May 16, 2012
This online collection is a companion to the 2011 NYC-ARTS Cultural Guide for Seniors: Brooklyn, a PDF available for download or to view online. The guide provides details on 43 cultural groups' programs for senior citizens and groups; ticket and membership discounts; and assistance available for visitors with disabilities in hearing, mobility and vision.
The cultural groups include museums, historic sites, performing arts venues, gardens and more. Click here to view the NYC-ARTS list of organizations that are always free or offer pay-what-you-wish admission.
The 2011 NYC-ARTS Cultural Guide for Seniors: Brooklyn was made possible with the generous support of MetLife Foundation, and with support from New York City Councilmember Jessica Lappin.
Organizations with Senior Programming
Artichoke Dance
Arts in Bushwick
BAM Rose Cinemas
Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC)
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Brooklyn Public Library
Circuit Productions
Elders Share the Arts/National Center for Creative Aging
Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton
Lifetime Arts
Mark Morris Dance Group
Smack Mellon Studios
Spoke the Hub
Waterfront Museum
Weeksville Heritage Center
Organizations with Senior Discounts
ABAKUÁ Afro-Latin Dance Company
Bargemusic
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Brooklyn Historical Society
Brooklyn Museum
Genesis Repertory Ensemble
New York Aquarium
New York Transit Museum
Prospect Park Zoo
Regina Opera Company
Weeksville Heritage Center
Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum
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ABAKUÁ Afro-Latin Dance Company
Brooklyn
The dance and theatrical repertory of ABAKUA' Afro-Latin Company is designed to reach a broad audience and to nurture the widespread appreciation of Afro-Latin dance. More -
A.I.R./Artists in Residence Gallery
Brooklyn
Artists in Residence's mission is to advance the status of women artists by exhibiting diverse work of the highest quality and by providing a sense of community to women artists. The A.I.R. Gallery, founded in 1972, was the first cooperative for women artists. More -
Brooklyn
Artichoke Dance Company creates unique dance works, presents public performances and offers participatory educational experiences in dance and dance making that aim to develop physical, creative and social skills as well as artistic and cultural understanding. More -
Brooklyn
This all-volunteer organization promotes and supports local artists, serves the community at large through arts education and creative accessibility, and organizes all residents and stakeholders in Bushwick to fight development-driven displacement and work toward an integrated, sustainable community. More -
Brooklyn
Bargemusic is a 102-foot coffee barge that has been converted into a floating concert hall for chamber music. It offers concerts every week, 52 weeks a year in an acoustically rich room with 130 seats.
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Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
Brooklyn
BAM is America's oldest performing arts center and a leading presenter of the avant-garde. Since opening in 1861, it has presented the finest in performing arts. More -
Brooklyn
BAC is the umbrella organization serving Brooklyn artists and arts groups in all disciplines. It also provides residents with affordable access to the arts. It is the go-to service group for Brooklyn’s artists, and for finding out about the wide array of cultural groups and projects in Brooklyn. More -
Brooklyn
Founded in 1910, the garden spans 52 acres and contains more than 12,000 living plant varieties from all over the world. These are arranged in taxonomic displays as well as in formal and informal gardens.
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Brooklyn
Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85 acre sustainable park that stretches 1.3 miles along the Brooklyn waterfront under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. The park offers panoramic views of downtown Manhattan and New York Harbor. Areas of the park currently open are Pier 1, Pier 6, Main Street and a connective Greenway. More -
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Brooklyn
The center presents traditional and innovative programs reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities, at affordable prices. Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts welcomes over 70,000 people to the 2,400 seat Walt Whitman Theatre each season. More -
Brooklyn
The Brooklyn Historical Society is a nationally recognized urban history center dedicated to preserving and encouraging the study of Brooklyn's 400-year history. Its galleries and archive are housed in a magnificent landmark building. More -
Brooklyn
Representing many of the world's great cultures, the collection of the Brooklyn Museum comprises 1.5 million artworks. The magnificent six-story, 450,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts building was designed in 1893 by the renowned firm of McKim, Mead & White. More -
Brooklyn
This library system--the fifth largest in the country--serves more than six million people each year. The famous Central Library, whose building resembles an open book, is the main reference center and the core of a borough-wide system with 58 branches in as many neighborhoods. More -
Brooklyn
BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn's flagship performing arts program for music, dance, film and spoken word, Celebrate Brooklyn! is one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals. Over the festival's history, over 2,000 artists and ensembles reflective of the borough's diversity—ranging from internationally acclaimed performers to emerging, cutting-edge artists—have been presented at Celebrate Brooklyn! More -
Center for Art & Culture of Bedford-Stuyvesant
Brooklyn
The center offers classes ranging from Brazilian martial arts to steel percussion and Afro-Caribbean dance and hosts a year-round schedule of readings. The center also houses the Skylight Gallery, which was designed by I.M. Pei and features exhibits of established and emerging artists of African descent. More -
Brooklyn
The institute mounts a range of exhibitions, among them the Annual Russian Group Show and the Annual Chassidic Art Group Show, both now entering their third decade. The institute is most noted for its many one-person shows of artists. More -
Brooklyn
Circuit Productions presents the uniquely American art forms of jazz and tap dance. Performances are for the most part by senior performing artists of color between the ages of 60 and 80. More -
Brooklyn
Located on the Red Hook waterfront, Dance Theatre Etcetera’s (DTE) mission is to use the arts as a vehicle for social transformation, connecting progressive artists and first-time artists on critically engaged, cultural projects to build a more sustainable, just and joyful world. More -
Elders Share the Arts/National Center for Creative Aging
Brooklyn
Elders Share the Arts specializes in intergenerational community arts programs that bring together the old and young through a unique synthesis of oral history and the arts. More -
Brooklyn
Genesis Repertory honors the original text of the classics but merges these words with new locations and casting choices. For example, it has presented Romeo and Juliet in a trailer park and set The Merry Wives of Windsor in a disco in 1976. The company performs at venues throughout Brooklyn. More -
Brooklyn
This vast landmark cemetery, founded in 1838, is the final resting place of nearly 600,000 persons, including some of the 19th century’s most memorable figures. The cemetery's diverse program of public tours is conducted by foot or via its trolley, and performances are occasionally held on the grounds. More -
Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton
Brooklyn
Fort Hamilton, the earliest granite fortification built in New York Harbor, is today the official United States Army Museum in the City of New York. Permanent displays tell the story of the generations of guns, mines, airplanes and missiles that have protected the harbor. More -
Brooklyn
Historic New Utrecht is a group named for one of the six towns established by the Dutch and later combined by the British to form Kings County, New York. It promotes awareness and understanding of early Brooklyn history through free concerts, historical lectures and Liberty Weekend, which takes place each June. More -
International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP)
Brooklyn
ISCP is a nonprofit residency program for visual artists and curators located in Brooklyn. It presents artist salons, exhibitions and talks, all open to the public. It also collaborates with other arts organizations in greater New York City. More -
Lefferts Homestead Historic House Museum
Brooklyn
The original Lefferts home, built before the American Revolution in the farming village of Flatbush, was burned down during the Battle of Long Island in 1776. The structure that now stands is a circa-1783 replacement, moved to its present location in 1918. More -
Bronx
This organization provides support and resources to practitioners and institutions that provide services to older adults. Creative Aging in Our Communities: the New York City Libraries Project is a series of arts programs for older adults in up to 30 branch libraries in the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and Brooklyn. More -
Brooklyn
The renowned modern dance company, led by choreographer Mark Morris, was founded in 1980. In 2001 it opened its dance center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, to provide a home for the company, rehearsal space for the dance community, outreach programs for local children and a school offering dance classes for all ages. More -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Concert Series
Brooklyn
This summer series presents free musical concerts that reflect the African-American contribution to the American music scene. Concerts are staged (weather permitting) at Brooklyn’s Wingate Field in July and August. More -
Brooklyn
The New York Aquarium, part of the Wildlife Conservation Society, spans 14 beachfront acres in Coney Island. It houses more than 8,000 creatures including freshwater and marine fishes, marine invertebrates, seals, sea otters, walruses, sea lions, sharks and penguins. More -
Brooklyn
This museum, home of 100-plus years of NYC transit lore and memorabilia, occupies the platforms and mezzanine of a decommissioned 1930s subway station. More -
Pratt Institute Schafler Gallery
Brooklyn
Established in 1985 by Pratt Institute, the Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery mounts faculty and student exhibitions as well as thematic shows featuring the work of unaffiliated artists. More -
Brooklyn
The 585-acre park is one of the finest creations of the landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Begun in 1866, it has a 60-acre lake on its east side, the 90-acre Long Meadow on the west and Brooklyn's last remaining original woodlands (the Ravine) in between. More -
Brooklyn
This 12-acre zoo houses nearly 100 species and has many interactive exhibits and three major areas that provide close-up views of animals, from sheep to weaver finches to gar fish to the ever-popular baboons. More -
Brooklyn
The company presents classics of the Italian opera repertory as well as productions of Mozart and Gilbert and Sullivan. In addition to its annual season of operas, it performs select Sunday concerts and free community outreach recitals. More -
Brooklyn
Through its public exhibitions and programs, the Rotunda Gallery introduces audiences to contemporary art. Six yearly shows feature painters, sculptors and other visual artists who live, work or were born in Brooklyn. More -
Brooklyn
Founded in 1978, the Seaside Summer Concert Series in Coney Island hosts musicians of all stripes in a series of free outdoor concerts on Thursdays. The series has a new home on West 21st Street and Surf Avenue in 2011. More -
Brooklyn
Located in a series of old warehouses in the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO, Smack Mellon Studios was founded by a musician and an artist to create a meeting ground for divergent art forms. Smack Mellon Studios holds an exhibition space, an artists studio program and a performance space for theater, music and dance groups. More -
Brooklyn
A staple of the Park Slope community since 1979, Spoke the Hub offers performance series, dance classes, a film series and more. More -
Brooklyn
Afloat on a retrofitted railroad barge once used to ferry goods, the museum fosters an understanding of New York Harbor as a historic waterway and a former conduit for commerce and commuters as well as recreation. It presents exhibits, events and educational programming. More -
Brooklyn
This historic museum preserves the history of the free and intentional 19th century African-American community of Weeksville. In addition to tours of the Hunterfly Road houses, there are a variety of events, workshops and classes. More -
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center
Brooklyn
Founded by artist Yuko Nii, the Williamsburg Art & Historical Society presents exhibitions in its gallery space and performances in the Theater, located in the 19th-century Kings County Bank Building in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. More -
Brooklyn
This wood-shingled Dutch Colonial farmhouse, built about 1652, is probably the oldest home in New York City. It stands on land that is believed to have been purchased in 1636 from the Canarsie Indians by Van Twiller, the first director general of New Netherland. With Dutch ceramic tiles and a period garden, visitors can tour the household of the Dutch settlers in the New World. More