Absolutely loved our small group tour through Chelsea art galleries. Merrily is delightful and the…read moreperfect guide - knowledgeable, prepared, and totally up to date on the ever-changing art scene in NYC. We had art novices in our group as well as those with more arts experience and we all had a great time. She shared interesting info about each artist, including previous work and info on future shows/exhibits. I am already looking forward to my next trip to New York and will book tours with her again and again, including the Chelsea tour as the exhibits change often.

Had a great small group tour today with Merrily. The galleries had each had different styles of…read morework and some really major artists. She also told us about interesting buildings along the way. Merrily 's style is informative, relaxed and knowledgeable, I never felt like we were in a "lecture". I'm so glad I went!

Alex was a wonderful tour guide and a great asset in assisting me in planning my employers week in…read moreNew York for him and his teenage girls. She curated a tour specifically around the wants and interests of the group. She was flexible and happily changed course when the need arose. We also used her consulting services to buildout the rest of the trip with amazing restaurant recommendations, site seeing, and fun activities. I definitely recommend Alex and her services if you're looking for a fun interactive tour or need some great local recommendations. Thank you, Alex!

If you are looking to explore new places, the latest in art, theatre , music and more.... Please…read moreconsider Women of Culture... Alexandra Harper, WOC founder, curates insightful, fun events around art, music, theatre and more. check out www.womenofculture.org

We went on a Lower east side tour with Marian and had such a great time! She was personable and the…read morecompany was extremely accommodating to our schedule. The immersive art was interesting and something we never would have found on our own. Such a great experience for New Yorkers and tourists.

Great value for the money! Took a chance on a tour with these guys and really enjoyed it. Heart for…read moreArt Institute is a new and unique concept in a sea of culture that is New York City. Tour guide Gabi was excellent in her delivery of concise and interesting information and structuring an engaging tour. Our tour was on surviving the intrigues of the court of Henry VIII and was set up to mirror a Game of Thrones like storytelling based on various Metropolitan pieces relating to said time period, which I thought was very cool. Will definitely take another tour with this company and possibly write an updated review as they expand their offerings.

Walking through a world-class museum you may see and marvel at amazing, famous works of art. Or…read moreyou may see very new, contemporary works of art few have had the opportunity to enjoy. In both scenarios, Lauren Kaplan will help you understand and appreciate the art you are looking at by a multiple of ten thousand. You will be amazed and floored by her explanations, her breadth of knowledge and art history, the background of each artist, and the meaning the artist has infused in every work. She will help the entire art experience come alive in ways you do not expect. And you will wonder how you ever walked a museum or gallery without her. For us, she brought alive the Biennial at the Whitney and turned a simple museum visit to a huge learning experience. Am I recommending Lauren? More than that, I am suggesting you hire Lauren to make your art experience awaken and come alive in ways you could never predict.

My boyfriend's parents recently invited me on a private tour of the Guggenheim with Lauren Kaplan…read more Private tour! Guggenheim! I am no fool, so obviously I said yes. FYI, I'd never been on a professional museum tour and I'm not exactly a visual art fanatic-- I like specific types of art, hate some others. Well, Lauren was super eloquent and nice, and I really appreciated how the tour wasn't about getting you to necessarily love the art -- it was about providing you with the knowledge to understand the art, the processes behind it, etc. so that you could form your own educated opinion. She was totally nonjudgmental, and I would definitely recommend her to both art lovers and skeptics alike. Plus, she brought PROPS!!

If you are looking for art tours in NYC, you can stop looking -- you've found the best one. I…read morefound Emily a few months back while looking to give my wife several art tours as a gift. Emily helped me pull together a special gift and we had the first tour today. Emily is a remarkably talented guide, combining both incredible knowledge with a gift for storytelling. We spent several hours today at the Met with Emily and she was able to make the tour interesting and engaging for both my wife, who has background in art history, and myself, an art novice. Emily deftly crafted an itinerary based on my wife's favorite types of art while also bringing to life pieces that we'd previously have walked by without any second thought. Truly cannot recommend Emily more highly enough. We have two more tours with her and are so, so excited.

We recently had the pleasure of taking 2 private tours with Emily at both the MET and the MoMA…read more She is highly knowledgeable, and had interesting insights into the art and the artists. If you want an informative focused tour through these enormous collections with someone who knows their stuff, I highly recommend visiting them with Emily. Thank you Emily - for 2 unforgettable days!

New York University (NYU) houses the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, which honors Brooklyn…read moreNative/NYU Alumnus/Record Producer/A&R Executive/Record Executive/Lawyer Clive Davis. According to the website, the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music was created in 2003, and it provides professional business & artistic training in order to obtain a Bachelor in Fine Arts (BFA) in Recorded Music. Along w/ the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, there is the Clive Davis Gallery located on Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The gallery celebrates Clive Davis' many lifetime achievements in the music business/recording industry. Clive Davis Gallery is accessible via public transportation that includes taking the 2 & 3 trains to Hoyt Street, the 2,3,4,5 trains to Borough Hall, the ,A,C,F,R, trains to Jay Street Metrotech and / or the G train to Hoyt/Schemerhorn and then walking a few blocks to the gallery. Clive Davis Gallery consists of the following: - Inaugural Exhibition - Covers Clive Davis' career w/ in the music recording industry across decades. - Upper Gallery - Temporary contemporary art & design exhibitions. - Lower Level Gallery - Permanent exhibition that covers Clive Davis' "All-Stars," permanent collection memorabilia, video/music clips, etc. So many facets of Clive Davis' career are shown w/ in the gallery in the form of displays, installations, photos, memorabilia, etc. It has been cool to learn information around Clive Davis, including him being co-founder of LaFace (Usher, TLC, Outkast, Toni Braxton, and other artists/groups are came from LaFace) & Bad Boy Records (Notorious BIG, Total, Black Rob, Carl Thomas and other arists came from Bad Boy). Pictures that span Clive Davis' career as President of Columbia Records until 1973, as Founder & President of Arista Records,.as Founder of J Records, while he was w/ Sony Music Entertainment, etc. Clive Davis has signed legendary music artists/iconic music artists/bands/musical groups that include Earth, Wind & Fire, Barry Manilow, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Expose', Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys, etc. Fantasic pictures and memorabilia of legends include Whitney Houston, Busta Rhymes, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross w/ former American Idol Judges Randy, Paula & Simon, etc. I will return at some point to browse a bit further as some installations and exhibits will change over time. Website - tisch.nyu.edu Clive Davis Gallery Hours of Operation - Tues. & Sat. - 11am - 6pm There are also Instagram, Facebook & Twitter pages.

Jody is a fantastic guide. She not only knows the best gallery shows, but she is very knowledgeable…read moreabout art and artist. We had an amazing tour of the best NY galleries.

From the owner: Art Gallery Toursread more

Absolutely LOVED this tour!…read more I read about it recently as it was mentioned in O Magazine which is Oprah Winfrey's Magazine and I knew that I HAD to do a short trip from Chicago to NYC to take this signature and insightful tour lead by Professor Andrew Lear! Dr. Lear is the Founder and Master Guide of the Shady Lady Tours and is a leading scholar in the area of the history of sexuality. There were seven people in my group and we met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in front of the Giant Pharaoh in the main lobby. Dr. Lear then distributed the entrance tickets and the Nasty Women of the MET Tour commenced. The Nasty Women of the MET focuses on the "[f]eisty, path-breaking women--women who had more power and/or independence than we usually think women in the past had." (According to Dr. Lear's Web Site). I saw many works of art that I probably would not have spent a lot of time exploring on my own..but Dr. Lear provided "the backstory" of each painting, sculpture, vessel, statue, and cultural artifacts that were explored. I have to admit that my favorites included the Gertrude Stein painting in which she was painted by Pablo Picasso and it took about 90 sittings to complete! I find her intriguing. I also was fascinated by the Female Pharaoh Hatshepsut of Egypt who ruled 1500 years before Cleopatra....in the Egyptian Wing. Hatshepsut's statue shows her dressed in female attire, "[b]ut she wears the nemes headcloth, a royal attribute usually reserved for the reigning king." (As listed in the MET's formal description of her statue sitting on the throne). The final stop was the John Singer Sargent portrait of a young woman Edith Minturn from the mid 1860s. While the artist's choice was a request that Ms. Minturn dress in an evening gown during the sitting she showed up in a two piece outfit in which her skirt did not touch the floor-but her shoes were readily seen. Her husband stands behind her and she smiles vibrantly as if she "knows" that she has clout, class, and authority as well as individuality. FYI-her husband stood in for Ms. Minturn's Great Dane when the dog became unavailable to sit for the portrait. The stories and featured art that is/was explored on this tour were exceptional and as diverse as the "Nasty Women" that were peppered throughout the MET. I would like to return to attend the "Shady Lady Tour." Truly impressive tour, well paced (2 hours) with an entertaining and educational experience provided by Dr. Lear.

Finally went on a tour with them again today. I was fortunate to have Andrew Lear be the guide. The…read moretour was educational, fun, and interesting. I say this as someone who doesn't really like art, but does in the way that he teaches it. It's amazing to me hearing about who the paintings or sculptures are actually of and the story that goes with them. Cool tidbit: The goddess Aphrodite was supposed to be executed but her lawyer pulled her top off exposing her boobs and then they acquitted her LOL. The Paris tour looks amazing as well but don't think I would ever be able to do it. In any case, if you want to go to the MET because you feel that you should but find art zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, take this tour. Two hours of showing you interesting pieces. Great way to spend a rainy, cold day in NYC.

10 out of 10 would recommend. Whitestone Branding, a 12 person branded products agency went for our…read moreoff site and it was the best off site event we've done. Highly recommend any team looking for an activity to do. Anna, our guide was hysterical, knowledgeable and all around enjoyable to be back! Just wish we had more time!! But we only budgeted 2 hours of our day for the museum.

It was great fun running around The Met, learning about the Bad Ass Women who can be found…read morethroughout the museum. Elizabeth was a fun, knowledgeable and energetic tour guide. She made the tour great!! We went to Sangria 46 for dinner and ordered mango sangria just because of a story she told us about a sculpture!!! This tour is a great way to experience a museum in a different way!! Thanks Elizabeth!!

We had the best day exploring New York City as a family. We have three girls ages 20, 12 and 10…read more Like did an amazing job of making the history and city exciting for each of them. They asked to hang out with him the rest of the week. He stopped for snacks and let me customize the day according to what the girls were interested in learning. Thank you for being a part of our memories!!

After touring with Luke twice in 2011 (group tour as a couple in April then a private tour on a…read moregirls trip in October) when we were planning our itinerary for our trip back to NYC in November 2025 with our 11 year old son, Real New York Tours was the top of our list. We chose the private family tour and booking was quick and easy and the customer service as great as I remembered. On to the tour itself: Luke met us at the Museum of Natural History on time and we got reacquainted. My son is autistic and can have some trouble warming to new people but absolutely no the case with Luke, he immediately put my son at ease and they were chatting like old friends as we made our way into Central Park. The tour covered loads of Central Park, including an exciting off track visit to a secret cave, the plaza hotel, grand central station, some fun subway rides, and concluded at the Brooklyn Bridge. But more than just seeing so many iconic sites, Luke had hundreds of facts and stories (which my son loved) about what we were seeing. It was truly like spending a wonderful day with an old friend. I cannot recommend highly enough Luke and Real New York Tours. Until next time!