Museo de Queens se renueva

Entrada al Museo de Queens en el Parque Flushing.  Foto Javier Castaño
Entrada al Museo de Queens en el Parque Flushing. Foto Javier Castaño

En el Parque Flushing de Queens, el Museo de Arte de Queens reabrió sus puertas luego de ser renovado para brindar espacios más grandes, modernos y atractivos a los visitantes. El Queens Museum está localizado a pocos pasos de ‘la bola’ del Parque Flushing, cerca de las canchas de fútbol. El edificio sólo tiene en su fachada las palabras Queens Museum y realiza exhibiciones durante todo el año, además de talleres y actividades para toda la familia.

La reinauguración se realizará con actividades durante el mes de noviembre y eventos especiales los días sábado 9, domingo 10 y lunes 11 de noviembre del 2013. Participe de estas actividades y abra su mente al arte local e internacional. En la actualidad exhibe Pedro Reyes, Peter Schumann, Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao y la Bienal de Arte Contemporáneo Cubano.

Obra de Pedro Reyes en exhibición en el Museo de Queens.
Obra de Pedro Reyes en exhibición en el Museo de Queens.

The Queens Museum Opens With a Month of Activities:

The  opening weekend events lineup  to coincide with the opening of the  Museum’s expansion and  inaugural exhibitions – Pedro Reyes: The People’s  United Nations  (pUN), Peter Schumann: The Shatterer, New York City Building Time Lapse, 2009 – 2013: Photographs by Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, Queens International 2013, and  Citizens of the World: Cuba in Queens. A broad variety  of exhibitions and programming highlight the  expanded gallery  space and  showcase the Museum’s dedication to presenting contemporary art that engages the  uniquely diverse communities it serves, reflecting the richness and  breadth of the  cultural  environment. Also timed with the inauguration of the  new building, the  museum is undergoing a rebranding initiative  with a new visual identity, a renaming of the institution from Queens Museum of Art to the  Queens Museum, and is soon  launching a redesigned website.

The Queen’s Museum’s opening month of activities will kick off with the  Target Wide Open Weekend featuring multicultural welcoming and  blessing ceremonies on Saturday, November 9. In addition, the inaugural group of artists in the  Queens Museum Studio  Residency Program will open their  doors and  welcome the  public  into their studios. The weekend also features performances by artists in Queens International 2013 with extended hours  on Saturday night for the  Museum and  exhibition opening party.

Queens Museum’s Target Wide Open Weekend continues on Sunday,  November 10. The museum will host a community pilgrimage in which community groups will meet in nearby Corona Plaza (103rd  street and Roosevelt Avenue) and  march  to the  Museum in solidarity. Further event highlights on Sunday  include  a Build Your Own Drone aerial  video  workshop and  demonstration with Queens International artists Georgi and  Nina Tushev.  That afternoon, folkloric dance groups and  bands will perform, reflecting the cultural  diversity of surrounding neighborhoods.

Monday, November 11, the  final day of Target Wide Open

Weekend, is a free  open house for families. The Museum’s teaching artists and  art therapists will each  have  their  own stations for families to take  part in a variety  of art making  and  crafts  from around the  world.  Monday evening, Peter Schumann will perform a Fiddle Sermon and  bake bread as part of the  opening reception for Peter Schumann: The Shatterer.

The following  weekend, the  Queens Museum continues the  opening festivities with further programming including  an Ander  Mikalson performance of Score for Two Dinosaurs along  with the Corona Youth Orchestra. Also on Saturday, November 16, the  Museum will host a Book Crossing  & Literary Flash Mob, a book  exchange and performance event, as well as a sound performance by Richard Garet entitled Mnemonics: for Space Invaders. Additional weekend highlights include  a Queens poetry event and  book launch  curated by Paolo  Javier  with Gabriele Tinti & Burt Young, Warren Lehrer, and  Franklin Bruno.

Finally, on the weekend of November 23-24, artist  Pedro Reyes convenes The People’s United Nations,  bringing together 193 citizen representatives of the  193 members of the  (real) United Nations for a series of plenary sessions tackling  the  issues  facing  the world.

For the  full schedule of opening weekend events, please visit:

http://www.queensmuseum.org/queens-museum-re-opening  

El espacio interior del Museo de Queens fue renovado.
El espacio interior del Museo de Queens fue renovado.
El escritorio de información del Museo de Queens desde donde se aprecia 'la bola' del Parque Fushing. Foto Javier Castaño
El escritorio de información del Museo de Queens desde donde se aprecia ‘la bola’ del Parque Fushing. Foto Javier Castaño

In addition, the  Queens Museum will have  the following  inaugural exhibitions on view:

 Peter Schumann: The Shatterer

Also premiering with the opening of the  Museum’s expansion is The Shatterer, the first solo museum exhibition of Bread  and  Puppet Theatre founder and  director Peter Schumann. The Queens Museum’s presentation  of Schumann’s groundbreaking political performance art is a strong response to today’s urgent questions about the  role of the  artist in society, at a key moment for both the Queens Museum and  Bread  and  Puppet. The materials used to create Schumann’s large-scale puppets and  stages—black and  white house paint applied to discarded and  recycled paper, cardboard, and fabric—reflect the  bare-essential production values  and approach to living that have  been central to Schumann’s work for his entire career.

Queens International 2013

Another highlight of the  Queens Museum’s reopening season is Queens International 2013, the  sixth edition of the  Museum’s biennial exhibition of artists from around the  world  who live or work in Queens. This year the Queens Museum has invited  Meiya Cheng, co-founder of the  Taipei Contemporary Art Center, to co-curate with Hitomi Iwasaki, Queens Museum Director of Exhibitions/Curator. This marks  the  beginning of a new tradition for Queens International that engages a co-curator from overseas to consider the  Queens art community in a fresh  perspective. The show  addresses globalization in Queens from a variety  of angles by facilitating and  implementing collaborative projects between Taipei- based and  Queens-based artists.

New York City Building Time Lapse, 2009 – 2013: Photographs by Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao

For the  duration of the  Museum’s expansion project, Taiwan-born, Queens-based photographer Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao has been in residence capturing the  transformation of the  New York City Building.   A series of Liao’s large-scale photographs  will chronicle this most recent metamorphosis while archival photographs, documentation and  blueprints will convey  the  rich history  of the building from its role as the  New York City Pavilion in the  1939 and

1964 World’s Fairs, home of the  United Nations General Assembly (1946-1950), and  site of both the  Queens Museum (1972 – today) and the  World’s Fair Skating  Rink (1952-1962; 1964-2008). In addition to Liao’s commissioned work, New York City Building Time Lapse will feature material from the  Museum‘s archives, the  United Nations Archive, the  Archive of the  New York City Parks Department, and  Grimshaw.

Pedro Reyes:  The People’s  United Nations

The People’s  United Nations,  or pUN, brings together citizen representatives of the  193   member states of the  United Nations for mock  assemblies and  performances which reference   the  building’s history  of hosting the  General Assembly of the UN between 1946-1950.  pUN will be presented as a counterforce to the  UN. Reyes will

employ alternative negotiation techniques drawn from radical theater, psychology, marriage counseling, and  corporate management consulting as opposed to traditional diplomacy to address foreign relations issues. Humorously redeploying the format of the  UN—caucuses, plenaries, simultaneous translation— pUN will entertain but also inform,  and  the  objects and  documents produced will be  delivered to the  UN in a culminating event. pUN is

planned for November 23 – March 2014,  and  will include  both private and  public  performance sessions under the  new massive central skylight.  The People’s  United Nations  (pUN) is part of the Performa Consortium.

Cuba, Bernardo Navarro
Cuba, Bernardo Navarro

Citizens of the World: Cuba in Queens

Citizens of the World: Cuba in Queens explores how Cuban visual artists, living both on the  island and  in diaspora, grapple with the profound complexities between identity and  place. Simultaneously a collective sentiment and  a uniquely individual  notion, lo cubano extends beyond geographic and  existential boundaries. This exhibition focuses on the  intangible connections between where one  lives and  one’s  sense of self. This inaugural exhibition

celebrates the  opening of The Shelley and  Donald Rubin Gallery and launches a series of collaborations between the Rubins’ Private Collection and  the  Queens Museum. Three  exhibitions, curated from the  couple’s private collection, will feature contemporary

Cuban, contemporary Tibetan, and  modern and  contemporary Indian art over the  next  two years.

For more information on the  inaugural exhibitions, please visit:

www.queensmuseum.org.

Also on long-term view at the  Queens Museum:

The Panorama of the  City of New York

The Panorama is the  jewel in the  crown  of the  collection of the

Queens Museum. Commissioned by Robert Moses for the  1964

World’s Fair, in part as a celebration of the  City’s municipal infrastructure, this 9,335  square foot architectural model –the largest in the  world–  includes more than  895,000 buildings, bridges, parks  and  iconic NYC sites. After receiving a full update in 1992, recent additions to the  model include  the  addition of CitiField,  the new Yankee  Stadium, Brooklyn Bridge  Park, an updated Battery Park City and  the  unique Newton Creek Wastewater Treatment foundation based in Queens that has partnered with the Queens Museum for more than  a decade exhibiting its collection of Tiffany lamps,  windows, metalwork, and  ephemera. The Collection has relocated to the  new wing of the  Queens Museum and  inaugurates the  gallery  with the exhibition Shade Garden:  Floral Lamps from the Tiffany Studios as well as a permanent display  of other Tiffany designs. Shade Garden  features 20 lamps  exploring Tiffany’s masterful translation of nature into glass.  Some  of the  most beloved and  iconic Tiffany motifs  are  included in Shade Garden, which will be on view for two years.  Supplementing Shade Garden  is a detailed model demonstrating the  labor-intensive process of making  a leaded-glass lampshade and  a film capturing the  process of selecting, cutting and  soldering the  individual  pieces of glass  in the lampshade.

World’s Fair Visible Storage

The Queens Museum will always be  inextricably linked to the  1939 and  1964 World’s Fairs, and  with a collection of more than  10,000 objects pertaining to the two expositions, the  Museum is a key resource to both scholars and  fans.   In an effort to provide visitors with a greater understanding of the  scope of the  Museum’s enormous holdings of World’s Fair artifacts, the  newly installed World’s Fair Visible Storage and  Gallery on the second floor displays more than  900 three-dimensional pieces –many on view for the  first time- arranged by the  date of each  World’s Fair, and  within these categories, arranged by donor. The World’s Fair Visible Storage will provide unprecedented access to students, scholars, and  the general public  to explore the  collection.  Also on view within the World’s Fair Gallery is ChronoLeap: The Great  World’s Fair Adventure, a virtual experience and  game that transports visitors back  in time  to the  1964 World’s Fair, complete with pavilion tours and  a conversation with Fair President Robert Moses.

The Queens Museum is a local international art space in Flushing  Meadows Corona Park with contemporary art,  events and  educational programs reflecting the diversity of Queens and  New York City. The Museum presents the  work of emerging and  established artists, changing exhibitions that speak to contemporary urban issues,  and  projects that  focus  on the  rich history  of its site. In November 2013,  the  Museum opened its new space, a 105,000 square foot venue with a soaring sky lit atrium, suite  of day lit galleries and  improved flexible event space. Some  highlights of the  Queens Museum after  its reopening include the re-opening of the Panorama of the City of New York, a 9,335  square foot scale model of the  five boroughs, a reinstallation of the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, a new visible storage facility for the  Museum’s collection of artifacts from the  1939 and  1964 New York World’s Fairs, and  a new studio wing with 9 artists studios. It also features a new exhibition in partnership with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection centered on the  1939 World’s Fair WPA model of the watershed and  contemporary conservation efforts and  the first show in the  Shelley and  Donald  Rubin Exhibition  Series,  Citizens of the World: Cuba in Queens. The museum seeks to exact positive change in surrounding communities through engagement initiatives ranging from the  multilingual outreach and educational opportunities for adult  immigrants, to the  residency program, Corona Studio, which embeds artists in the  local community. The museum also conducts educational outreach tailored toward schoolchildren, teens, families, seniors as well as those individuals  with physical and  mental disabilities.

The Queens Museum is located on property owned in full by the  City of New York, and  its operation is made possible in part by public funds  provided though the New York City Department of Cultural  Affairs. The Museum’s hours  are: Wednesday – Sunday:  noon  – 6 pm. Admission to the  Museum is by suggested donation: $8 for adults, $4 for seniors, students and  children, and  free  for members and  children under 5. For general visitor information, please visit the Museum’s website  www.queensmuseum.org or call 718.592.9700.

Grimshaw was founded by Sir Nicholas  Grimshaw in 1980.  The practice became a Partnership in 2007 and  operates worldwide from offices  in New York, London, Doha,  Melbourne and  Sydney.   Grimshaw’s international portfolio covers all major sectors. The firm has provided planning and  architectural designs for cultural institutions including  the Caixa Galicia Art Foundation in A Coruña, Spain, Horno³: Museo del Acero  in Monterrey, Mexico and  the Experimental Media  and Performing Arts Center in Troy, New York. Grimshaw is awaiting completion of The Patricia  and  Phillip Frost  Museum of Science  in Miami in 2015.

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