Whitney Partners With New York Public Library To Offer “Free Storytime” & Biennial Tix
The April 14 bonanza, which is part of the museum’s Free Second Sundays program, will feature three separate story sessions and special interactive exhibitions. While admission is free, interested attendees are strongly encouraged to reserve their tickets in advance.
| 05 Apr 2024 | 12:08
A NYPL librarian engaging in some storytelling for a rapt audience. The Whitney Museum has now partnered with the NYPL to provide free tickets to the museum on April 14, which will come with the perks of three “storytime” sessions and Biennial access. (
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The Whitney has teamed up with the New York Public Library to bring a free day of storytelling joy to people of all ages, with the added bonus of securing attendance to the museum’s famed Biennial. An important clarification for interested parties: although admission is free, it will require a ticket. Those should be reserved well in advance, if doable.
Librarians will conduct three “storytime” sessions, which will be held at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. Wanda Gág’s Millions of Cats will be the featured story, and will be read in both English and Spanish. What’s more, kids or families can engage with more of Gág’s work afterwards, as an exhibit titled “Wanda Gág’’s World” is currently underway on the museum’s seventh floor. It’ll feature a “special in-gallery artmaking station,” the Whitney clarifies.
First, however, attendees without NYPL cards are encouraged to sign up for them in the Whitney’s lobby.
Ticketholders are then encouraged to explore the 2024 Biennial, which is subtitled “Even Better Than The Real Thing.” It’ll feature 71 artists. According to the Whitney, it addresses how artificial intelligence is “complicating our understanding of what is real, and [how] rhetoric around gender and authenticity is being used politically and legally to perpetuate transphobia and restrict bodily autonomy.”
”These developments are part of a long history of deeming people of marginalized race, gender, and ability as subhuman—less than real,” the museum adds.
The Biennial will take place on the museum’s first, third, fifth, and sixth floors. The third floor has an “Artspace” for reserved for “artists of all ages,” such as those who may be attending the NYPL’s storytime sessions, where attendees are encouraged to make works inspired by the creations of the visual artist Eamon Ore-Giron.
Free Second Sundays is “made possible” by grant money given by the Alice Walton’s Art Bridges Foundation, the Whitney says, more specifically their $40 million “Access for All” pilot initiative. Alice Walton is an heiress to the Walmart fortune. The Whitney also hosts a “Free Friday Nights” program.