Museum memberships

Housed in a defunct  subway station in Downtown Brooklyn, this underground institution takes visitors on an unlimited number of educational rides through NYC for less than half the cost of a monthly MetroCard. Amenities include double passes to exhibit-opening parties and guided members-only tours to spooky locales such as the decommissioned Old City Hall Station, complete with dusty chandeliers and elegant tiled ceilings (next tour Dec 8). You’ll also get free admission to participating science, technology and history museums around the country, including New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and the New York Hall of Science—the city’s premier destination for Bill Nye wanna-bes. $50, students $35 (mta.info/mta/museum)

Perhaps the only New York institution where visitors can practice dubbing a film and create their own stop-motion animation, Astoria’s Moving Image hosts myriad exhibitions about movies, games, digital art and other media. The perfect gift for any cinephile, membership grants gratis access to hundreds of film screenings a year. Check out ongoing series such as “Fist and Sword” (featuring martial-arts and action flicks) and “Changing the Picture” (focusing on Latino and African-American film and TV artists), as well as retrospectives of actors and directors such as Julianne Moore and David O. Russell. $75 (movingimage.us)

Museumgoers who like to beat the crowds can enjoy early viewing hours sans the general public (9:30–10:30am) and a week of members-only previews to select exhibits (such as March’s upcoming “Gauguin: Metamorphoses”), as well as $5 admission for up to five friends each visit. You’ll also get access to daily screenings, performances and gallery talks, as well as discounted tickets to special events such as the PopRally series, which has previously featured Patti Smith, Cat Power and Sigur Rós. Individual level: $85, students $50 (moma.org)

Take advantage of exhibition-opening receptions, discount shopping days at the MAD store, and savings at local restaurants and venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center—plus gallery talks and hands-on artist-led projects at the annual member appreciation night (Dec 11 at 6pm). You’ll also have opportunities in 2014 to mingle with fellow art lovers on all-inclusive, curator-led day and overnight trips to museums, private collections, and artist studios in Boston, Philadelphia and the Hamptons ($195–$400). $75, students $50 (madmuseum.org)