Hudson River Museum Announces Free First Fridays

Inaugural Free First Friday on December 1, 2023

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Yonkers, NY, November 27—The Hudson River Museum is thrilled to announce Free First Fridays, a new initiative that offers free admission and special programs to the Museum on the first Friday of each month from 5–8pm. Celebrate the weekend with live music, dance performances, art-making, drinks, and friends!

Free First Fridays is a newly launched “Access for All” initiative made possible by Art Bridges Foundation, the national arts nonprofit founded by philanthropist Alice Walton. The HRM will be featuring dynamic and diverse programs, including collaborations with community-based arts groups. Look for concerts under our Planetarium dome, innovative music and dance in our galleries, live sketching and painting nights, and outdoor performances and programs in our courtyard.

December 2023

Free First Fridays: Gilded Holiday Glow
Friday, December 1, 5–8pm

Diverse Concert Artists inaugurates Free First Fridays with a celebration of the joyous season. This unconventional string quartet will play a mixture of classical, Broadway, holiday, pop, and Hip Hop tunes, setting the tone to enjoy our current exhibitions and our Gilded Age historic home, Glenview, decorated in full Victorian holiday splendor. Enjoy guided holiday tours throughout the evening and sketch a seasonal landscape in a bilingual art workshop with artist Carolina Amarillo. Cash bar with holiday-inspired refreshments.

January 2024

Free First Fridays: Music Under the Dome
Friday, January 5, 5-8pm

We’re kicking off the New Year with Music Under the Dome in the Planetarium featuring the Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra. A woodwind quintet will play a special arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s famous 1874 orchestral work “Pictures at an Exhibition,” complemented by visuals on the dome, in two separate 40-minute sets, at 6pm and 7pm. Check out our current exhibitions and enjoy a bilingual sketching workshop with artist Carolina Amarillo. Enjoy a cash bar with refreshments to warm you up.

February 2024

Free First Friday: A Night of Romance and Rhythms
Friday, February 2, 5-8pm

River’s Edge Theatre Company presents a staged reading of Constellations by Nick Payne under the Planetarium dome at 6:30pm. This spellbinding, romantic journey begins with a simple encounter between a man and a woman, but what happens next defies the boundaries of the world we think we know. The New York Times says “Who knew that higher physics could be so sexy, so accessible—and so emotionally devastating? This story of parallel universes is universal in every sense of the word.”

Also on hand this evening will be Bronx-based DJ Sunny Cheeba, founder of Uptown Vinyl Supreme, whose music will highlight Black history, and focus on themes of love and intimacy. Enjoy our current exhibitions, as well as a bilingual art workshop with artist Carolina Amarillo. Cash bar.

March 2024

Free First Friday: Ballet, Bach, and Bold Women’s History
Friday, March 1, 5-8pm

This First Friday celebrates Women’s History Month with MorDance, a trailblazing, women-led ballet company striving to advance accessibility, diversity, and creativity in ballet by fostering empowered environments for artistic expression. The company will present Humanism, an immersive contemporary ballet inspired by Bach’s melodies and civil rights speeches, that harmonizes classical beauty with contemporary urgency. Follow the dancers that make up this vibrant young company through the galleries in a celebration of human rights and the progress women have made, and have yet to make. Enjoy our current exhibitions, as well as a bilingual art workshop with Carolina Amarillo. Cash bar.

Keep an eye out on the HRM calendar for more exciting programming on Free First Fridays for something fun, different, and social every month.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

Images: Left: Diverse Concert Artists, Right: MorDance Humanism performance photo by Kelsey Campbell.

Press contacts:
Jeana Wunderlich
jwunderlich@hrm.org
(914) 963-4550 x240

Samantha Hoover
shoover@hrm.org
(914) 963-4550 x216

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Hudson River Museum is a preeminent cultural institution in Westchester County and the New York metropolitan area. Situated on the banks of the Hudson River in Yonkers, New York, the HRM’s mission is to engage, inspire, and connect diverse communities through the power of the arts, sciences, and history.

The Museum offers engaging experiences for every age and interest, with an ever-evolving collection of American art; dynamic exhibitions that range from notable nineteenth-century paintings to contemporary art installations. The HRM’s new West Wing offers sweeping views of the Hudson River in dedicated exhibition galleries. The campus also includes Glenview, an 1877 house on the National Register of Historic Places; a state-of-the-art Planetarium; an environmental teaching gallery; and an outdoor Amphitheater. Accredited by the American Association of Museums (AAM), the Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting these multidisciplinary offerings, which are complemented by an array of public programs that encourage creative expression, collaboration, and artistic and scientific discovery.

Hours and Admission: Hudson River Museum is open Thursday & Friday, 12–5pm, Saturday & Sunday, 11am–5pm. Learn more at hrm.org/visit

General Admission: Adults $13; Youth (3–18) $8; Seniors (65+) $9; Students (with valid ID) $9; Veterans $9; Children (under 3) FREE; Members FREE; Museums for All* $2, *SNAP/EBT card with photo ID (up to 4 people). Planetarium tickets: Adults $7; Youth (3–18) $5; Seniors (65+) $6; Students (with valid ID) $6; Veterans $6; Children (under 3) Free. Glenview tours: Adults $7; Youth (3–18) $5; Seniors (65+) $6; Students (with valid ID) $6; Veterans $6; Children (under 3) Free.. The Museum is accessible by Metro-North (Hudson Line—Yonkers and Glenview stations), by Bee-Line Bus Route #1, by car, and by bike. Make your visit a One-Day Getaway, and buy a combined rail and admission discount ticket. Learn more about Metro-North Deals & Getaways.