In the five-block grid stretching from West 19th Street to West 26th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues sits the highest concentration of contemporary art galleries on earth. What were once early-twentieth-century taxi garages, auto repair shops, and Hudson River shipping warehouses now house museum-scale exhibition spaces with soaring thirty-foot ceilings, skylights, and column-free concrete floors.

The best-kept secret in New York culture is that every single one of these galleries—from global titans like Gagosian, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, and Pace to daring mid-sized project spaces—is 100% free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, with zero tickets or reservations required.

Better yet, Thursday evening between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM is Chelsea’s official opening night. Each week in spring and autumn, a dozen or more galleries debut brand-new shows simultaneously. Step off the sidewalk through the heavy glass doors and you’ll find artists, critics, students, and neighbors mingling over complimentary plastic cups of chilled Pinot Grigio.

To navigate the neighborhood like an art-world insider, download the free See Saw app (created by longtime New Yorker gallery editor Ellen Sturm Niz) before you leave home. It maps every current exhibition in Chelsea block-by-block and highlights which specific galleries are hosting Thursday night opening receptions that week.

Start your route on West 19th and 20th Streets at David Zwirner’s purpose-built concrete flagship (537 W 20th St, designed by Annabelle Selldorf), then move up to West 22nd Street to visit Hauser & Wirth’s three-story complex (548 W 22nd St) and the permanent, meditative installations of Dia Chelsea next door (537 W 22nd St).

Finish on West 24th and 25th Streets at Gagosian (555 W 24th St)—whose mammoth space regularly accommodates monumental Richard Serra steel sculptures—and Pace Gallery’s eight-story headquarters at 540 West 25th Street, before descending from the High Line for a classic $6 beer at Billymark’s West (a beloved, no-frills dive bar hanging on at 29th St and Ninth Ave since 1956) or tapas at Tia Pol on Tenth Avenue.