(Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave at 75th St, New York, NY 10021) This special exhibition traces Robert Mapplethorpe's use of instant photography from 1970 to 1975. Included are self-portraits, figure studies, still lifes, and portraits of lovers and friends including Patti Smith, Sam Wagstaff, and Marianne Faithfull. Many of these small, intimate photographs convey tenderness and vulnerability. Others depict a toughness and immediacy that would give way in later years to more classical form. Unlike the highly crafted images Mapplethorpe staged in the studio and became famous for, these disarming pictures are marked by spontaneity and invention. Event Website

(National Academy Museum, 1083 Fifth Ave at 89th St, New York, NY 10128, 212-369-4880) An exceptional selection of contemporary works by over 125 of the finest artists from across the country. This Annual consists of works by newly emerging artists and established artists, providing an exhibition of diverse ideas, mediums, and techniques. Event Website

(USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Flushing, Queens, NY 11368) The biggest spectator sport in the U.S, drawing more than 700,000 fans over two weeks takes over Queens (and then some). The event opens with the Arthur Ashe Kids Day which includes live music, exhibition matches and games for the kids. Event Website

(MoMA, 11 West 53 St, New York, NY 10019) Bringing together more than 130 paintings, drawings, scenarios, and films by Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), this exhibition explores the role that cinema played in the artist's work. Collaborations between Dalí and legendary filmmakers are displayed alongside his paintings and other works, illuminating the ways in which ideas, iconography, and pictorial strategies are shared and transformed across mediums. In conjunction with the gallery exhibition, a series of screenings in the MoMA theaters presents the classic and avant-garde motion pictures Dalí treasured, films on which he collaborated, and examples of his legacy in contemporary cinema. Event Website

(Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave at 75th St, New York, NY 10021) One of the great American visionaries of the twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) endeavored to see what he, a single individual, might do to benefit the largest segment of humanity while consuming the minimum of the earth's resources. Doing "more with less" was Fuller's credo. The results of more than five decades of Fuller's integrated approach toward the design and technology of housing, transportation, cartography, and communication are displayed here, much of it for the first time. Event Website

(Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128) A full-career retrospective of one of the most important artists of our time. The exhibition, which fills the entire Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda and one adjacent gallery, will be the most comprehensive examination to date of Bourgeois’s long and distinguished career. Born almost a century ago, Louise Bourgeois has remained steadfastly at the vanguard of the development of contemporary art for more than 70 years, and continues to create new bodies of work with characteristic energy and restless innovation. Event Website

(Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11238) How the Egyptians, known throughout the ancient world for their expertise in magic, addressed the unknown forces of the universe is explored in this exhibition of twenty objects from the Brooklyn Museum's world-famous collection. Event Website

(McCarren Park Pool, Lorimer St btwn Driggs Ave & Bayard St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211) Mix kids water games like Slip 'n Slide and indie, rock, dance and world bands, and you've got THE coolest way to spend your summer Sundays! (Free) Event Website

(Bryant Park, 25 West 40th St, New York, NY 10018) (12Noon - 1:45pm) Monday through Fridays. New artist every week performing for the public. Including Junior Mance, Armen Donelian, Joel Forrester, Russ Kassoff, Mike LeDonne, Todd Robbins, Yuka Aikawa, Dona Carter, Dan Manjovi, Deanna Witkowski, Roy Eaton, Victor Lin, Frank Owens, Jill McManus, Larry Ham, Luiz Simas, Ayako Shirasaki. Event Website

(Various Locations) (7am - 10pm) Public Art Fund presents The New York City Waterfalls, a major new work of public art by internationally acclaimed artist Olafur Eliasson. The exhibition of four man-made 90-to 120-foot-tall waterfalls of monumental scale will be on view at four sites: one on the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, one between Piers 4 and 5 near the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, one in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35 north of the Manhattan Bridge, and one on the north shore of Governors Island. Event Website

(New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023) In the 70s and early 80s, Duncan was a principal photographer for the entertainment magazine After Dark and for Dance Magazine, which chronicled the world of dance and choreography. Photographs by Kenn Duncan also appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Life, Time and Newsweek. In addition, he photographed a dozen Broadway shows, including Hair, Applause, The Elephant Man, and Sophisticated Ladies, and published three volumes of his own photographs: Red Shoes, Nudes, and More Nudes. This retrospective of his 20-year career includes his iconic images of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Angela Lansbury, Rudolf Nureyev, Bette Midler, and the cast of Hair, as well as selections from his nudes and his work with hundreds of celebrities. Event Website

(The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave at 82nd St, New York, NY 10028) On view is an installation of sculptures by American artist Jeff Koons, featuring three of the artist’s meticulously crafted works that have never before been on public display. The works are set in the most dramatic outdoor space for sculpture in New York City: The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, which offers a spectacular view of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. Event Website

(Pocono Mountains, PA) The Woods Campground is a private, members-only, alternative campground catering to LGBT campers 18 years of age and older. Event Website

(South Street Seaport, 19 Fulton St, New York, NY 10038) A night-time saunter through the strangest, most sultry circus in town. Event Website

(New York Botanical Garden, 200th Street and Kazimiroff Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10458) This landmark presentation of monumental works will be the largest outdoor installation of Henry Moore sculpture in one location in the U.S. Event Website

(FIT, 27th St & 7th Ave, New York, NY 10001) This exhibition features work by female designers as well as clothing and accessories worn by female department store executives, influential clients, magazine editors, muses and models. Event Website

(Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 West 45th Street, New York, NY 10036) Previews begin August 19, Opens September 18. This is a new musical based on the Charles Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” Event Website

(By Request) This tour is based on new and unique research into the people and places Oscar Wilde visited in the NY of the gilded age. Event Website

(Museum of Sex, 233 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016) A male bonobo shrewdly soliciting sex in exchange for sugar cane. Two female bonobos blissfully engaging in genito-genital (G-G) rubbing. The strenuous coupling of endangered Panda bears. Encounter these creatures and others so vivid in their portrayal that they will likely feel as though they have unwittingly begun a voyeuristic journey into the wild. Event Website