Through the second week of November, the gates in Roslyn Harbor open at 9 a.m. as usual. The trails into the William Cullen Bryant Preserve go into the woods and around the ponds, and more than 40 outdoor sculptures stand where they stood all summer. The grounds keep the same hours whatever is hanging in the mansion.
The mansion's show has changed. Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist of the Gilded Age closed on November 8. It hung more than 130 Tiffany paintings, the museum's full holding, which came as an anonymous gift, alongside his lamps, metalwork and ceramics. On November 21, the same rooms switch to New York's nightlife from the 1960s through the 1980s, and that show runs until March 7, 2027.
For anyone in Greater Roslyn, that means the Nassau County Museum of Art works as two venues with two schedules this winter. The ticketed mansion has a 15-week show with a fixed end date. The grounds are free every day of the week. Planning around both is how to get the most out of the season.
The mansion jumps about eighty years
The new main show is NYC Glam: The 60s – 80s. The museum describes it as starting with Truman Capote's Black and White Ball in 1966 and continuing through the Studio 54 years and beyond. It isn't hung like a standard gallery show. Each room of the former Frick family mansion is set up as a staged scene, with art, fashion, furniture, photography and design arranged to recreate a specific moment in the city's culture.
The list of names is long, and it covers more than painting:
- Artists: Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ronnie Cutrone, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Larry Rivers, Alex Katz, Malcolm Morley and Richard Bernstein
- Fashion: Halston, Diana Vreeland, André Leon Talley, Diane von Fürstenberg, Stephen Sprouse and Paloma Picasso
- Photographers and filmmakers: Richard Avedon, Ron Galella, Slim Aarons, Peter Beard, and Albert and David Maysles
- Writers: Truman Capote, Joseph Heller, Philip Roth, Gore Vidal, Neil Simon and Interview Magazine
- Musicians: David Bowie, Patti Smith, Deborah Harry, The Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, the Talking Heads and The Ramones
The works the museum has previewed show how mixed the show is. There are Richard Bernstein's airbrush-and-collage portraits of Cher from December 1974 and Isabella Rossellini from January 1978, both lent by his estate. From the Judith and Gerson Leiber Collection come a 1985 beaded gold minaudière by Judith Leiber, set with onyx and rhinestones, and Gerson Leiber prints including The Ocelot Coat from 1980 and The Latest in Beachwear II from 1979. The exhibition page opens with Ceravolo's 1988 oil Woman in Zebra, which is 64 by 50 inches.
The Tiffany show was about one artist's early painting and how it fed his decorative work. NYC Glam is about a whole scene, where a handbag, a magazine and a punk band share the rooms with the paintings.
Harry Benson takes the same era from behind the camera
A second show opens the same day and closes the same day: Harry Benson: New York Nightlife, 60s – 80s, on view November 21, 2026 through March 7, 2027. The museum describes Benson, a CBE born in 1929, as a celebrated photographer who traveled with the Beatles on their 1964 tour and photographed major public figures over a long career. This show focuses on his pictures of New York nightlife from those same three decades.
Because both shows are in the mansion, one admission covers them. A single visit gets you the staged rooms of NYC Glam and one photographer's view of the same nights out.
Two schedules on one property
The mansion's hours and prices follow the exhibitions. The grounds don't. This is the full breakdown from the museum's Plan Your Visit page:
| Part of the museum | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Arboretum, trails and sculpture garden | Daily, 9 a.m. to dusk | Free |
| Mansion galleries | Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., last tickets 4:15 p.m., closed Monday | $15 adults, $10 seniors 65+, $5 students with ID, $5 children under 12, free under 4 and for members |
| Museum Store, inside the mansion | Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed Monday | No admission listed |
| Manes Art Education Center | Monday to Saturday, hours vary with class schedule, closed Sunday | Class fees vary |
| Parking | With the grounds | Free |
On a Monday, the only free option on the property is the outdoors, and it's open. The museum lists more than 40 sculptures by 30 sculptors, made between 1913 and 2018, spread over 145 acres of the Bryant Preserve. There are also an arboretum, formal gardens, ponds, and nine marked trails that add up to more than six miles. You can walk the trails any weekday morning without a ticket. Then the mansion is there for a Saturday when you want to see NYC Glam.
Exhibition Tours run Tuesday through Sunday at 2 p.m. They are free with admission and need no reservation. Separate Mansion Tours, which cover the building itself, run from 1 to 2 p.m. on select Saturdays. They are also free with admission and need no reservation. On a Saturday when both are running, you can take back-to-back tours, first the house and then what's hanging in it.
The education building has an artist in residence
The Manes Art Education Center is the third building, and it has its own schedule. In late October, the museum named Frank Olt its new Artist-in-Residence, working out of the Manes Center. His work combines ceramics, painting and mixed media. The museum's announcement says it plans open studios, hands-on workshops and artist lectures, and invites visitors to the open-studio sessions to watch his process. The first open studio was set for Sunday, November 1, at 4:30 p.m. Future sessions will appear on the Artist in the Studio: Frank Olt page.
Younger children also have a December date at the museum. Storybook Studio runs Saturday, December 5, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4 to 7 with a parent or caregiver. Instructor Margo Christie builds the session around Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall. It costs $20 for members or $25 for nonmembers for one adult and one child, plus $5 for each additional child. The session ends at 11 a.m., and the mansion galleries open at 11, so a family can go straight from the studio into NYC Glam.
The winter, by date
These are the dated items from the museum's pages, plus one from the Village of Roslyn that matters if you're combining a museum visit with holiday errands:
- November 21: NYC Glam: The 60s – 80s and Harry Benson: New York Nightlife, 60s – 80s open in the mansion.
- November 26, Thanksgiving Day: The museum buildings are closed. The same day, the Village of Roslyn starts covering the parking meters in the downtown shopping district, so shoppers can park without paying through December 31. The Board of Trustees approved it in October, as Long Island Press reported.
- December 5: Storybook Studio, 10 to 11 a.m., at the museum.
- December 25, Christmas Day: The museum buildings are closed.
- January 1, New Year's Day: The museum buildings are closed.
- March 7, 2027: Both mansion shows close.
The Long Island Press article also reported that the village approved replacing its downtown meters, after trouble getting repairs from its previous vendor. The new company is ROC Leasing LLC, which does business as Real Lease. Whichever meters are on Old Northern Boulevard after Thanksgiving, they will be covered through the end of December.
The museum's free parking lot and the village's covered meters make for a cheap December day. You could walk the trails in the morning, see NYC Glam after 11 a.m., and finish in downtown Roslyn without feeding a meter. If you're coming between now and November 21, while the Tiffany show is down and the new shows aren't open yet, check nassaumuseum.org before going if the mansion is what you want to see. The grounds keep their 9 a.m. to dusk hours either way.
At Golden Real Estate Group, we follow what's opening and changing around the places our clients call home, from a new show in a Gold Coast mansion to the parking rules downtown. If you want local updates like this alongside a clear read on your home's value, book a consultation with our team.
