There are nearly 200 museums in New York City and Jane August has made it her mission to visit all of them.
With the coronavirus pandemic limiting things August could do around the city for fun, she thought museums would be a great idea and she took her friends, and thousands of people on TikTok, along for the trips.
"In January, February, that’s when COVID was spiking a lot and me and my friends didn’t know what could we do that was COVID safe but not outside and cold," she said. "We realized museums are doing a really good job at social distancing.”
August, who's originally from Arizona, began documenting her visits on social media. She even made a spreadsheet with all the city's museums and their details on it.
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♬ test drive - Ariana Grande
So far, she has visited the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Leslie Lohman Museum in SoHo, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the NYC Fire Museum, the Museum of the Dog and the City Reliquary Museum.
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On Thursday, NBC New York tagged along with August and her friends for a tour of the American Museum of Natural History.
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"I think it’s the Disneyland of museums so far," August said.
When asked how does it compare to the other museums, she said, "The other museums I’ve been to so far are much smaller so I’ve been able to tackle it in a couple hours, but this one I think would take a couple days to really digest it all.”
August had just graduated college and got a job at a music venue when the pandemic started, she then lost her job but now she has time to see all these museums.
While it may take her at least two years to visit every museum the five boroughs have to offer, she said she's OK with that.
"It’s nice to kind of have a really definite project where there’s a goal to attain," August said. "It’s gonna take a while but it’s exciting because as more things reopen, there’s gonna be more things for us to see.”
With her TikTok videos, August is helping keep the city's culture alive in small ways.
"It’s nice to know that people are still making things and doing stuff...and that there’s things to see."
If you want to check out August's spreadsheet of all the museums, you can click here for when she makes it available to the public.
