You don't have to give a thing
A gift guide of sorts for cultivating cultural appreciation.
I found myself inspired in the least likely of places: on an employee town hall Zoom meeting, in some ice breaker section wherein new hires had to—in advance, thank god—share their answers to a few personal questions. I don’t remember now which colleague gave the answer that stirred me from my meditative state but regardless, I thank her for the imparted lucidity. When asked the decidedly dreadful question, “What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?” her response was simple, dignified, and true: “My education.”
Of course the best thing you can give someone is something that shifts the way they perceive and move about the world. I also understand that it is in the nature of gift guides to be temporal. I myself take great pride in being a good gift giver, following those general rules of thumb you’ve no doubt seen repeated aphoristically: 1. The best gift to get someone is a nicer version of a thing they already own and use. 2. The best gift to get someone is a nice thing they will use that you know they would never buy for themself. 3. The best gift to get someone is a gift that satisfies both rule 1 and rule 2.
Yes, I have given such gifts, and with success. I covet a stylish objet as much as the next person. But we are not here today to talk about the things you should get to give. This is a gift guide of ideas—which are, sometimes, transmuted into objects. I don’t believe you can buy taste, but you can impart it, gradually, through exposure and access that allows one to build up their own artistic taste and philosophies. And so, for the budding, or even nascent aesthete in your life, here is a guide on what to give.
If not an object, perhaps an experience? Buying performance tickets as a gift is often an inspired idea, but can go south if not well-executed. There are a couple of ways to get it right:
If your recipient has been vying to see a certain show (theater, dance, opera, orchestra), you can purchase tickets on a precise date only if you know that date will work for them. Look up ticket exchange policies ahead of time; if they can switch their tickets for another date, that’s a bonus.
If your recipient has voiced a vague interest in a performance, e.g. “I’d love to see the ballet sometime,” without a specified program, you can often buy gift cards to a specific venue—in New York, places like the Met Opera, New York City Center, and Carnegie Hall all offer gift cards. Just make sure that your gift card fully covers at least two seats (whether you are the intended +1 or not), including fees. If the preferred venue (the David Koch Theater, for instance) does not offer gift cards, you can think of your gift as an IOU. Instead of writing down a specific dollar amount, you can suggest a specific tier of seats you’ll purchase (e.g. two tickets in the second ring) that suit your budget. Just be aware that your recipient will have to buy tickets in a timely manner to guarantee they secure their preferred performance. Remind them!
If you go the gift card or the IOU route, it can be helpful to your recipient if you highlight some of their available options. An opera gift card may be intimidating, but you can suggest when they might see good entry-level operas, like Le Nozze di Figaro or La Bohème, or when a buzzy contemporary piece might be premiering. Information—and recommendations—are an important part of access.
For a recipient who is already a regular at a theater, museum, or other cultural institution, you can also consider giving them the gift of patronage. That is, paying for their annual fees for a membership program, which may get them free or discounted entry, access to special events, and a deeper feeling of involvement. These gifts can deeply range in price and are sometimes age-gated. The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers individual membership for $110 annually, as does The Museum of Modern Art. Becoming a Friend of the New York Philharmonic, which gets you two rehearsal invites, cafe/bar discounts, and special ticketing offers, costs $100, but the Phil’s Young New Yorkers membership program (for ages 21-45), which gets you free tickets to some lectures and performances, as well as invitations to several cocktail events, will run you $600. The lowest level of New York City Ballet’s Young Patrons Circle costs $350 annually, but American Ballet Theatre’s Junior Council (which gets you $30 orchestra seats, among other perks) will run you $600. There are so many young patron programs in New York (and likely in other cities, so search what’s near you); most in NYC are available to recipients up to age 40 (sometimes 45), and many—like the Frick Museum’s Young Fellows, the Met Opera’s Young Associates, and Lincoln Center Theater’s Angels—cost around $600 annually. Of course, there are even higher tiers, and even more exclusive (expensive) memberships, too: MoMA’s Young Patron’s Council is $985 annually.
Patronage can be expensive! But there are more accessible options. Consider looking at smaller, local theaters and museums for membership deals or even subscription packages. Nonprofit movie theaters are also great to consider: a Film Forum membership, which gets you $6 off movie tickets annually, costs $75.
Even more accessible are streaming subscriptions that can help your recipient feel culturally tapped in all year long. You can gift a Criterion Channel subscription for $100 annually, a Mubi subscription for $110 annually, an Ovid subscription for $70 annually, or a Marquee TV subscription for $100 annually (on sale now for $50).
You might also consider sharing a premium Duolingo subscription with a friend or family member who wants to flex their language skills. As they get more serious about it, you can gift them Italki credits for 1:1 tutoring or buy a package of group classes on Lingoda. A gift card to in-person classes can also take your recipient to the next level; in New York, Coucou French classes are a nice option, as are classes at Idlewild (where I’ve taken Intermediate Spanish) and the Japan Society.
Of course, you know that I will always recommend magazine subscriptions, too. Subscriptions to pricier magazines, like The New Yorker, which can have an annual cost of $200 (with no discounts applied), make great gifts, as do subscriptions to magazines that your recipient might not think about reading. I love Harper’s (just $24 annually), N+1 ($45 annually), and The Paris Review ($59 annually). For the politically minded, The Baffler ($50) and Lux Magazine ($35) are also worthwhile.
If your recipient is something of a hobbyist, you also have an opportunity to help them ease deeper into their area of interest with a specialized magazine, like The Art Newspaper ($70), Apollo Magazine ($35 every three months), The World of Interiors (£119), Fanfare ($95), Gramophone (£80), New York Review of Architecture ($5/month), Fjord Review ($120), and Artforum ($75)
I am of the belief that literary criticism does a body (brain) good, so I also have to recommend such stalwarts as Bookforum ($40), The New York Review of Books ($45), and London Review of Books ($40). For the reader who reads it all, consider The Yale Review ($49), The Sewanee Review ($35), Los Angeles Review of Books ($30), and Cleveland Review of Books ($50).
It practically goes without saying that, by extension, I think books are the ideal gift. You can of course scout out the new arrivals at your local bookstore, but I tend to buy a lot secondhand. Nearly all my books purchased in the past two years (save for brand-new releases) are from eBay, where I can choose the vintage editions that most please me. I have a fondness for vintage Signet Classics, as well as Vintage Modern Classics. If you need a bit of curation to help you find the right read, Womb House Books has an excellent selection of books by women writers. I like the idea of giving an out-of-print book, like The Fear of Losing Eurydice by Julieta Campos. My friends at Vignette Books do an excellent job of curating their themed secondhand book edits; I’m partial to The Hot Girl. You can buy a curated three-pack of books (or a single hand-selected book) from them as a one-time purchase or a subscription.
If you prefer to buy new, you can support small businesses this year not just by shopping at your local bookstore, but by supporting small publishers. Verso could really use the support right now after a partner went bankrupt, leaving the radical publisher with more than $1 million in losses. Seven Stories Press, Dalkey Archive Press, and Deep Vellum are great publishers of literary fiction and literature in translation.
Any of the gifts I’ve recommended here can certainly be paired with some beautiful item or useful tool. But you don’t need me to recommend you look at museum gift shops or the merch section of your favorite literary magazine’s website. You, reader, already know such things. For the less tangible stuff, I hope I’ve been some help. ▲