16 Things to Do in NYC If You’re Not Attending the Met Gala

Reported by Vogue.

May 1st to May 4th might just be fashion's most overstuffed long weekend. Devil Wears Prada 2 hits theaters, the Met Gala (that annual red-carpet circus where designers compete for Instagram supremacy) is practically here, and the Costume Institute opens "Costume Art"—an exhibition exploring fashion and fine art through the lens of the dressed body. But here's the thing: you don't need a $50,000 custom gown or insider access to have the most interesting week in New York. While Manhattan's fashion elite are busy posing, the rest of us have an entire city full of exhibitions, performances, and screenings worth your actual time.

Art Isn't Just for the Gala Crowd

The Costume Institute exhibition officially opens May 10th, but major galleries are already serving what matters. Dalí's surrealist fever dreams are up at Di Donna; Matisse's revolutionary color work is at Acquavella; and MoMA has Marcel Duchamp's modernist chaos on view. Meanwhile, The Whitney is showing Warhol's Polaroids, and The Brant Foundation in the East Village has Keith Haring's rawer, pre-fame work. If contemporary art is your thing, the inaugural Conductor Art Fair in Brooklyn (through May 3rd) showcases emerging and established artists from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and beyond—actual creative work that doesn't require a velvet rope to appreciate.

Theater and film are equally loaded this month. Roundabout Theatre's revival of The Rocky Horror Show is generating actual buzz, while the LaMama Moves! Dance Festival brings experimental work through May 10th. The Lower East Side Film Festival screens the cult classic Ghost World with its original cast reuniting for a 25th anniversary moment—something you genuinely can't fake or buy your way into. Brooklyn's Coney Island Film Festival and Queens' "First Look" series at the Museum of the Moving Image (which is also hosting a comprehensive Jim Henson retrospective) give you gallery-and-cinema combos worth your weekend.

This is the week to remember that fashion's biggest night celebrates clothes, yes, but the real creativity happens in studios, theaters, and art spaces where artists aren't thinking about who's watching on Instagram. Go see something that genuinely moves you instead.

Read the original at Vogue.