A whole New world of art

Art lovers and just the plain curious flocked to the New Museum of Contemporary Art starting at noon on Saturday for 30 hours of free admission at the stylish, new Bowery museum. The museum has seven floors, including a Sky Room and terrace on top; an education center called the Museum as Hub; three floors of gallery space; and a theater on the basement level. The ground floor includes the New Museum Store and a cafe. The current show, “Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century,” features artists’ ironic takes on the meaning of monuments. At the opening of the New Museum on the Bowery on Saturday, above, two men walked around the sleek rooftop terrace, outside the seventh-floor Sky Room, their images reflected in the terrace’s glass wall. The show’s works include an anti-Bush/Mean People Suck contraption, below left. At top right, a museumgoer rode the spacious Diane Wallace and Lowell Schulman Elevator. Also in the basement is the “Donor Hall,” a yearlong exhibit in which the walls sport graphics showing organizations’ and individuals’ global giving to cultural organizations. Target, which sponsored the free admission opening, gave an impressive $100 million in 2006, according to the wall. The wall notes several energy companies as having given millions of dollars to the arts — such as Exxon Mobil, $5.2 million — but calls out Halliburton as a “non-giver.” Fidel Castro is also listed as having given $0.

“The constant haggling for repairs, having a hostile relationship with your landlord — as a rent-regulated tenant, this becomes your lifestyle,” she said.