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Sloomoo Institute - 10:00 AM
Macy’s Herald Square - various times
TopView Sightseeing Bus Stop - various times
DreamWorks Water Park - various times
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Sloomoo Institute - 10:00 AM
Brooklyn Public Library - 10:30 AM
Macy’s Herald Square - various times
TopView Sightseeing Bus Stop - various times
DreamWorks Water Park - various times
Sloomoo Institute - 10:00 AM
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Sloomoo Institute - 10:00 AM
Macy’s Herald Square - various times
Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers - various times

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Must-See Public Art Installation for NYC Kids: Discovering Columbus Six Flights Above Columbus Circle

We're always on the lookout for cool public art installations since they're usually offbeat and always FREE. And the minute we read about Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi's brand-new Discovering Columbus installation—which is, essentially, a modern American living room built around the 13-foot marble statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle—we knew we had to get it on your radar.
Unlike most public art displays, Discovering Columbus isn't the kind of thing you can just walk up to and look at. Since it's 60 feet in the air, there are many stairs involved. Plus, due to all the (we suspect justified) hype, visitors must download no-cost timed tickets in advance. (We already have ours!)
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The Public Art Fund unveiled Discovering Columbus a few weeks back and will be welcoming visitors through Sunday, December 2. There's only one way to see the display in person, and that's by trudging up six flights of stairs. Once in the 800-square-foot sunbathed room, you can gawk at the famous but controversial explorer, who's perched atop a coffee table surrounded by a couch, comfy chairs, a massive flat-screen TV and wallpaper decorated with iconic American pop-culture images like Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, hot dogs and the Empire State Building. Of course there's only so much to see inside the installation. The real attraction is the killer views of Midtown Manhattan out of four large windows. As they say in real estate, "Location, location, location!" and nothing beats this spot.
Nishi said his intent is to inspire visitors to contemplate art's place in society, as well as to offer the unique chance to get up close and personal with a figure that otherwise towers above us all and as such gets overlooked. But we think kids will just think it's neat to be in such a luxurious room so high above the city, while adults will wish they could afford to move in.
To visit Discovering Columbus, you must download free timed tickets in advance. Half-hour slots are available daily between 10am and 8pm. Many prime times, especially weekends, are already sold out well into October so if you want to go, make sure you get on it now. Every single person in your family needs their own ticket, and you will be required to sign a waiver before you're allowed up.
How kid-friendly is Discovering Columbus? We haven't been yet (our tickets are for October 19 and we'll definitely report back) but we spoke to the folks at the Public Art Fund and they said it's not recommended for children under age 5 (no strollers are allowed, anyway), and that all kids under 13 must be accompanied by an adult. While there is an elevator, it's reserved for physically challenged visitors, so don't expect a free ride up.
Discovering Columbus is on view at Columbus Circle through December 2.
Photo courtesy of the Public Art Fund
Places featured in this article:
Columbus Circle
About the Author

Alina Adams - NYC Writer
Alina was born in the former Soviet Union, spent her teen years in San Francisco, and came to New York City to work for ABC Daytime and ABC Sports. She spent her pre-marriage/pre-kid years as a figure-skating researcher and producer for the U.S. and World Championships, the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and various professional shows.
After learning that international travel and resentful toddlers don’t mix, she switched to PGP Productions and its soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding Light, where she wrote New York Times best-selling tie-in books and developed interactive properties like AnotherWorldToday.com.
The birth of her third child (and the process of enrolling her two older kids into NYC schools—a full-time job in itself!) convinced Alina that she was not, in fact, Superwoman, and prompted her to leave TV and turn to writing books, including romance novels (Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga, When a Man Loves a Woman), figure-skating mysteries (Murder on Ice, On Thin Ice) and nonfiction (Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments).
In addition to contributing to Mommy Poppins, Alina blogs for Jewish parenting site Kveller.com and is in the process of turning her previously published backlist into enhanced e-books with multimedia features like audio, video and more. Follow her exhaustive and exhausting efforts to become a Mommy Media Mogul (is that a thing? If it isn’t, it really should be) at AlinaAdams.com and on Google+