Four Ways To See Beyond Graffiti At The Banksy Museum In New York

Tucked away amid a busier-than-ever strip of Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown, where sidewalks teem with aggressive designer knockoff hawkers, the exterior of the Banksy Museum doesn’t anticipate what’s inside. The first Banksy Museum in the United States, following popular stagings in Paris, Barcelona, Kraków, and Brussels, showcases more than 160 recreations, by other anonymous street artists, of Banksy’s wide-ranging work. The largest-yet collection of life-size Banksy recreations in a single space overtakes the top two floors spanning 15,000 square feet in the three-story Renaissance Revival-style commercial building designed by David M. Oltarsh. It opened in 1927 as the Major Theatre, seating 599 moviegoers, surrounded by retail space and lofts, and two decades later the cinema was renamed the Giglio-Major Theater, due to its proximity to Little Italy. In 1971, it became known as the Canal Cinema Theater, catering to newer immigrants from the Far East by showing movies from China. The building’s multi-cultural repurposing lends to the breadth of Banksy’s oeuvre around the world. An immersive journey into Banksy’s world costs $30, with discounts for students, teachers, and folks over 60 ($26); groups, families, military personnel, children ages 6-12 years old ($21); and free entry for children under...