Art Museums:
Fisher Landau Center
Private foundation that exhibits the contemporary art collection of Emily Fisher Landau, also a trustee and donor to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The collection is housed in a large three story former parachute factory, and consists of 1,200 works from well known contemporary artists collected from 1960 to the present, such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, Susan Rothenberg and William de Kooning.
Noguchi Museum
Private foundation that exhibits the contemporary art collection of Emily Fisher Landau, also a trustee and donor to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The collection is housed in a large three story former parachute factory, and consists of 1,200 works from well known contemporary artists collected from 1960 to the present, such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, Susan Rothenberg and William de Kooning.
Museum rating: Pauline: 7, Paul: 7 (out of 10).
Founded and designed by internationally renowned Japanese-American sculptor, landscape architect and furniture designer Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) for the display of his life’s work. This large museum exhibits abstract modern sculpture and project models from many periods of Noguchi's life. At its center, large stone sculptures are arranged in an elegant Japanese-style walled garden. The Noguchi Museum is considered the first museum in America established by a living artist of his own work.
Museum rating: Pauline: 9, Paul: 3 (out of 10).
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Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs
Contemporary art gallery with an interesting twist: independent curators apply to the gallery to show art on a specific topic or theme. The gallery selects the best shows from the application process and exhibits them in four shows per year, resulting in highly focused explorations of contemporary art by people who have something to say and have really thought about how to say it. Exhibits generally include multiple artists and media, such as photography, painting, sculpture and film. Topics are diverse and have included titles like "Extravagant Drawing," "The Horror Show," "Quilting in Contemporary Art"and "Apocalyptic Pop."
Museum rating: Pauline: 6, Paul: 6 (out of 10).
Queens Museum of Art
Located in a Flushing Meadows Corona Park, in a building constructed for the 1964 Worlds Fair. The permanent collection focuses on the exhibits of the 1964 Wold's Fair, including the well known Panorama of the City of New York (an enormous scale model of New York City). Rotating exhibits focus on the community of Queens, often reflecting the international diversity of the borough.
Museum rating: Pauline: 6, Paul: 6 (out of 10).
SculptureCenter
Experimental and innovative contemporary sculpture exhibited in a former trolley repair shop in Long Island City, Queens. Originally named "The Clay Club," the center was founded in 1928 by Dorothea Denslow, a sculptor working in Brooklyn, as a place for students and local artists to work and learn about sculpture. Currently the center focuses on sculptural and multi-media exhibitions.
Museum rating: Pauline: 6, Paul: 5 (out of 10).
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MoMA P.S.1 Contemporary Art Museum
Large museum devoted exclusively to contemporary art. MoMA PS1 is the queens branch of MoMA, but is an exhibition space rather than a collecting institution. It displays the most experimental and current art, with over 50 exhibitions each year and a full schedule of music and performance programming.
Museum rating: Pauline: 5, Paul: 3 (out of 10)
Sculpture park on the banks of the East River, with view of the Manhattan skyline and changing exhibitions of large contemporary art sculptures. The park is on a former landfill and illegal dump site, reclaimed as a pleasant public green space with an artist in residency program, a public vegetable garden and a free outdoor summer movie series.
Museum rating: Pauline: 3, Paul: 3 (out of 10).
Louis Armstrong House
Home and garden of Louis Armstrong and his wife Lucile, from 1943 until his death in the house in 1971, seen with a detailed 40 minute tour. Armstrong enjoyed documenting his life with reel-to-reel recordings and the tour plays samples of him chatting with his friends and family, giving listeners a strong sense of his personality. All of the Armstrong's original furnishings are preserved intact and the house has top notch examples of classic 50's-70's decor.
Museum rating: Pauline: 8, Paul: 9 (out of 10).
Elevator Museum
Museum on the elevator, covering the history and design of the elevator and its impact on city planning and popular culture. Items on display include pieces from elevators around the world (particularly New York City), as well as patents and schematics from turn of the century elevator design through modern times. The museum is quirky and interesting, but it's very new and is still a small one room museum. It's currently seen by appointment only.
Museum rating: Pauline: 7, Paul: 7 (out of 10).
Fort Totten
Historic fort built in 1862 as a staging area for the civil war. Five story battlements of eight foot thick granite walls were designed and partially built to defend New York, but advancements in weaponry made them obsolete before they were completed and the battlements remain unfinished today. After the civil war, Fort Totten became the home of the Engineering School of Application, a testing ground for experimental weaponry. An early submarine was tested off the point and electrically detonated mines were invented here. Examples of these mines site atop the entrance pillars of the fort. Currently, the NYC Fire Department uses part the old fort as a training center, but much of the site is a large waterfront park, with athletic fields, swimming pool, biking paths and a broad esplanade above Little Neck Bay. The ruins of the waterfront battlements are open to the public for exploration.
Museum rating: Pauline: 5, Paul: 6 (out of 10).
Bayside Historical Society
Historical society of the neighborhood of Bayside, Queens located in the former officer's club (c.1870) of historic Fort Totten. Fort Tottem was closed in 1995 and most of the grounds are now a large waterfront park, with athletic fields, a broad esplanade above Little Neck Bay and historic battlements open for exploration. Historical society exhibits cover the history of Queens, ranging from prehistoric finds through the revolutionary war and up to the present.
Museum rating: Pauline: 4, Paul: 5 (out of 10).
Poppenhusen Institute
Vander Ende-Onderdonk House
Museum rating: Pauline: 3, Paul: 3 (out of 10).
History/Historical Building
Home and garden of Louis Armstrong and his wife Lucile, from 1943 until his death in the house in 1971, seen with a detailed 40 minute tour. Armstrong enjoyed documenting his life with reel-to-reel recordings and the tour plays samples of him chatting with his friends and family, giving listeners a strong sense of his personality. All of the Armstrong's original furnishings are preserved intact and the house has top notch examples of classic 50's-70's decor.
Museum rating: Pauline: 8, Paul: 9 (out of 10).
Elevator Museum
Museum on the elevator, covering the history and design of the elevator and its impact on city planning and popular culture. Items on display include pieces from elevators around the world (particularly New York City), as well as patents and schematics from turn of the century elevator design through modern times. The museum is quirky and interesting, but it's very new and is still a small one room museum. It's currently seen by appointment only.
Museum rating: Pauline: 7, Paul: 7 (out of 10).
Fort Totten
Historic fort built in 1862 as a staging area for the civil war. Five story battlements of eight foot thick granite walls were designed and partially built to defend New York, but advancements in weaponry made them obsolete before they were completed and the battlements remain unfinished today. After the civil war, Fort Totten became the home of the Engineering School of Application, a testing ground for experimental weaponry. An early submarine was tested off the point and electrically detonated mines were invented here. Examples of these mines site atop the entrance pillars of the fort. Currently, the NYC Fire Department uses part the old fort as a training center, but much of the site is a large waterfront park, with athletic fields, swimming pool, biking paths and a broad esplanade above Little Neck Bay. The ruins of the waterfront battlements are open to the public for exploration.
Museum rating: Pauline: 5, Paul: 6 (out of 10).
Bayside Historical Society
Historical society of the neighborhood of Bayside, Queens located in the former officer's club (c.1870) of historic Fort Totten. Fort Tottem was closed in 1995 and most of the grounds are now a large waterfront park, with athletic fields, a broad esplanade above Little Neck Bay and historic battlements open for exploration. Historical society exhibits cover the history of Queens, ranging from prehistoric finds through the revolutionary war and up to the present.
Museum rating: Pauline: 4, Paul: 5 (out of 10).
Historical community center of the vanishing neighborhood of College Point, Queens built in 1868 by the German-American industrialist Conrad Poppenhusen. The institute once housed numerous community services, such as the official Justice of the Peace, the German Singing Societies, the first library in the area, a court room, the Sheriff's Office (2 jail cells remain today), as well as the first free kindergarten in the United States which began here on July 1, 1870.
Museum rating: Pauline: 2, Paul: 4 (out of 10).
Vander Ende-Onderdonk House
Small historic farm house built by Dutch settlers in 1709. Currently the home of the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society, the house exhibits artifacts unearthed on the site from its days as a farm (mostly pottery shards). Two rooms are set up to depict life on an historic farm, and a small garden and park are located behind the house.
Museum rating: Pauline: 3, Paul: 2 (out of 10).
Kingsland HomesteadMuseum rating: Pauline: 3, Paul: 2 (out of 10).
Small historic farmhouse (built 1785), once the home of a well known Quaker family of abolitionists. The house has small exhibits on the history of Queens, and is the headquarters of the Queens Historical Society.
Museum rating: Pauline: 2, Paul: 2 (out of 10).
Media
Museum of the Moving Image*
Large multi-floor museum devoted to the art, history and technology of film, television and digital media. Many exhibits are hands-on, including do-it-yourself sound editing booths, the creation of animated films and playing historical video games. The museum has several in-house theaters and screens over 400 movies a year, ranging from restored historical prints to animated shorts to modern avante guarde cinema, and frequently hosts lectures and commentaries by actors and directors.
Museum rating: Pauline: 10, Paul: 9 (out of 10).
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*Best of Borough Award for Queens:
Museum of the Moving Image
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