Say you have two hours between classes on Thursday afternoons, an hour and a half to kill between your first job and your second job, or some time between your first evening plan and late-night engagement on a Friday evening. You don’t want to go back home, and don’t want to pay for a drink to sit in a coffee spot or a bar. Maybe, like today, it’s going to rain, so sitting in the park is out. What to do?

A list of museums you can visit for free, or pay-as-you-wish, can be found here. Or if you prefer calendar format, here.

A few that are not to be missed: the Studio Museum of Harlem, free every Sunday, the Museum of Chinese in New York, which is free every Thursday, The Jewish Museum, free every Saturday, and the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, Queens, which is pay-as-you-wish every Friday.

Several of the city’s excellent museums are free or nearly free, always. The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, for example, is open every day but December 25 at no charge. And in case you ever forget, two of the largest and oldest of New York’s cultural institutions, the Met and the Museum of Natural History, are always worth a visit, and always pay-what-you-wish.

Images: American Museum of Natural History, Noguchi Museum