Looking for the best things to do in NYC this weekend? Whether you’re the group planner searching for more things to do in NYC today, or you have no plans yet, here are some ideas to add to your list for this weekend. Check out the Spotlight on Orchids show at New York Botanical Garden, take a Winter Sound Walk at Brooklyn’s botanic garden, attend a virtual red carpet at a Golden Globes party or head out for some amazing art around the city. ” (TONY)

Here are just a few events happening this weekend for you to consider:

1. Spotlight on Orchids at NYBG
Things to do New York Botanical Garden, The Bronx Until Apr 4 2021

The New York Botanical Garden is forgoing its Orchid Show this year but is doing a limited Spotlight on Orchids across select galleries of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, including intimate displays of orchids in brilliant white and striking colors set against the foliage of aroids, ferns, and bromeliads—planted as they might be found in nature and blending gracefully with their surroundings, NYBG says. You’ll get to discover unusual orchids and artful floral creations by Botanical Garden horticulturists that combine expressive orchids with rocks, tree trunks, vines, and other found materials.

NYBG’s Orchid Show will return in 2022. Until then, you can purchase a Garden Pass + Conservatory ticket, which includes access to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory and outdoor gardens and collections.

3. Winter Sound Works at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Things to do Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Prospect Park Until May 9 2021

Get your zen on at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden which has launched a new series of winter nature walks and sound works in the Garden—site-specific original compositions and audio walks for visitors to experience at their own pace. As part of the Art in the Garden series, BBG is showcasing three works from January through May: Gelsey Bell and Joseph White’s “Meander,” Ben Rubin and Brian House’s “Terminal Moraine,” and a reprisal of Michael Gordon’s “loved.”

4. Virtual Golden Globes Viewing Party

The New York City-based podcast “Good Afternoon Planet Earth TV” is hosting a Golden Globes viewing party on Sunday for a chance to dress up and watch the show along with other New Yorkers. There will be a virtual red carpet, a karaoke party in between commercial breaks, live stream commentary and Golden Globes 2021 Bingo to participate in. You can watch the live stream on its YouTube channel for free, or to participate in the festivities, join the Good Afternoon Planet Earth TV Patreon for memberships as low as $3, and the Zoom link to be in the live stream will be provided there.

5. So Ready for Laughter: Bob Hope and World War II
Museums New-York Historical Society | Manhattan, NY, Upper West Side Until Sep 5 2021

The New-York Historical Society has a new exhibit that coincides with the 80th anniversary of the United Service Organizations (USO) that shows off artifacts (a World War II-era aircraft fragment, mess kit, and other relics engraved to Hope), films, and rare photographs to illustrate how Bob Hope helped lift spirits with his USO and radio shows during a dark time in American history.

There’s also a companion exhibition, “The Gift of Laughter,” that delves into Hope’s varied career after World War II as a USO entertainer, television star, and Academy Award host demonstrating the many hats worn by comedians. His legacy will be brought to life with many items, including costumes from the Emmy Award-winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, as well as objects related to other comedians—real and imagined—influenced by Hope.

7. Pandemic Burlesque at Club Cumming
Comedy Club Cumming, East Village Mar 4 2021-Mar 25 2021

Tallulah Talons, New York nightlife diva and the 6’1 giantess of burlesque, is hosting extraordinary evenings featuring her favorite performers every Thursday. Enjoy drinks and laughs with your friends at your very own socially-distanced table while some of New York’s top burlesque talent give you an intimate show you won’t forget!

9. “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America”
News Art

This new exhibition that has taken over almost the entirety of the New Museum and is set to stay put until June 6, explores the history of racist violence all throughout the United States. Back in 2018, curator Okwui Enwezor began working on the project, hoping to mount it by last year’s Presidential election. Unfortunately, the curator’s passing in 2019 and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic forced a shift in plans that delayed the show’s opening to last week. In total, the work of 37 Black artists currently fills the museum’s lobby, its three main viewing floors, the building’s exterior and the South Gallery found in the building next door. Expect to browse through the amazing works of artists the likes of Kara Walker, who is the brain behind an entire wall filled with sketches and drawings; LaToya Ruby Frazier, who contributes over a dozen photographs from her “The Notion of Family” series; and Jean-Michael Basquiat, whose “Procession” can be glanced at as soon as the elevator doors open on the third floor. The show is a powerful one, with images ranging in style, theme and scope, but one that is necessary to delve into today more than ever. Given COVID-19-related guidelines, visitors have to purchase timed tickets ahead of their trip.

Go-To NYC Spots for Takeout, Delivery, and Outdoor Dining in 2020 – ny.eater.com

“From Golden Diner’s honey butter pancakes to Parlay’s chicken curry, here are the restaurant orders that were kept in regular rotation all year long.”

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NYC-Arts Top Five Picks: February 26  – March 4

PLUS ONGOING EVENTS

David Goldblatt: Strange Instrument

Pace Gallery 510

Manhattan / Fri, Feb 26, 2021 – Sat, Mar 27, 2021

David Goldblatt was renowned for creating powerful images that revealed the complex and far-reaching dynamics of apartheid, as well as the post-apartheid conditions that continue to impact his native country to this day. Curated by South African artist and activist Zanele Muholi in collaboration with Yancey Richardson Gallery, “David Goldblatt: Strange Instrument” presents over 60 vintage prints by the late South African photographer. The exhibition groups the works into idiosyncratic categories that reflect Muholi’s deeply personal engagement …

Contemporary Arab Cinema 2021

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn / Wed, Mar 03, 2021 – Wed, Mar 10, 2021

From Wednesday, March 3 through Wednesday, March 10, BAM and Jacob Burns Film Center present the third annual “Contemporary Arab Cinema.” The beauty, complexity, and diversity of Arab culture shines in these vital recent works from some of the Middle East and North Africa’s boldest filmmakers. Featuring thrillers, tales of forbidden love and sociopolitical upheaval, women’s rights, and tradition, the series offers stunning dispatches from an ever-evolving region. This year’s edition also offers two films …

92Y WINTER/SPRING VIRTUAL SEASON OF 13 CONCERTS

92nd Street Y

Manhattan / Mon, Feb 01, 2021 – Wed, May 26, 2021

92Y is pleased to announce a formidable lineup for its winter/spring season of streaming concerts, February 1 – May 26. From Ax to Vieaux, this season’s performers embody the excellence in performance and presentation that audiences have come to expect from 92Y’s online recitals. All thirteen programs are world premiere webcasts; eight will stream live in real time from 92Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall, with the other five newly recorded. All concerts take place at 7:30 pm Eastern …

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Mirror-works and Drawings

James Cohan Gallery

Manhattan / Fri, Jan 29, 2021 – Sat, Mar 06, 2021

Over six decades, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1922 – 2019) investigated the intricate geometries of her Iranian heritage, reconfiguring traditional craft techniques to explore the philosophical, poetic, and perceptual possibilities of interlocking primary forms. In her work, rigorous structure and repetition are the foundations of invention and limitless variation. Spanning mirrored mosaics, sculptural assemblage, drawings, textiles and monotypes, Monir’s multidimensional practice centered on incorporating elements from her inherited past into her own designs—which blended a range …

Vera List & The Posters Of Lincoln Center

Poster House

Manhattan / Thu, Jan 14, 2021 – Sun, May 09, 2021

Poster House’s second mini-exhibition focuses on the contribution made by Vera List to the creation of a poster program advertising the new Lincoln Center complex in 1962. Inspired by artist-designed posters she had seen in Paris, she earmarked $200,000 as seed money for what would become the List Art Poster Program (later known as the Vera List Art Project), featuring some of the most notable names in contemporary art, from Andy Warhol to Roy Lichtenstein, Ben Shahn to Robert Indiana. Each poster advertises a new building …

PLUS ONGOING EVENTS

David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968–1979

The Drawing Center

Manhattan / Fri, Feb 05, 2021 – Sun, May 23, 2021

The first museum exhibition dedicated to David Hammons’s pivotal early works on paper, “David Hammons: Body Prints, 1968–1979” brings together the monoprints and collages in which the artist used the body as both a drawing tool and printing plate to explore performative, unconventional forms of image making. The exhibition features a significant number of Hammons’s large-scale body prints, including “Pray for America” (1974), as well as two sculptural objects, “Black Boy’s Window” (1968) and “The …

So Ready for Laughter: Bob Hope and World War II

New-York Historical Society

Manhattan / Fri, Feb 05, 2021 – Sun, Sep 05, 2021

The New-York Historical Society celebrates the golden age of comedy with “So Ready for Laughter: Bob Hope and World War II,” on view February 5–September 5, 2021. Organized by The National WWII Museum in New Orleans and supported by the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation, the special exhibition highlights the legendary performer and his unique role during World War II entertaining troops overseas. Coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Service Organizations …

But Still, It Turns: Recent Photography from the World

International Center of Photography

Manhattan / Thu, Feb 04, 2021 – Sun, May 09, 2021

The International Center of Photography (ICP) proudly announces its winter/spring 2021 exhibition: “But Still, It Turns: Recent Photography from the World,” guest curated by photographer Paul Graham. The exhibition—on view February 4 through May 9, 2021—comes on the heels of ICP’s reopening of its galleries on October 1 following a six-month closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic and arrives just as ICP celebrates its first anniversary at its new home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In “But …

BAC’s Digital Spring 2021

Baryshnikov Arts Center

Manhattan / Mon, Feb 01, 2021 – Mon, Jun 21, 2021

Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) announces the Digital Spring 2021 season of free online presentations, featuring premieres of new works commissioned by BAC. Through the BAC Artist Commissions initiative, which was established September 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BAC has continued supporting the development of new work by providing resources for artists to realize their creative visions specifically for online presentation. The resulting projects from seven mostly New York-based artists innovating in dance, music, and multimedia will be released …

Magazines and the American Experience

Grolier Club

Manhattan / Wed, Jan 20, 2021 – Sat, Apr 24, 2021

This exhibition is a study of how magazines have both driven and reflected the American experience. Unlike regional newspapers, that report local current events, or non-fiction books, which focus on major historical moments and personalities, national magazines have the unique ability to connect trans-local communities of like-minded individuals. In the colonial era, magazines were the harbingers of American thought and identity; the first successful magazine from the 18th century proudly proclaimed itself as “The American …

MasterVoices’ 79th Season

MasterVoices

Manhattan / Wed, Jan 13, 2021 – Wed, May 26, 2021

Ted Sperling, Artistic Director of MasterVoices, announced details of the 79th season of the acclaimed ensemble, which celebrates the power of the human voice to unite, inspire, and connect. The central project of MasterVoices’ 2020-2021 season will be a virtual rollout of award-winning composer Adam Guettel’s theatrical song cycle, “Myths and Hymns,” in an online staging conceived by Ted Sperling. Inspired by Greek myths and a 19th-Century Presbyterian hymnal, the 1998 cycle is a kaleidoscopic collection of …

Sea Chanteys and Maritime Music Sing-Along Broadcast

South Street Seaport Museum

Manhattan / Ongoing

South Street Seaport Museum’s monthly sea-music event, “Sea Chanteys and Maritime Music,” continues virtually on Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 2pm ET. From our living rooms and kitchens join a round-robin of shared songs featuring members of The New York Packet and friends. Listen in, lead a song, and belt out the choruses for your neighbors to hear on the first Sunday of every month. The event is FREE. Sign up here to receive the …

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One Of NYC’s Great Vietnamese Restaurants Just Opened On The UWS – gothamist

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The best places to go ice-skating in NYC

Lace up your skates and head to our favorite spots for the best indoor and outdoor ice-skating NYC has to offer

It’s time to lace up your skates—the best ice skating rinks in NYC are waiting for you. As one of the most beloved cities to spend the holidays in, NYC has plenty of indoor and outdoor rinks where you can glide and practice your toe jumps. To help narrow down your options, we’ve ranked the top places to go, from the iconic Rink at Rockefeller Center or lower-key rinks at NYC parks like Central Park. You can even make a full-day out of it when you shop at one of the city’s best holiday markets, followed by sipping hot chocolate and skating on The Rink at the Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park. If you’d rather stay warm while on the ice, there are many all-weather indoor rinks, including spots that offer roller skating.” (TONY)

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Stay home a bit longer. Mask up, stay smart and stay safe.