On the east side of Central Park, centuries of art and anthropology are compressed into Museum Mile. Between East 82nd Street and East 104th Street on Fifth Avenue, nine museums dot the park’s eastern edge. The walk between the buildings is pretty and tree-lined and, ostensibly, takes 15 minutes, provided visitors don’t lose themselves inside the world-class art collections.

The Metropolitan Museum, the grande dame of New York City museums, is perhaps the most famous of the institutions, followed by the sleek Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum. Another museum on the mile is El Museo del Barrio, which specializes in Latin American work, from archeological artifacts to works by contemporary Latino artists. The Cooper Hewitt Design Museum and the National Design Academy offer collections and exhibitions featuring everything from Surrealist art to textiles that combine aesthetics with engineering.

Every year since 1978, on the second Tuesday in June, Fifth Avenue is closed to cars. Art from the permanent collections of these museums spills out onto the street and live bands set up in the middle of the avenue.

The nine institutions on Museum Mile:

o The Metropolitan Museum of Art – 82nd Street
o Goethe-Institut German Cultural Center – 82nd Street
o El Museo del Barrio – 103rd Street
o Museum of the City of New York – 103rd Street
o The Jewish Museum - 92nd Street
o The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum – 91st Street
o National Academy Museum – 89th Street
o Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum – 88th Street
o Neue Galerie New York – 86th Street