QMAil: March 2007

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While the common wisdom says something about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb, at the QMA we like to add our own twist - it comes in like a Robert Moses exhibition and goes out with Women's History Month. Yes we think a little differently out here. Of course in between we have a month that is teeming with more uncommon offerrings. On the third we celebrate the opening of Fighting Prejudice with Votes, an exhibition spotlighting the pioneering Sikhs in public office in New York, and a day later we bid goodbye to Erasing Borders: Indian Artists in the American Diaspora, with a closing party with live music and Indian treats. In true QMA fashion, we honor Women's History Month with Cinemarosa's Sapphic Tales: Women's Voices and Their Struggle for Acceptance, Love and Tolerance, a day of LGBT films examining the often overlooked aspects of being a woman in this day and age. On the exhibition side of life, Robert Moses and the Modern City continues to draw crowds and I invite you to join them to examine, or re-examine the impact of this urban planner on New York. On the 16th, we open Macro to Micro: Grimshaw in New York, a look at the unique designs and philosophy of the firm changing the city with such projects as the new Fulton Transit Hub, the new line of NYC street furniture and the expansion of our very own Queens Museum of Art. Also on view is Lillian Ball: GO ECO, a wetlands preservation project, and the new Panorama project. Whether you are a lion or a lamb, March seems like a good time to visit the QMA.

March masthead: Architecural Renderings of Grimshaw design for QMA Expansion Project, Grimshaw Architects.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation

Through May 27, 2007

Our watchword should be that we found our city a wilderness of stone and steel, crowded and inaccessible, and that we opened it to light and air, planted with the green of parks and the laughter of playgrounds, and carved out wide spokes of rims for parkways and expressways to make the city and country one. -Robert Moses

Robert Moses (1888-1981) had a greater impact on the physical character of New York City than any other individual, and given how the process of city building has changed since his time - in response to his controversial methods - it is unlikely anyone will match him in the future. Robert Moses and the Modern City is the first comprehensive exhibition about the vast program of public works he executed as New York's master builder from 1934, when he became Commissioner of Parks, to 1968, when he was ousted from power. The exhibition is organized in three, thematic parts that highlight Moses's strategies and transformation of the city. He built miles of roadway, awesome bridges, every sort of recreational facility - parks, playgrounds, beaches, pools - a convention center, and in a career-ending crescendo, he set in motion one of the nation's largest slum clearance-urban renewal programs.

Moses began his drive to modernize the city by building recreational facilities and roads. Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation presents the beaches, pools, playgrounds, parks and highways that Moses built in the 1930s. They constitute one of the most remarkable and most rapid expansions of the public realm in the history of American urbanism. In a mere decade, Moses restored New York's neglected waterfront with white sand beaches, inserted hundreds of playgrounds into the five boroughs, and connected the city with majestic bridges and landscaped parkways. Never before seen historic docuemnts, models, photographs and drawings join a series of contemproary large-scale photographs by artist Andrew Moore to bring this examination of Moses' legacy to life.

The Road to Recreation joins Remaking the Metropolis at the Museum of the City of New York and Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University to form Robert Moses and the Modern City, the first comprehensive exhibition of Robert Moses's unprecedented public works. Please note: Paid admission to any one venue entitles complemetary entrance to the other two.

Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation at the Queens Museum of Art is made possible with funding by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

More information is available here.

Photos: Robert Moses and the Transformation of New York (W.W. Norton, co-edited with Kenneth T. Jackson).
Rotunda, Riverside Park, Manhattan, c. 1937. Photograph by Samuel Gottscho. Museum of the City of New York, Gottscho Collection, 30346.

Macro to Micro: Grimshaw in New York

March 16 - May 27, 2007

Macro to Micro: Grimshaw in New York presents the body of groundbreaking projects completed by this pioneering architecture firm in the past 25 years. Macro to Micro features the newest work being produced by Grimshaw's New York office, including the plans for the highly-anticipated expansion of the Queens Museum of Art. Recent work on the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center in Troy, New York, the Fulton Street Transit Center in Manhattan and the Museo del Acero (Museum of Steel) in Monterrey, Mexico will be shown in conjunction with the complete array of new street furniture for New York - bus shelters, public restrooms and newsstands.

The Eden Project, Cornwall, UK, 2001.

Fusion, one of Grimshaw's featured exhibits, demonstrates the fluidity between architecture and industrial design. Typically used to transport design materials, the flight cases used in Fusion double as the exhibition itself. Open for public display, the cases reveal the graphics, photographs and castings used in the production process of anything from a building skin to signage. In accordance with this mission to “demystify the process by which a Grimshaw building is designed and constructed,” Macro to Micro offers intimate access into the creative process of an exceedingly dynamic organization. This multi-media exploration will incorporate building elements, drawings, video, images, models and computer generated graphics. Everyone from the novice to the seasoned designer is encouraged to interact with this multifaceted showcase.

Macro to Micro: Grimshaw in New York has been made possible through support from Elisa Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown, teh New York State Council on the Arts, and the LEF Foundation.

Fighting Prejudice with Votes

March 3 - 31, 2007, QMA Community Gallery

Opening Reception, Saturday, March 3, 3 - 5 pm

In 2006, Grassroots Initiative and the Sikh Coalition teamed up to help elect the first-ever Sikh public officials in New York. Photographer Sarah Tew documents the experience in images, juxtaposing the private and public lives of the Sikh community and the process of merging these lives through entry into the political process. Opening Reception features premiere screening of Kevin B. Lee's Dastaar, as well as intimate discussion with artists and activists involved in the exhibit, and a Q&A with the Sikh candidates themselves. Indian sweets and refreshments provided.

Lillian Ball: GO ECO

Through May 27, 2007

GO ECO is an interactive installation that illuminates the different perspectives of several participants involved in a wetland preservation project. The concept is metaphorically based on the ancient Asian game of Go, (originally, one of the Four Arts of China along with music, painting, and poetry) which uses strategies to capture territory through balancing tactics. GO ECO also functions as an informational "serious game" installation of video vignettes. Digitally manipulated images with sound are projected in quadrants on the screen to lead players through to the next move. The final outcome of the game is determined by the teamwork of players making their way toward a solution that enables all sides to win or to lose together. GO ECO allows players of many ages to be empowered and to learn about the issues through an art experience that maps paths of action.

Erasing Borders: Indian Artists in the American Diaspora

Closing Sunday, March 4, 2007

Erasing Borders: Indian Artists in the American Diaspora, presents a diverse collection of work produced by 16 artists whose origins can be traced to the Indian Subcontinent. A multi-generational selection of artists negotiates Indian and Western approaches to art making. Each artist has developed intensely personal interpretations of the traditional genres of painting, photography, sculpture and prints, through landscape, abstraction, Indian miniatures, postmodernism, surrealism, and political history. Together, the works can be seen as an effort to transcend the borders that confine and control preconceived definitions of Indian and Western art.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Siona Benjamin
Anna Bhushan
Bivas Chaudhuri
Niyeti Chadha
Nandini Chirimar
Delna Dastur
Vinod Dave
Satish Joshi
Reeta Karmarkar
Vijay Kumar
Alakananda Mukerji
Nitin Mukul
Yamini Nayar
Antonio Puri
Tara Sabharwal
Ela Shah

Erasing Borders: Indian Artists in the American Diaspora was made possible with support from the New York State Council on the Arts. More information is available here.

SPECIAL EVENTS

CINEMAROSA: Queens Only Queer Film Series - Women's History Month Event
Sapphic Tales - Women's Voices and Their Struggle for Acceptance, Love and Tolerance

Sunday, March 18, 3 - 6 pm

ELECTROSHOCK (Juan Carlos Claver, Spain, 2006, 98 min, Spanish with English ST)
In 1972, teachers Pilar and Elvira meet and form a close friendship that soon becomes much more. But when Pilar's overbearing mother discovers their relationship, she has her daughter committed, agreeing to electroshock therapy to "cure" her condition while forbidding Elvira to have any contact. Despite this, the women reunite - but the therapy is not without lasting consequences. Electroshock is a powerful and moving Spanish drama demonstrating the enduring strength and dignity of two women's love for one another during the repressive Franco years, and the suffering LGBT people went through for their desires in the not so distant past.

LEZ SIDE STORY (Hedia Maron & Faye Driscoll, 2006, USA, 11min)
Female gangs battle for turf when a forbidden love gets in the way, taking self-love, hate, and fate to a new level. The short film is a queer take on a legendary tale. Local filmmakers Hedia Maron & Faye Driscoll will be in attendance.

Visit Cinemarosa's website for more info.

FOR SENIORS

THE FILM SERIES - Patriots and Traitors

When are heroes less than noble, and "traitors" really "patriots"? What are thetensions between national allegiance and personal integrity? What kinds of people transcend self-interestfor a cause? Join Mark Ethan and see ten films that are sure to spark lively discussion. Films obtained courtesy of Columbia University's Film Division. Mondays, 2 pm, Free.

Reluctant Heroes
March 5 - HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (Preston Sturges, 1944) Starring Eddie Bracken
March 12 - SERGEANT YORK (Howard Hawks, 1941) Starring Gary Cooper

Deceptive Heroes
March 19 - KEEPER OF THE FLAME (George Cukor, 1943) Starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn
March 26 - THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR (George Seaton, 1962) Starring William Holden and Lilli Palmer

THE LOOKING SERIES - Looking at Special Exhibitions in New York

In this series of slide talks we focus on special shows that are on view at major New York museums and galleries during the 2007 season. In each case, we consider the artists involved, the movements to which they relate and the general context in which they work. The idea is to prepare the viewer for a comfortably informed interaction with the show, its ideas and the work within it. The Looking Series is organized by Miriam Brumer, former QMA Coordinator of Adult Programs and an artist who recently exhibited at Skoto Gallery, New York. Thursdays, 2 - 3:30 pm, $5 per session, free for members.

March 15 - Spanish Painting: El Greco to Picasso
March 22 - High Times/Hard Times: New York Painting, 1967-75
March 29 - Van Gogh and Expressionism

The Listening Series with The Forest Hills Chamber Players present “Happy Belated Birthday, Mozart”

Thursday, March 22, 3:30 pm

The Forest Hills Chamber Players celebrate the 251st anniversary of Mozart's birth with a program of chamber music and a discussion of his musical style.

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