Spare Times for Feb. 10-16 Brooklyn Historical Society: "Fading Ads of Brooklyn" (Wednesday) Vintage advertisements that were put on brick walls around the city decades ago are still in plain sight, and some have survived for almost a century. The photographer Frank Jump will discuss the phenomenon of the fading ads and his endeavor to document them. At 7 p.m., 128 Pierrepont Street, near Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights, (718) 222-4111, brooklynhistory.org; $10, or $8 for members. Discovery Times Square: "The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times" (through April 15) Ten additional scrolls, including Greek Minor Prophets and Job Targum, have been added to the other ancient artifacts from Israel that are on view in this exhibition. A parchment scroll with text of the Ten Commandments, dating from 30 B.C. to 1 B.C., was removed after a limited showing. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with the box office closing one hour before the closing time. 226 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (866) 987-9692, discoverytsx.com; $27; $22.50 for 65+; $19.50 for children 4 to 12; free for children under 4. Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum: "With Bravery and Distinction: The African-American Journey in Sea, Air and Space" (through Feb. 29) In celebration of Black History Month, this guided tour of the museum's artifacts will focus on the contributions of African-American members of the military, with attention given to those noted for bravery and innovations, including Jesse LeRoy Brown, the first African-American naval combat pilot, who was killed during the Korean War; and John Henry Turpin, known as Dick and born in 1876, who was one of the Navy's first African-American chief petty officers and who assisted with the invention of the underwater cutting torch. The tour is recommended for those 6 and older, and reservations are recommended. Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Pier 86, 46th Street and 12th Avenue, Clinton, (877) 957-7447, intrepidmuseum.org; $20, or $15 for children 3 to 17. Merchant's House Museum: Love in the Parlors (Tuesday) Take a trip to the 19th century this Valentine's Day with a concert at this stately, Federal-style row house near Washington Square, where the romantic music of Rossini, Strauss, Mendelssohn and Schubert will be presented in a parlor room decorated in Greek Revival style. The Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society will perform. Reservations required at (212) 777-1089. At 7 p.m., 29 East Fourth Street, East Village, merchantshouse.org; $30, $20 for students and 65+, or $15 for members. Morgan Library & Museum: "Charles Dickens at 200" (through Sunday) This is the last weekend to see a display of the writer's letters, stories, photographs and other items. Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Museum of the City of New York: "Cecil Beaton: The New York Years" (through Feb. 20) For the 50 years that Cecil Beaton made New York his second home, he sought the area where fashion, design and photography overlap. A Cambridge-educated man about town, Beaton easily navigated New York society to find opportunities to use his talent and creativity across artistic disciplines. He photographed movie stars for Vogue and Vanity Fair, published volumes of his diaries and designed costumes and film sets (winning two Academy Awards in the process). This exhibition celebrates Beaton's aesthetic and features a collection of his celebrity portraits - intimate black-and-white photographs that often incorporate mirrors and reflective surfaces - that capture glamorous subjects like Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and his old flame Greta Garbo. A number of his self-portraits, caricatures and costumes are also on display. Museum hours: from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and Sundays, and until 8:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street, (212) 534-1672, mcny.org. Free with suggested admission: $10; $6 for students and 65+; free for children 12 and under and members. Museum of the City of New York: "Gay New York and the Arts of the Twentieth Century" (Saturday) Presented in tandem with the exhibition "Cecil Beaton: The New York Years," this symposium will bring together scholars to discuss the impact that gay New Yorkers have made on the city's cultural life. The speakers will include Donald Albrecht, curator for the museum's Beaton exhibition, as well as George Chauncey, a Yale professor who has written about the history of gay men and lesbians in New York. Reservations are required. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street, (917) 492-3395, mcny.org; $35, or $25 for members, students and 65+. Museum of Jewish Heritage: The Refusenik Experience (Sunday) Two films about the Soviet Jewish experience will be accompanied by a discussion with the film historian Olga Gershenson. "Refusenik," at 11 a.m., tells the story of Jews who were denied permission to leave the Soviet Union. "And the Wind Returneth," at 2:30 p.m., highlights director Mikhail Kalik's time in a labor camp. At 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., 36 Battery Place, Lower Manhattan, (646) 437-4200, mjhnyc.org; $10, $7 for students and 65+, $5 for members. Museum of Modern Art: Valentine Tour (Sunday and Monday) Give your valentine a private tour of the Museum of Modern Art. Guests will arrive to a tasteful reception with wine and hors d'oeuvres before an art historian leads them to some of the crown jewels of the collection, including van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Monet's "Water Lillies." The museum will be closed to the public during the tour. From 6 to 7:30 p.m., (212) 708-9685, moma.org; $200 per couple, or $190 for members. New-York Historical Society: "The Battle for Civil Rights" (Thursday) David Levering Lewis, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of W. E. B. Du Bois, joins the moderator Khalil Gibran Muhammad for a discussion about the civil rights movement and the evolving ways in which its history is told. At 6:30 p.m., 170 Central Park West, at 77th Street, (212) 873-3400, nyhistory.org; $24, or $12 for members. New-York Historical Society: The 13th Amendment (Friday through Sunday, Tuesday through Thursday) On view at the Society through April 1 is a rare handwritten copy, signed by Lincoln, of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. It's Bill Cosby" (through Feb. 19) The third part of this series celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mr. Cosby's show business career continues with screenings of his 1972 variety show. Wednesday through Sunday at 12:30 p.m., 25 West 52nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 621-6800, paleycenter.org; $10; $8 for students; $5 for children under 14; and free for members. Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Dance Party (Friday) Don't be a wallflower - learn to boogaloo at "Lush," a Latin dance party at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where D.J.s spinning classic 45s and the Latin soul band Spanglish Fly will get you grooving in celebration of the garden's 6,000 tropical orchids. Guests can visit the orchid nursery and get in the spirit with an open bar serving tropical drinks as well as food from Brooklyn restaurants. 21 and older. At 8 p.m., 1000 Washington Avenue, at Eastern Parkway, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, (718) 623-7200, bbg.org; $65. Wave Hill: Power of Pineapple (Saturday) Pineapple will be the fruit du jour on Saturday as the horticultural expert Charles Day discusses the tasty tropical bromeliad also known as Ananas comosus and shows off some of its prickly cousins growing in the Conservatory. Afterward, a chef will prepare some naturally sweet and nutritious pineapple snacks. At 2 p.m., West 249th Street and Independence Avenue, Riverdale, the Bronx, (718) 549-3200, wavehill.org; $8, $4 for students and 65+, $2 for children 6 to 18. Athena Film Festival: "A Celebration of Women and Leadership" (Friday through Sunday) Women who have made a difference in the world, and the directors who have captured their lives on film, are the focus of this series sponsored by Barnard College at Broadway and 117th Street, Morningside Heights. Among the women profiled are Ann W. Richards, the former governor of Texas who died in 2006; Gloria Steinem, the writer and feminist; and Daisy Bates, an activist and a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement who died in 1999. Screenings begin on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at noon and Sunday at 1 p.m. For a schedule, athenafilmfestival.com/program/schedule. Tickets are $12, or $7 for students; weekend pass, $65, or $30 for students; daily pass, $40 for Friday or Saturday, $30 on Sunday. Dinner Tables of Washington and Lincoln (Thursday) How better to gear up for President's Day than eating like a commander in chief? At this "Francine Segan's World of Tasting" workshop, Ms. Segan, a food historian, will prepare tasting platters of popular dishes from Washington's time and the age of Lincoln, and she will discuss the dining customs of those eras. Guests will learn how succotash, Johnny cakes and buttermilk biscuits have become as American as apple pie. At 7 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $40. "Eastern Promises" Screening (Sunday) The Museum of the Moving Image will screen "Eastern Promises" (2007), a thriller about a 14-year-old girl whose diary sheds light on a Russian crime family in London. The film, starring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen, is the final installation of the museum's retrospective on the director David Cronenberg. At 6 p.m., 35th Avenue at 37th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-6800, movingimage.us; $12, or $9 for students and 65+. "Fashion at FIAF" (Tuesday, through March 29) Presented through March by the French Institute Alliance Française, this program devoted to fashion will feature film screenings, an art exhibition and designer talks. Screenings of films that have had an influence on the French fashion designer Agnès b. continue this Tuesday with ... And God Created Woman" (1956), directed by Roger Vadim and starring Brigitte Bardot; the film, which is in French with English subtitles, will be shown at 12:30, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Most events in the program will take place at Gould Hall, 22 East 60th Street, but some are planned for the Katie Murphy Amphitheater of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Avenue and 27th Street, Manhattan. An exhibition on those who lived through it, as well as the writers and artists who've kept alive the memory of that time, is on view through March 12. Friday is the last day for a related display, the Interchurch Center's "From Topaz to Soho: The Spirited Art of Koho Yamamoto," with pieces by the artist, who was interned in a camp in Utah. Naked Fiddle (Wednesday) In a solo performance, the Celtic fiddler Kevin Burke plays his traditional Irish jigs and reels unaccompanied by other instruments, as was once the custom. Mr. Burke, a son of the intricate Sligo school, adds embellishments like slides, slurs and rolls that make his "naked fiddling" anything but bare. This acoustic concert, presented by the World Music Institute, will also feature storytelling. At 7:30 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at 95th Street, (212) 864-5400, worldmusicinstitute.org; $30, or $20 for students. Joan Rivers Valentine's Show (Tuesday) Ms. Rivers returns to the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West Bank Cafe in Times Square for another night of searing comedy at the expense of Hollywood celebrities and their unfortunate red carpet fashion decisions. At 8 p.m., the West Bank Cafe, 407 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 352-3101, spincyclenyc.com; sold out. Encores!: "Merrily We Roll Along" (Friday through Feb. 19) A big-shot Hollywood producer's vain pursuit of success for its own sake has driven away his former friends and left him feeling empty and alone. That man, seen in this show's opening, was once a young talent whose big dreams lay in songwriting, as the audience learns in a musical that starts in 1976 and moves backward in time to 1955. This Encores! series production has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, with a book by George Furth. At 8 p.m., Friday, Saturday and Thursday and at 7 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with no shows on Monday. Additional shows at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan, (212) 581-1212, nycitycenter.org; $25 to $125. "Songs of America: From Stephen Foster to Bob Dylan and Beyond" (Saturday through Monday) This Lyrics & Lyricists show examines the many influences that shaped the American song and the considerable range of its topics, as in "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "The Times They Are A-Changin."" Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. and Monday at 2 and 8 p.m., 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, (212) 415-5500, 92y.org; $52 to $62; $25 for under 35 on Saturday and Sunday evening. "Will to Create, Will to Live: The Culture of Terezin" (Friday and Tuesday, and selected days through Feb. 27) During the Holocaust, the ghetto of Terezin was known as a holding point for Czech Jews bound for death camps, but it was also the site of much artistic creation. Reproductions of performance posters as well as original artifacts like ticket stubs, currency and identification cards are included in a historical display noon to 4 p.m. Winter Film Festival and Citi Music Nights (Friday and Monday) Citi Music Nights, with live music and D.J.s from 7 to 9 p.m. to inspire the ice skaters at Citi Pond, continues this Friday with jazz by Myron Walden's Momentum quintet; there will also be giveaways like sweatshirts and hot chocolate and discounts on ice skate rentals. On Monday the winter film series continues with screenings of Disney's 1955 animated film "Lady and the Tramp" at 5:30 and 7 p.m.; audience members are encouraged to dress warmly. Bryant Park, Avenue of the Americas, at 40th Street, (212) 768-4242, bryantpark.org; both are free. Tuesdays through Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.; Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; closed Sundays, by appointment Mondays. Conversation With Adam Gopnik (Friday) One of The New Yorker's literary luminaries, Mr. Gopnik has served as that magazine's music critic and Paris correspondent since starting there in 1986. He will discuss his career and his inspirations in a conversation with Dr. Lois Oppenheim at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute on Friday night. R.S.V.P.s accepted at admdir@nypsi.org. At 7:30 p.m., New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, 247 East 82nd Street, Manhattan, (212) 879-6900, psychoanalysis.org; $25, pr $10 for students. Slate Political Gabfest (Wednesday) A live recording of Slate's popular political podcast will take place at 92YTriBeCa this night. Those gabbing (Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz) will discuss the 2012 election and President Obama and conclude by fielding questions from the audience. At 7 p.m., 92YTriBeCa, 200 Hudson Street, at Canal Street, (212) 601-1000, 92ytribeca.org; sold out. Tenement Talks: ProPublica on the Stimulus (Monday) The topic of this discussion with ProPublica, an independent investigative journalism organization, will be the roughly $800 billion stimulus package and its effectiveness. At 6:30 p.m., Tenement Museum, 103 Orchard Street, Lower East Side, (212) 982-8420, tenement.org; free.