Do It In a Day: How to Make the Most of the MoMA in the Least Amount of Time

MoMA currently has more art on view than anyone can appreciate in a single day. Before visiting the museum, you should do some research to determine what exhibitions or works are the most interesting to you. There is a lot of variety on view at the moment, and it might be worth skipping the permanent collection and going straight for the special exhibitions, including "Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010," "Lygia Clark: The Abandonment of Art, 1948–1988," and "Jasper Johns: Regrets."

"Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010" represents the first major comprehensive retrospective of Polke's work. The exhibition includes more than 250 works by the artist and spans many mediums, including film, painting, photography, and sculpture. The German artist's work primarily focuses on the postwar transformation of home country and questions Germany's political, social, and artistic traditions.

If you can spend an entire day at MoMA, make sure you also see Robert Heinecken's retrospective, entitled "Robert Heinecken: Object Matter." The exhibition includes 150 photographic works by the artist. The photographs are experimental, including traces daily life and pop culture.

Jasper Johns is enormously talented and is best known for his paintings involving American flags. But in the last year and a half, he has created new and darker work that is now on display at MoMA. The new collection is small but worth seeing because it deviates from what we expect from Johns. The pieces on display show an absence of color while still maintaining the hints of the red, white, blue, and yellow that Johns is known for.

With over 25,000 titles, MoMA has one of the best collections of fine art films of any museum in the world, and the museum screens multiple films a day. If you have time, be sure to check the screening schedule. The film archive includes everything from feature length films, like Steven Spielberg's Jaws, to Andy Warhol's eight-hour film Empire.

Since 2008, performance art has become a central part of MoMA's programing. In 2010, curator Klaus Biesenbach organized "Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present," a performance art retrospective on the Serbian-born artist. During the show, Abramovic sat for 736 hours and 30 minutes in silence in the museum's atrium while spectators were invited to sit across from her. Last year, Tilda Swinton slept in a glass box in the museum as part of a performance art piece. Clearly, MoMA's performance program is always changing. Be sure to check out the program before you visit because the performances are legendary.

The museum's collection is ever growing. Currently, a selection of newly acquired work, entitled "Sites of Reason: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions," is on view at MoMA. The show includes work by artists Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra, Simryn Gill, Charles Gaines, and more.

The MoMA Art Lab is currently exploring how artists move while creating works of art. Geared towards both children and adults, this space allows visitors of all ages learn more about practicing art. Visiting a museum with children can be tough, especially because kids don't usually have the stamina to make it through a large exhibition, so the MoMA Art Lab is a great option for the younger set.

If you need to break, MoMA has three eating options throughout the museum. There is Cafe 2, located on the second floor of the museum where you can get a quick bite; Terrace 5, which overlooks the museum's sculpture garden and offers a seasonal tasting menu; and then there's The Modern, which is an upscale full service restaurant that's perfect for dinner after your museum visit.

If you need to get some work done before you see an exhibition, you can use the MoMA Library. The Library is open by appointment only but welcomes all researchers. It houses an extensive collection of 300,000 books and has a great WiFi connection.

MoMA's Sculpture Garden is open free of charge in the mornings before the museum opens and during regular museum hours with a ticket to MoMA. Currently, an exhibition titled "The Modern Monument" is on view in the Garden. Along with the sculptures by Picasso, Giacometti, and Matisse, the show features two new acquisitions: the 36-foot-tall Rose II by artist Isa Genzken and United Enemies I by Thomas Schütte. MoMA's sculpture garden is a great place to read a book or take a break from the galleries.

Regular admission to MoMA for an adult is $25. However, on Fridays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. entry to the museum is completely free. The free entry includes everything on view, but the line is usually insanely long, so plan to get there early.

MoMA's "Design and Violence" is an ongoing curatorial project that can be experienced completely online. The exhibition examines the relationship between design and violence in our society. The project asked politicians, artists, scientists, journalists, and more to respond to different objects that produce violence. The second part of the exhibition will use Google Earth to map where the objects of violence can be physically found. In addition, MoMA has an online collection that can be viewed from the museum's website, so you can explore all the works on view without leaving home.