Jack Vartoogian spent 32 years photographing SummerStage, which means this show is effectively a visual history of free outdoor performance in New York — the artists, the crowds, and the parks as they were. The Arsenal Gallery on the building's third floor is one of the city's genuinely hidden rooms, a free public gallery inside Central Park that almost nobody walks into. If you want a quiet, air-conditioned counterweight to a summer Friday outdoors, this is fifteen minutes very well spent.
What to expect
You enter the Arsenal at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street, past the Parks Department offices, and take the stairs to the third-floor gallery. The room is small and hung salon-style, so the show reads quickly. Central Park Zoo and the Mall are immediately outside if you want to keep going.
Good to know
- Take the N/R/W to Fifth Avenue-59th Street or the 6 to 68th Street and walk into the park at 64th.
- The gallery is on the Arsenal's third floor — sign in at the desk on the way through.
- Admission is free, unlike most Central Park attractions nearby.
- It's indoors and air-conditioned, which makes it a useful heat-wave stop.
- The Central Park Zoo entrance is directly adjacent if you're bringing kids.
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Common questions
Where is the Arsenal Gallery?
Inside the Arsenal building in Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street, on the third floor.
Is admission free?
Yes. The Arsenal Gallery is a free public exhibition space run by NYC Parks.
Who is Jack Vartoogian?
A New York performance photographer who documented SummerStage across Manhattan parks from 1987 through 2019.
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