New York gives you numerous choices when you are in a mood to attend an art gallery exhibition or be a part of an exhibition opening. Some sources say that there are more than a thousand of art galleries in NYC and, of  course, you do not have time to attend them all. But the good thing is that art galleries are usually located in clusters and so if you go to one of them, there is, basically, a 100% chance that you will be able to see art works, be that paintings or photos or scupltures, in many other art galleries located just nearby, whatever neightborhood you happen to be in.

The very first neighborhood where artist lived and art galleries thrived in New York City was Grenwich Village, which boated active art scene as far back as 1850. That active art scene did last: Greenwich Village was the place where Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney opened her Whitney Studio Club Gallery in 1914, which would become the Whitney Museum for American Art (now located in Chelsea).

With immigrants pouring into the city in larger numbers than ever before at the turn of the century, the wealthy families tried to outrun their spread uptown by moving to the Upper East Side. The art galleries followed the buyers and established themselves in the neighboorhood as well.

Midtown, Grenwich Village and the Upper East Side housed most of the New York art galleries for over 100 years. Those three neighborhoods continue to house many of Manhattan art galleries. Upper East Side art galleries are located mostly in the area between Park and Fifth Aves in the mid-70s. Midtown art galleries are clustered near Fifth Avenue. Many of them are on the 57th St. They usually represent big name artists.

Early in the 1960s artists started moving into the neglected commercial lofts of the cast-iron district south of Houston Street, known as SoHo. In the 1970s and ’80s SoHo was the City’s best-known art distric. But SoHo art galleries became the victims of the neighborhood's success which they themselves have created. Before the artists moved into SoHo, the neightborhood was an array of empty factories buildings and abandoned warehouses. Artists moved in as the premises had lots of light and space, and were dirt cheap. As the artists were right there, the art galleries sprang up. The neighboorhood attarcted crowds and so retailers decided to capitalize on the cool images that SoHo have attained. They flooded the area and it made the rents go skyhigh and made the area unaffordable to the artist community. This story repeats itself in many towns and cities all over the world, and so instead of dwelling on it, let us tell you which other neighborhoods have the galleries that you may want to atend. SoHo has become more of a shopping mall than a place to see intereating art work, although about 20 galleries are still located there. 

The first place that comes to mind when one talks about the artists' and galleries' flight from SoHo is, of course, Chelsea. That's where many of SoHo galleries had to run to when the skyrocketed rent forced them to leave SoHo in the 90s. Chelsea art galleries are located between 18th and 28th Streets going South/North and between 10th and 11th Avenues going East/West. If you start there you may end staying there, as Chelsea's list of galleries has about 200 names or so.

Another gallery district is the Lower East Side, which is located east of Bowery and between Houston and Grand Streets. The galleries here usually show up and coming artists. You can see there lots of local grown art. The neighborhood is filled with inviting bars, cafes and restaurants, and with small smart clothing shops. So you can combine gallery hoping with bar hoping and with shopping for something off the beaten track.