Check out our roundup of New York City’s major museums, galleries and fairs.

A person with short gray hair stands in an ornate room, viewing large, decorative paintings on the walls. The room has elegant furniture, curtains, wooden floors, and a sparkling chandelier.
Page

Museums & Galleries

There’s an institution for every interest in the City. Wander through big name museums, and discover smaller spots for culture and history throughout the boroughs.

Portrait of Stevenson Dunn and Erwin John
Article