The Queens Museum, located in the center of the most culturally diverse place in America, is undergoing a massive expansion. With plans to be completed in October, the addition includes 50,000 square feet of galleries, artist studios, an exterior exhibition space, expanded programming, and a dazzling grand-entrance. “We have aspects of the museum that are sort of like a community center,” explained executive director Tom Finkelpearl (pictured) at a press conference held at the museum yesterday. “At the same time, community centers don’t spend multiple millions of dollars on the quality of light in the galleries.”
Built by Robert Moses as the New York City Pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair, the museum sits on the perimeter of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the second most-visited park in New York City. Just opposite the museum is the landmark Unisphere, the 12-story high model globe built for the 1964 World’s Fair, for which the museum also served as a pavilion.
Deeply committed to community outreach and multicultural programming, the new entrance to the museum has been designed to double as an entrance to the park. Visitors will be encouraged to walk through the museum on their way to the ice skating rink, Citi Field, and the U.S. Open — all of which are located in the park.
With a 3,200 square-foot skylight and a glass wall offering views of the Unisphere, the main gallery will also be a space for performances, parties, and interactive exhibitions. The museum will move the iconic panorama of New York, made by Moses for the 1964 Fair, into the main gallery, making it a permanent centerpiece of the institution.
From 1946 until 1950, the building was home to the United Nations General Assembly, a part of its legacy that will live on in with Pedro Reyes’s inaugural exhibition, “The People’s UN.” Taking place in the new, main entrance, the exhibition will offer a response to the UN, in the form of an assembly of UN representatives using theater, psychology, and counseling techniques to address the problems of the world. “It’ll be a sort of re-convening of the UN in the place where the UN met,” explained Finkelpearl.
In addition to Reyes’s exhibition, the museum has an ambitious program planned for its grand reopening the fall. A solo exhibition dedicated to performance artist Peter Schumann, the founder of the Bread and Puppet Theatre, will include the creation of a 150 foot-long mural, and a regular schedule of performances. “Queens International 2013” will be the museum’s sixth biennial of international artists who live in the borough. The Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) performance group — formed on Skid Row and made up of homeless and formerly homeless artists — will present a history of their work, performances, and an oral history project.
There will also be a special Andy Warhol exhibition commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the scandal brought about by his project “13 Most Wanted Men.” Warhol was commissioned to make a piece for the 1964 World’s Fair for which he installed 13 large-scale mug shots of America’s most wanted criminals in the park. The works were painted over just days before the Fair opened, leaving a large silver square in place of the images. The original mug shots, and others created later in 1964, will be presented as part of a collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum.
“We’re on this balance between super community orientation and super fine arts orientation,” said Finkelpearl, “and those things are compatible.”
— Sara Roffino
