American Folk Art Museum

The story

In March 2025, readers of Newsweek voted the American Folk Art Museum the best art museum in the country — and admission is free. It began with a provisional charter in 1961, at first without a permanent collection or endowment. Now it holds roughly 7,500 objects spanning the 18th century to the present: traditional folk art alongside work by self-taught artists and Art Brut practitioners from the United States and abroad. It remains the only premier institution devoted to those whose talents grew entirely outside formal training.