How can New York fit under one roof?

New York has the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, and the Lower East Side.  But you hardly need to pick a favourite side, because right now the best sides of New York are on display in Bill Cunningham's "Facades" photo exhibition at the New York Historical Society (until June 15).

Bill Cunningham's photography project began in 1968 and it took him 8 years to complete.  He wanted to document the grandeur of New York - its rich architectural history, cultural vibrancy, and its larger-than-life characters.  Inspired, as ever, by his muse (and model) Editta Sherman, also known as "The Duchess of Carnegie Hall", the Facades exhibition documents - with sartorial accuracy - women dressed in period clothing standing in front of some of New York's most iconic public buildings and private residences.  You can see a couple of the photos here.

When I moved to New York three years ago, one of my colleagues spoke of Bill Cunningham as if he were a living treasure - sightings of him cycling around the City taking photographs for the New York Times were akin to spotting the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot.  But of course Bill Cunningham is man, not myth, and sightings are actually quite common, as I found out for myself when I finally watched the documentary entitled Bill Cunningham's New York.  If you haven't seen it yet, you must.  As one of the last remaining residents of the apartments above Carnegie Hall (before the City made him move), Cunningham really is part of the history of New York who, despite his amazing portfolio, remains unaffected by celebrity but totally in awe of beautiful clothing - a fan of the facade, if you will.

I had originally intended to visit the exhibition later this month, but I got an email during the week reminding me about the Historical Society's "Pay As You Wish" campaign, which recurs every Friday evening.  The Museum closes at 5pm, but on Fridays it re-opens from 6-8pm and visitors get to choose their own admission price (tickets are normally $18).  Decision made - I was going!

Once I got to the ticket counter though, a rather Python-esque skit played out with me totally unprepared for what "pay as you wish" really meant.  The ticket guy told me that some people don't pay anything at all (as was the case with the old lady in front of me), but I said I didn't feel comfortable with that.  Was $10 expected, or would $5 be okay?  The ticket guy told me that given some people pay nothing at all, if I were to give him one dollar I would totally be making his day, so I thrust 4 singles into his outstretched hand and he flashed me a fantastic grin.  Settled.

I headed straight upstairs to the second floor where the Facades exhibition was displayed.  From the looks of the crowd tonight, a lot of other people got the same email I did.  Crikey!  I watched a guy sketching one of the photographs (another activity you can do on Friday nights, under the tutelage of the teaching artist in residence).

But because of all the people clambering for a look, I was really only able to pause long enough in front of each photo to read a snippet of the plaque/card and gaze at the picture to work out where in the city it was taken.  So many fancy houses!  Those families sure didn't need to worry about living in a one-room studio with slanted floorboards.

Like many people, I judge a museum by the quality of its gift shop and given that the Historical Society is New York's oldest museum (founded in 1804), I just knew its gift shop would be an Aladdin's Cave of delights.  I was so right.  Chief amongst my purchases was an original 1968 souvenir edition of Bill Cunningham's Facades photographs.  A piece of no-longer-in-print New York history, on my very own bookcase.

But just as I was about to leave the museum, I noticed a bunch of people heading into a large auditorium on the ground floor.  Of course, I followed and I quickly learned about another fixture of the Historical Society's Friday evenings - a vintage film screening.

Tonight's cinematic gem was "The Fallen Idol" from 1948.  I hadn't ever seen it but I thought it was wonderful. I was probably the youngest person in the theatre by about 30 years, and the movie didn't have anything in particular to do with New York, but it didn't matter to me one bit.

All up, I had a brilliant Friday night at the New York Historical Society - and though I could have done it all for free, I would say it was $4 very well spent.