Street art enthusiast? Bushwick Brooklyn is a must visit neighborhood on your visit to New York City. Once you’ve successfully ticked off all the tourist attractions in Manhattan, take the L train into Bushwick and get off at Jefferson St. Station. Head straight over to the Bushwick Collective and wander the streets exploring the street art ’til your eyes beg for mercy.
The Bushwick Collective is essentially an open air museum, with huge street art murals covering the walls of the industrial terrain. Founded by Joe Ficalora, a Bushwick native who sought to transform his gritty home neighborhood, the Bushwick Collective is now a must-see for all Brooklyn tourists, and has probably also been part of the reason Anna Wintour called Bushwick the 7th coolest neighborhood. Or maybe she was just over Williamsburg, who knows. Anyway, here in the Bushwick collective you can find some of the best graffiti in Brooklyn.
Unfortunately when we visited the Bushwick collective it was absolutely POURING rain, so we didn’t get to hang around and see as much as we would have liked to. So my time there was spend quickly pulling my camera out from underneath my jacket to snap some pics – from my photos though, you’d never know how crappy the weather was since the colors in the murals are brilliant.
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Visit the Bushwick Collective in Brooklyn, New York
Bushwick is a bit of a jaunt if you aren’t already in Brooklyn – from Manhattan it would probably take you 30-40 minutes to get over there. But that’s a small price to pay to visit the 7th coolest neighborhood in the world 😉
My advice to anyone who has already completed their Manhattan New York City itinerary is to cross the East River into Brooklyn and get a look at life on the other side of the river. It’s hard to believe, but Brooklyn is home to 2.2 million residents – that’s like 3x the size of Amsterdam (my home)! Not only is Brooklyn massive in population, but size, too.
So if I haven’t convinced you to get out of Manhattan already, get inspired by the pictures below to see what you can expect if you cross over into Bushwick, where you’ll find some of Brooklyn’s best street art. The Bushwick Collective is completely free, and if you’re looking for other ways to save money, don’t miss this post on how to visit NYC on a budget.


If you’re looking for a tour of Bushwick (I wish I had done one), check out Street Art Walk.
Looking for more tips? Check out my post on the best free things to do in Brooklyn!
Did this post help you plan your visit to the Bushwick Collective? Let me know in the comments below!

Gabby is a native (Northern) Californian who spent the majority of her 20’s living the expat life in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, exploring Europe and beyond. 27 countries later, she’s relocated back to her home base in California where she explores her passions for the travel and the outdoors.
10 Comments
It looks so cool! Nice pictures 🙂
thanks! it is a really cool area to visit 🙂
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Street Art Walk brings the walls alive ! Wonderful, pointing out works I might have passed right by without noticing. I will look at street art and graffiti in a whole new way 🙂
yeah definitely look out for it! it is more than just graffiti, especially there 🙂 !
How could I miss this in NYC?? Omg, beautiful 🙂
Ejnets in Lisboa
you’ll have to visit it next time you are there!
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