So high five to the Whitney Museum for offering "Stroller Tours" of the 2010 Whitney Biennial, a chance for "new moms and dads"--and crying babies 0-18 months!--to see the show "when it's not open to the public": an hour before it opens on Friday, May 7th.
Which also gives parents a chance to see it after everyone has stopped talking about it and forgotten that it's even still going on.
If you're really going to wait until May to see the show, you might as well go some time on the 26-28th, when the museum will be open 24 hours/day as part of veteran conceptual artist Michael Asher's contribution to the show. [he originally wanted a week, but, you know, budget cuts.]
Seriously, just strap the kid to your chest and go; the place was freakin' with babies on Saturday, no sweat. And no crying baby could be more distracting than the sounds bleeding over from one video piece to the next.
Stroller Tours | 2010 Whitney Biennial, Friday, May 7, 2010 12-1 PM $25 registration required [whitney.org]
Hey, many thanks, Greg, for the Whitney Stroller Tour tip. We just went today, and it was great to have an early picnic lunch in Central Park then stroll to the museum past the crowd being told that they had to "wait until 1:00--the people with strollers are part of a special program."
The tour was only of the second floor with one guide, three guards ("Step away from the artwork, and no one gets hurt."), and about twenty moms. I was the only dad there with my two-year-old and nine-month-old, and my tolerant wife (not a big modern art fan).
It was a nice day out, but I was hoping for a more kid-friendly experience. The guide did a super job for us adults, but I was expecting a simpler how to look at art with your kids tour. No matter, I picked up a great book with that very theme in the shop in the basement (Phaidon's The Art Book for Children: Book Two--Book One was not in stock).
For parents driving a double-wide like us, there is plenty of room, but any stroller is banished to the cloak room for touring the rest of the museum or outside of the Stroller Tour hour.