$20 I will NEVER get back As a native New Yorker, I am constantly seeking different new experiences. There wasn't much said about this location on the internet besides "art exhibit". So I figured why not. I even coughed up the $10/person admission to check out why this place is even on a map. What I was greeted with is a creepy art exhibit. The exhibit is basically an apartment with 2 rooms, a hallway (with neon lights), and a restroom. The living room had 2 large speakers playing a strange very loud beat. There were 2 people sitting on the ground looking like they are in a meditative state. I stood there for a few minutes to try to get into a meditative mood but couldn't. The other room had a few art exhibits I honestly don't even remember to write. The bathroom was a nice relief away from the creepiness. Not worth $20. This freaked out my companion. I don't recommend this "exhibit", especially with a $20 price tag. read more

on Saturday night I took VH to see a sound and light (and smell of incense!) installation called "Dream House" at MELA Foundation by La Monte Young (music) and Marian Zazeela's (visual art). "Dream House" was the centerpiece of the exhibition "The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia" at the Guggenheim earlier this year (which I missed). It is described by the artists as "a time installation measured by a setting of continuous frequencies in sound and light." The exhibition space is nothing more than a carpeted apartment converted into gallery. You take off your shoes, and then you are invited to lay down on the carpet, relax, and enjoy the music and the visuals. Pillows are provided. The music is basically a constant repetitive humming at high volume. It doesn't sound particularly relaxing, but it actually is once you lay down and just let your mind wander. The visual installations in the main room are open circle shapes in red or blue, hanging from the ceiling, and illuminated by red or blue projectors. The effect is that a red shape will appear with a blue shadow, and vice versa. In the smaller room there is a rectangular shape with red and blue stripes hanging from the wall, illuminated by red and blue projectors. After watching it for a while, the shape starts to take unexpected tridimensionality and depth. The overall feel is very psychedelic and surprisingly soothing. It manages to trick your sense of color, hearing, and depth. "Dream House" is open Thu-Sat 2pm-midnight. I recommend you check it out when it is dark outside. $5 suggested donation. read more

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Nearly anything can be "done better" - and I'm guessing some reviewers had certain expectations. I actually didn't - and was pleasantly surprised (not quite sure what my date thought at the time - but what-evs - LOL!) How often does one go to ANY place in this city and simply relax and LISTEN?? It's a fantastic thing to do, for a change - even with a date! One can always discuss "what it meant" afterwards. Art is to be experienced - and to a large degree: what one "gets from it" is what one brings to it. As one other reviewer said: It may help to read a bit about the work(s) before going... as that helps "frame" the space and give context to the period this was borne from - which is NOT today. As a sound-designer, composer, and native New Yorker, I really enjoyed this - and recommend it to anyone looking to experience (that's what it is!) an immersive moment of ACTIVE LISTENING. Don't try to "make it" anything more and I think you'll "get" a lot more from it, overall. ;) ps - also GREAT for young adults and (perhaps) children, who could use an exercise in NOT TALKING or LOOKING AT THEIR PHONE. Turn all that crap off - for a change, lay down, relax, and close your eyes for a bit. It's actually a HEALTHY experience to "turn off" the outside world and meditate on THE NOW/IMMEDIATE MOMENT. read more

Very cool abstract art that engages all your senses. This is not for everyone but it is certainly interesting. The main exhibit is a wall piece that is so intricate, every time you look you find something new to examine. I spent about an hour, 10 minutes looking at one room and about 50 in the room with the main piece. Not only was it interesting to take in the art but also to see the other people visiting. I got the feeling that some of the people were regulars. Finding the location was not too hard. You just look for the door marked with the address number and wait to be buzzed in. From there you walk up to the 3rd floor and are greeted by a lady who is waiting to help you at the door. I recommend reading up on the artists and the installments before hand. read more

Mela Foundation - One of the exhibits - Community Service/Non-Profit Near Me - New York, New York

The first time I heard about the Dream House was when I was at an artist's lecture and he made a joke about wanting to order Zen Home Cleaning for La Monte Young's Dream House. i didn't know what either those things were, but I knew that La Monte Young was a hippie avant-garde composer so I could more or less piece it together and understand why other people in the audience were laughing. The Dream House, as you must have an inkling that brought you to this page, is a permanent light-and-sound installation in a TriBeCa apartment. I learned about it almost five years ago and eventually learned where it was, notici9ng the red and violet lights of Young's collaborator Marian Zazeela glowing in the windows when I walked by. But I only made it there recently. I had committed to doing it finally in 2015 and I was going on a date and I suggested we check out the Dream House--something a little different than the usual dirnk or coffee. It turne dout to be a really good idea. Just like at the movies, at Dream House there's something to look at and listen to, and you're not supposed to be talking (it disturbs the sound environment, though people whisper) and it's a nice way to share an experience and enjoy someone's company without feeling the pressure of constant conversation. (Not that this was a problem for me in this particular case, we'd got drinks beforehand and hit it off really well.) But Dream House is more intimate and special than a movie, not only because you have to take your shoes off. You're not just following a story as you already know how to do from having seen a thousand other movies. Here you're atrtuning your body to an unfamiliar experience and feeling it in the space and it can be romantic to share that. The room has shag carpeting and cushions to lie on (and it didn't seem grimy at all--guess they got that Zen home cleaning!) and there's a throbbing drone emanating from speakers around the room. The pitches coming from it are both very high and very low and depending where your head is--shift slightly and you hear a different cluster. We spent maybe an hour or 90 minutes there, lying down in stocking feet and holding hands and basking in the sound and following the tracing of faitnly colored shadows on the wall. It was great. The guy never got back to me about a second date, but that's my problem not the Dream House's. Come with your friends and lovers lol. read more

A friend of mine was interested in volunteering here and took a few of us along one night to visit the gallery.. It was one of the most bizarre experiences I've had visiting a gallery. It was really great though once I got over how strange this all was... that I was in a dark room, with carpet, incense burning.. and the walls reverberating with sound frequencies. It was great bc it was just us in the room. We laid out on the ground, did some yoga, meditated, and def. chatted. Would recommend to others to try out for an extraordinary experience read more

You always hear laments about the loss of the "old" New York, so raise your voices to the heavens (with a charitable $5 donation) in praises that this true old-school NYC happening (continuing its vibe from the early 60s) is still going on pretty much by word-of-mouth. This is an installation done by minimalism/Fluxus pioneering couple LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela. Electronic drone filters from loudspeakers into a room bathed in purplish glow, with some trippy visuals that will be candy for the opening of your third eye. That's my Zagat summary, at least. The room is perfectly set up for projecting the music. What I like to do is walk a bit, and then stop - and all of a sudden, it sounds in your head like when a CD gets stuck and you hear the same glitch repeating into infinity. Once you get into the mood of that, just try altering your head in the slightest direction, and then you get another glitchy infinity, but of a different tone. It's like an apartment of infinite infinities. You can wander the rooms, meditate, sprawl out and relax, whatever. And it's almost always there for you - as a somewhat frequent visitor to New York, it's always my back-up plan on a Saturday night if I don't see any exciting show listing. I'm never disappointed, and I always come out refreshed. Put simply, the Dream House is the stuff New York is made of. Hmm, maybe that should be my Zagat summary instead. read more

First of all, if you want to call the Dream House to find out if they are in fact open, their direct number (at the end of Mela Foundation's long outgoing message) is: 212.219.3019 We went late on a Friday night on a very cold night and there was a steady trickle of people. It wasn't crowded, though. Other people just made it more interesting. It's helpful to know that there's a somewhat pricey pizza place with nice decor and a casual bar directly downstairs, in case you're meeting people. You can also just go upstairs and hang out. We expected to stay for maybe twenty minutes and discovered when we left that we'd been roaming around inside that bare room for an hour and a half. There's a lot to feel and think about in there. read more

I guess I expected a little more! I hate to give this such a low review but it's ok to be a critic sometimes. It started out magical- buzzing up to 3 at the door, walking up some scary white steps. I started getting pretty excited because the other reviews. We pay our way and walk into a room with incense, lights and tapestries.. It honestly seemed directed towards the new age, psychedelic,"trippy art for the kids." Laughable :( The piece on the wall was talented none the less, but something I've seen many times before. Also geared as some sort of meditation area but was mildly unsettling, and didn't feel holy at all (imo). Note that this was not the permanent installation.. but I do not see how it would make a big difference!! Very LSD culture.. Not much to look at. If you're debating on going i suggest not.. Sorry to be harsh~~ read more

Need to take a nap or de-stress from life, come here. It's a hole-in-the-wall art installation, one of the longest in NYC. It's nothing that will make you instafamous, but it is a good sound bath and really sums up finding peace in the city. read more

My BF decided to surprise me on a Saturday night and take me somewhere special. That somewhere special was the Mela Foundation. He took me here for an exhibition titled, "Dream House: Sound and Light Environment." This place is tucked in nicely on Church St in Tribeca, and you will definitely miss it unless you are specifically seeking it out. We buzzed up to #3, and walked up 3 flights of stairs, and was greeted by a hostess. She asked us to take off our shoes, and the suggested donation was $5. We didn't have $10, and asked for change, but she just reiterated that it was a suggested donation and to not worry about it if we didn't have it. That was nice! Even from the bottom of stairs you could waft the strong aroma of incense. That is always a good sign for me. I love the way it smells, and it does have a calming effect over me. we walked in and turned left and the room was pretty dark except for 2 projectors (red and blue) shining onto a piece of artwork. Looks like a maze thats carved out of wood. It was illuminated with red and blue, a bit trippy. In the background, there is a continous droning noise. And you would think its annoying, but its rather soothing and allows you to relax. Quite paradoxical if you ask me. After being in one room for awhile, we moved to the other room, which was larger, but also with projectors illuminating mobiles shaped liked Cs and Es. It was pretty calming and relaxing to just lay there and enjoy the moment. I really enjoyed this exhibition. Too bad there were only 2 rooms. Such a fun place and quite romantic, so a great place to take your date! read more

If I give you a grilled cheese sandwich would you think that it's special? What if I told you a story that this grilled cheese was made from the last American cheese in Rome, and it was made by an awesome chef from Maldives, AND told you to eat this grilled cheese in front of people eating the same grilled cheese sandwich without saying a word to them...it would probably taste a bit better right? That's because of the history this sandwich now has and the pluralistic ignorance of thinking that people are feeling that this grilled cheese is unique...otherwise why would they be eating it there with you right? But it's just a grilled cheese with American cheese slices. That's how I feel about this place. It's literally a wall with a nice drawing, some lights, and binaural beats going on in the background. It's nothing really special but it has a nice story to it and you are seeing people in the same place as you "enjoying" it so you think it's even better. I personally think they are exploiting insecurities of what makes people feel "complete", but hey, that's just my opinion. read more

This is a scam. The only good that came out of this visit is the affirmation of how strong my current relationship is, given the fact that my partner is still with me after taking him here read more

yelp and the foundation website are incorrect. Dream House is open Wednesday thru Saturday. Closed on Sundays. Sadly I won't be able to visit. read more

Come here with a friend, come alone. This is a magical meditative experience! Honestly it felt like I was back in the womb. The sound waves and lights make it the perfect place to just relax. One room is scattered with pillows for people to curl up on, the floor is carpeted and comfortable. read more

If you're looking for weird and immersive art experience, this is the place. Not everyone's cup of tea.

I understand that this organization is for a good cause and from the pictures it looked very cool but the reviews weren't very promising. so since it's a commute to go there as well i sent an email asking some questions about the exhibit and the response was very unexpected. I was treated extremely rudely and disrespectfully over email about simple questions i was asking. If there's one thing i know about a business especially ones that are donations, don't treat your customers in such a way and never take your bad day out on them. I will NEVER go to this place. read more

This installation sounded great when I read about it on their Website, so my friends and I went. We had to take off our shoes, but the carpet was dirty anyway so I didn't see the point of that, and I was grossed out walking on the carpet in my bare feet. The large piece in the light-and-sound installation would have been interesting to look at, but the sound was a loud and extremely annoying hum that was not possible to listen to for any extended period of time. It certainly wasn't the relaxing environment we expected. The light piece in the other room was small and not much to look at. There was also extremely strong incense burning, and it was not pleasant to inhale it. It cost $10 and wasn't worth even half that, as we left after five minutes. read more

I just wanted to write how I one day would like to one day in the future like to see all of the "extreamly nice artwork" done by my dear Aunt Marian Zazeela at the Dream house as well as take a class of any source from my much loved Uncle La Monte Young. I admire all the extreamly hard work my Uncle has put into the Dream house & teaching all his students. Wow, Jung Hee Choi is also a "extreamly great" artist as well, I love her work. I enjoy the Raga Malkauns by the great legond Pandit Pran Nath C.D "Midnight", with my Uncle La Monte & Aunt Marian working the tamburas. I wish all at the Dream House the very best of luck in the future, and I hope to hear alot more of the great Raga Malkauns or anything from My Uncle La Monte Young & Aunt Marian Zazeela the MELA Foundation. Sincerely, Leonard Alcala 2 read more