Perhaps the greatest sign of New York City’s ever-increasing prosperity is the fact that now, even the gritty, grimy Bowery now has a museum. And a bright and shiny one at that, a massive steel and glass tower. As with much of the art of the moment, the exhibits range from the sublime to the silly. Wall text is hard to find, so buttonhole one of the gallery guides wearing big “ask me” buttons; sometimes their explanations will be more interesting than the art itself.

Crowds at big museums can be completely overwhelming. Wading through people on the way to the exit, feeling hundreds of bodies pushing onward is enough to make someone crazy. It must have made German artist Carsten Höller crazy too, and his new exhibition in the New Museum in New York seeks to create an alternate transportation through crowded galleries.Known for creating works that challenge patrons and wrap them into his art, Höller recently installed a three-story slide in the New Museum. Similar to his test slide at the Tate Modern in London, the exhibition is a spiraling 102-foot slide that lets visitors glide freely from the fourth to the second floor of the museum. Along with the slide that cuts through the center of the whitewashed museum in sleek silver fashion, the museum will also house a number of other works by the artist dubbed the Carsten Höller: Experience. Aimed at stimulating the senses of museum-goers, each floor of the Experience invites viewers to lose themselves in a sensory deprivation tank, a bizarre merry-go-round and of course Höller’s giant plastic slide.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City, the only museum worldwide that is exclusively devoted to presenting contemporary art from around the World. The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Centre of the then-named New School for Social Research at 65 Fifth Avenue. The New Museum remained there until 1983, when it rented and moved to the first two and a half floors of the Astor Building at 583 Broadway in the SoHo neighborhood. Collection: When she founded the museum, Marcia Tucker decided it should buy works and sell them 10 years later so that its collection would always be new. It was an innovative plan that was never carried out. In 2000, the museum accepted its first corporate donation of artworks. The museum now has a modest collection of about 1,000 works in many media. In 2004, it joined forces with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in raising $110,000 from two foundations -- $50,000 from the American Center Foundation and $60,000 from the Peter Norton Family Foundation-to help pay for commissioning, buying, and exhibiting the work of emerging young artists. Exhibitions: Past and Present: The Museum presents the work of under-recognized artists, and has mounted ambitious surveys of important figures such as Ana Mendieta, William Kentridge, David Wojnarowicz, Paul McCarthy and Andrea Zittel before they received widespread public recognition. In 2003, the New Museum presented the highly regarded exhibition Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Continuing its focus of exhibiting emerging international artists, the museum organized the much discussed and visited exhibition, The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, in 2009.

Rising above the neighborhood, the New Museum of Contemporary Art is a sight to behold: a seven-story stack of off-kilter, white, ethereal boxes designed by Tokyo-based architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA and the New York–based firm Gensler. It was a long-awaited breath of fresh air along what was a completely gritty Bowery strip when it arrived back in 2007 – though since its opening, many glossy new constructions have joined it, quickly transforming this once down-and-out avenue. Founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker and housed in five different locations over the years, the museum's mission statement is simple: 'New art, new ideas.' The institution gave gallery space to artists Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Joan Jonas, Mary Kelly and Andres Serrano at the beginning of their careers, and continues to show contemporary heavy-hitters.

All those interested in contemporary art coming from all corners of the world shouldn't miss this museum opened in 1977. The exhibitions are regularly changed so if this is not your first visit, don't worry, you won't be bored. Check the official website to see whats on. You can also buy your tickets online.