Ukrainian Institute of America

"The Ukrainian Institute is an impossibly ornate, neo-French-Gothic mansion at the corner of 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. But don't just walk past. You can actually go inside this limestone landmark, one of the city's best hidden treasures. Look up and you'll see tiny turrets with cross-shaped finials accenting the building's top while scowling dragons keep watch. Don't miss the little munchkins flanking the front doorway. They seem eerily alive. Also known as the Fletcher- Sinclair mansion, this was a private residence built in 1899 by architect C. P. H. Gilbert. After a series of owners, it became home to the Ukrainian Institute in 1955. It's only partially furnished, so the bones of the building can really shine. Concerts, lectures, and art exhibitions are held here in great fashion. The crowning treat is the tiny museum on the top floor, which is like a visit to the private art collection of an urbane friend. Make your way up the wood-carved, central stairway, where a very royal looking chandelier dangles from above. There's an oval-shaped sitting room and a charming, glassed-in corner turret, which magically hovers over 79th Street. It feels as if someone just abandoned this regal residence, and you have it to yourself. The visual joys culminate on the top floor where the works of Ukrainian artist Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) come alive. Like Picasso in the early 1900s, Archipenko worked in the cubist style and later turned to more simplified forms. An abstract painting in gouache breaks a guitar down to faceted planes. A bronze sculpture of a woman, head resting on knee, looks quietly serene. The selected works are from the collection of Augustin and Maria Sumyk and are on long-term view in this airy space. One by one, the works offer a fresh look at modernism, and discovering them inside this Gilded Age mansion is quintessential New York."