The Bronx Museum is in the middle of a renovation and staying open through it, and this week it has a free evening and a free afternoon built for neighbors. On Friday, November 6, its monthly First Friday becomes a winter supply drive with Bronx Mutual Aid. On Saturday, November 7, families can help build a communal Día de Muertos altar with the artist Marco Saavedra. Admission to the museum, at 1040 Grand Concourse, is free every day it is open.

Friday: First Friday turns into a supply drive

On the first Friday of every month the museum stays open late with a free community event. November's runs from 6 to 9 p.m. and is open to all ages, with an optional RSVP and drop-ins welcome. The museum is partnering with Bronx Mutual Aid to collect winter essentials for New Yorkers who need them, and a list of suggested donations is posted on the event page. Donations are encouraged but not required to attend.

The theme comes from the artist Alex Strada's Public Address, a project presented by Storefront for Art and Architecture that puts the writing and drawings of people living and working in New York City shelters onto official city signage. The museum connects the drive to that idea of artists building bridges and collective care.

Saturday: an altar the whole family helps make

Family Time: Día de Muertos runs from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday. It is free, for all ages, with drop-ins welcome and an optional RSVP. Marco Saavedra leads an art-making activity based on the holiday, and what people make goes into a site-specific altar installation that the whole room builds together. The museum frames the afternoon as a chance for families, friends and neighbors to share stories and memories of the people they are remembering. In a note on the event page, Saavedra writes about growing up evangelical, about art as a way to create in the face of loss, and about the children being raised now and the sacrifices of the generations before them.

The event is part of the museum's regular family programs.

On the walls

Two exhibitions are up through the winter. Saya Woolfalk: The WoodsWoman Method runs through March 28, 2027. Beyond the Margins, a show in which Bronx Museum teens work with the permanent collection, runs through January 3, 2027.

A museum under renovation

The museum's renovation, designed by the architecture practice Marvel and funded by more than $42.9 million in city support, will create an expanded arts facility on the Grand Concourse. A rendering of the south wing on the museum's site shows it slated for completion in 2026, and the museum says it expects the renovated building to open in the coming year. Until then, it is keeping its regular hours.

How to go

The Bronx Museum is at 1040 Grand Concourse, at East 165th Street. It is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and admission is always free. The B and D trains stop at 167th Street on the Grand Concourse, a short walk north of the museum. RSVP links for both events, and the list of suggested donations for Friday, are on the museum's events page. The museum's phone number is 718-681-6000.

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