From the NY Times:When the Queens Museum of Art announced plans for a renovation in 2006, it joined a building boom in which cultural institutions all over the country were adding wings by name-brand architects, seeking their own Bilbaos. And when the recession of 2008 forced many of those institutions to pull back — worried about whether they needed and could support larger physical plants — the Queens Museum persevered.
The road wasn’t easy; the project was ambitious and took seven years instead of the three originally announced. The budget ballooned to $68 million from $37 million. And though the renovation is now about to be completed — a reopening is planned for early November — the hard part is still ahead: with the new building expected to add $1 million to the $4 million annual operating budget, as well as six new full-time positions, will the institution be able to support this larger operation? And, more basically: now that they’ve built it, will people come?
The building became a museum in 1972, though physically it was never ideal. Its western facade, which faces the Grand Central Parkway, was opaque and forbidding and, over the years, became obscured by plants and fencing. “You couldn’t even see the building,” said Mark Husser, Grimshaw’s principal architect on the project.
When they say "plants" they really mean "trees" - dozens of which were removed for this project. Add these to the ones that will be sacrificed for the USTA expansion, and we've lost a small forest.
Even if people’s ultimate destination is the park, to play soccer, Mr. Finkelpearl said, he hopes they stop at the museum just to use the bathroom or get a drink — and maybe they’ll decide to catch an art exhibition while they’re there. (Suggested admission is $8; $4 for students and older visitors.)
Yes, let's bank on that. And this, my friends, is why the Queens Museum is generally thought of as a joke.
18 comments:
$57 million - as usual in Queens, everyone starves while a few 'B' Acts that gets the local commissar's fancy gets everything.
You bet they will try to get their money back making this the 'official' museum for the borough. Exhibits will feature the Underground Railroad, Diversity, ah ah Quakers ah ah ah .... the East River featuring images of happy families in kayaks on Newtown Creek?
The Queens Museum sucks!
Finkelpearl is a jerk and is only in it for the pay ( highly overpaid at that) Low wage immigrant soccer players just might pluck down $8 to visit thus poor excuse for a museum...keep dreaming.
The statement about the museum generally being thought of a joke is grossly unfair and totally untrue. The Panorama is spectacular and is something I take all friends to when they stay with me during a visit to New York. Always, they are amazed. Most amazed are the people who live in Manhattan who've never been before. They had no idea it existed.
The Queens Museum has also had some excellent exhibits over the years about both of the New York Worlds Fairs, the New York City Watershed, the work of Charles Comfort Tiffany and many of other topics.
Is every temporary exhibit amazing? Honestly, no. But all museums have stronger and weaker exhibits from time to time.
Has the person who wrote that the museum is thought of as a joke ever even been there?
Does this person go to museums regularly? (or at all?)
Every museum that I have gone to multiple times - the Guggenheim, the American Museum of the Moving Image, the Met, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, the Museum of Natural History, MOMA, The Whitney, P.S. 1, the Noguchi, the Queens Museum (and so on) - has had exhibits that are really good and ones that are not so good.
The attitude of "we all live in a world of s**t so why give anything a chance" is evident here. What a sad little world this person lives in.
Has the person who wrote that the museum is thought of as a joke ever even been there?
Does this person go to museums regularly? (or at all?)
Yes, I have been there. Yes, I go to museums regularly. There are other museums in Queens - the Noguchi, Moving Image, Louis Armstrong, Queens County Farm - that are well-run, with exhibits that are interesting to most people.
The Queens Museum of Art is not one of them. I don't see why $57M of taxpayer money was thrown here when borough residents are asking for more parks, schools, road repair and sanitation services. It's the exact opposite of The attitude of we all live in a world of s**t so why give anything a chance" is evident here. We have the director of the museum wondering if the museum will be a draw and banking on soccer-playing day laborers plunking down $8 to see exhibits he can't read after stopping in to take a leak. If this isn't a ridiculous gamble of taxpayer money, I don't know what you would consider ridiculous.
The Queens Museum - the only museum in the city that the vast majority of residents doesn't even know exists.
For that amount of money, the City could have bought several threatened historical buildings and turned them into museums. Why we continue to throw money into this pit is beyond me. I suspect because there are borough president patronage jobs there.
Compare the Brooklyn Museum to the Queens Museum.
Enough said.
The only time you ever hear about the Queens Museum is when they update the panorama (every 10 years or so). They need something else to draw people in.
The Bronx Museum and Staten Island Museum are also more interesting than anything I've seen at the Queens Museum, outside of the panorama.
The Queens Museum could do outreach, put a few ads on buses, make a viral social media video and continue attracting school groups. Children will tell their parents.
If the City of New York panorama moved to the Museum of the City of New York (103 Street & Fifth Ave.) - QMA (or QM if you prefer) would get ZERO traffic.
This is nothing but a money pit for its own connected employees and the firms involved in the renovation.
It could (and should) be torn down and the land restored to its natural state.
Look this museum has been very nice, but it is poorly located and difficult to find or get to. So that is big problem # 1. Rebuilding the structure won't solve it's ills but in the past it successes were art classes and pretty nice exhibits like the Louis Comfort Tiffany glass exhibit and of course home to the NYC Panorama. What should the City do to get this to be successful? Link it to the Hall of Science as part of a ticket package that includes admission to this Museum too. Create a 2-3 car ride to pull folks back & forth from both museums to the subway at Citifield - charge 50 cents per adult - children free. Let get creative to fund raise for this park it's a gem don't just make it a tent city home for illegals?
I have been to the museum many times and it is well worth the penny I plunk down on the counter for the admission
Sitting adjacent to the Queens Theater in The Park....another money pit .
People will come if it isn't stacked with 3rd rate art and packed full of elementary school trips all day long.
The Panorama is basically the only reason to go there.
I'm looking forward to going. I'm in that park quite often. I play pitch n' putt, enjoy bike riding, walking and going to the zoo - the park and all it has to offer is a wonderful way to spend a nice afternoon.
This is what passes for a museum in a culturally backward borough!
Contrast Brooklyn with Queens.
There are brains in Brooklyn.
In Queens all we get are corrupt clubhouse pol, empowered by dopey voters, who support crap institutions and let the ones that would bring tourism to our farmers' borough go under.
A random example...5 Pointz.
It draws busloads full of, hundreds and hundreds, of visitors who bring $$$$$$ to Queens.
Who the hell flocks to the Queens Museum?
I live in this bastard borough because my nabe is peaceful and leafy...and it's only 23 minutes, via the LIRR, then I'm off to wonderland Manhattan where I take my culture.
Pish, tosh. Queens is a piss pot!
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