Tom Finkelpearl, the president and executive director of the Queens Museum, is scheduled to be named the cultural affairs commissioner by Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday, the mayor’s office confirmed, putting Mr. Finkelpearl in charge of a $156 million budget and making him the point person on the arts for a city widely considered the cultural capital of the world.
The appointment is in keeping with the new administration’s emphasis on the disenfranchised; in his 12 years at the Queens Museum, Mr. Finkelpearl, 58, has hired community organizers to professionalize outreach efforts and emphasized the diversity of the local immigrant population. (He frequently cites the 138 languages spoken in the borough.)
And his institution’s recently completed $68 million renovation was largely aimed at making the museum more inviting and connected to the neighborhood.
“Tom believes that art is for everybody, and has developed an exceptional record of fortifying the city’s cultural institutions across all five boroughs,” Mr. de Blasio said. “That’s exactly the kind of energy, leadership and creativity that we want.”
The appointment, to be formally announced on Monday at the Queens Museum, begins to shed some light on Mr. de Blasio’s plan for the arts. He succeeds a mayor who was heavily involved in cultural affairs, Michael R. Bloomberg, and who used his own wealth to advance the mission of many arts organizations. Mr. de Blasio’s profile on culture has been something of a mystery.
10 comments:
I never see anybody going in the Queens Museum! Wednesday Afternoon, Friday morning , Saturday afternoon....the place is a ghost town. It's the worst location fir a museum!
Doesn't this museum director already make $500k already??? And now he will get another paycheck for this appointment?!? Hey DeBlasio, what did you say about a "tale of two cities"??? New Yorkers are pure suckers!
$68 million for a museum that will only see a handful of patrons and will pander to the immigrant community only.
"When I hear the word culture ..., I release the safety on my Browning!"
138 languages.
When God wanted to disburse and destroy Babylon, he "confused the languages" so that no one could communicate with another! So they all came to Queens.
Tom sounds like a good little liberal.
A stuck up liberal at that.
Anon No. 4:
Cultural Fascism.
Just what we need a mediocre guy like Tom to be the cultural "czar" of NYC!
If you've got REAL TALENT, there's NO NEED to have to suck up to the like of a Finkelpearl. You'll make it on your own.
Only the artistically and culturally bereft have to resort to kissing Tom's dick to get a boost.
I've NEVER needed a NYC appointee to get me a good gallery show.
My art speaks for itself.
And you all thought that Dave Dinkins was a do nothing A hole. Di Blasio is a white Dinkins...WORSE!
Post a Comment