Queens culture cash

 

 QNS

Leaders from several Queens cultural institutions gathered together on Aug. 10 at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, where NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo announced $4.5 million in capital funding to support the restoration and renovation of Isamu Noguchi’s Studio.

The project will allow public access for the first time in the museum’s history and preserve the living spaces designed by Noguchi, new amenities for visitors, as well as the construction of a new facility for the storage and study of its collection. As part of her ongoing five borough tour, Cumbo also detailed investment for other institutions including Queens Museum, Flux Factory, New York Hall of Science, Queens Theatre the Poppenhusen Institute, and the Queens Botanical Gardens.

“The extraordinary diversity and energy of Queens is reflected in its cultural organizations, and we’re thrilled to invest in these projects that will give local residents and visitors from all over access to the remarkable cultural facilities they deserve,” Cumbo said. “From this exciting new project at Noguchi Museum that will open up the legendary artist’s living space to the public for the first time, to the Queens Museum’s ongoing expansion, and many more — these projects are part of the city’s long-term investment in the cultural community of Queens and across all five boroughs.”

Mayor Eric Adams has invested $127 million in capital support across the five boroughs which, along with funding from the City Council and borough presidents, brings a total of more than $220 million in funding to 70 cultural groups citywide.

“I’m thrilled that the Noguchi Museum, along with many other incredible Queens cultural institutions have received this historic funding from Mayor Eric Adams,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. “With the Mayor’s investment and my $3 million allocation for a new storage lab and study center, the Noguchi Museum will be able to expand and improve upon the stellar experience it offers to visitors.”

Noguchi Museum Director Brett Littman said he was grateful for the support and investment from the Adams administration and the borough president.

“Since its founding in 1985, the Noguchi Museum has presented exhibitions and programs that reach audiences throughout Queens, as well as around the world,” Littman said. “Our capital project will enable public access to Isamu Noguchi’s Studio for the first time in its history, open a new cafe and shop for visitors, and create dedicated space to preserve, protect and research Noguchi’s art and archive.

 

Museum executives still mooching off 9/11 and laid off staffers

  

NY Post

After closing for six months during the pandemic and laying off or furloughing 60 percent of its staff, the cash-starved 9/11 Memorial and Museum gave $1,000 bonuses to each of its 12 highest paid execs, The Post has learned.

The bonus brought the total compensation in 2020 for CEO Alice Greenwald, who recently announced she is stepping down, to $564,500, according to the organization’s latest IRS filing.

Built to remember the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and to honor the 2,958 people murdered, the memorial and museum took a big financial hit during the pandemic and is still struggling to recover.

The bonuses were funded by an anonymous donor and restricted to that purpose, said spokeswoman Lee Cochran.

“The donation was intended to recognize the exceptional dedication of a very hard-working staff” who ran the organization after COVID-19 forced a shutdown in March 2020 and produced virtual education programs during the closure, Cochran said.

Besides Greenwald, 11 top staffers who each collected $187,000 to $347,000 in 2020 also got the $1,000 bonus. Another 155 remaining employees received unspecified bonuses “based on duration of employment.” Cochran said. She would not disclose the amounts or total spent on bonuses. “Everyone got something.”

The salaries anger an advocacy group, 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters and World Trade Center Victims, which wants the National Park Service to run the site.

“This is a cash cow for the executives running the museum. Their salaries are exorbitant,” said retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, the group’s chairman, whose firefighter son Jimmy Riches was killed on 9/11.

Museums no longer honoring NYC ID card

Why not the Steinway Mansion?

From the NY Times:

Mr. Singleton, the executive director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, started an offshoot called Friends of Steinway Mansion in 2011, when the mansion went on the market for the first time in nearly 90 years. Mr. Singleton did not raise the money to buy the place, but that did not stop him from pressing for it to become “a spark to revitalize the area,” perhaps as an arts center. Or maybe a community center. Or a museum.

In September, he excitedly called supporters, saying that someone with deep pockets had contacted him and outlined a plan to buy the mansion and set up the music school. Mr. Singleton, corresponding with the person by email, sought and received a promise that the person would attend the historical society’s already scheduled meeting on Sept. 21 and talk about what he had in mind.

The person was a no-show, but by then, Mr. Singleton was not surprised. A few days before the meeting, the Gmail account that the man had been using was terminated and his Facebook page disappeared.

“Pretty elaborate setup to be a simple hoax,” Mr. Singleton said then.

The hoax played out as construction crews built a retaining wall and began work on new light-industrial buildings in what was left of the mansion’s front lawn. That is why Mr. Singleton now refers to the hoax as a sideshow. To him, the main event is the mansion itself, even with the changes to its surroundings.

“It’s New York,” Mr. Singleton said. “To anyone else, that’s a problem, but in New York, the realm of the possible is at our doorstep. Yeah, there’s a waste treatment plant there. There’s a waste treatment plant on the Hudson River near the George Washington Bridge. It’s a park. The possibilities are here. History will teach you nothing is insurmountable.”

Armstrong museum expansion gets green light

From the Queens Courier:

A $20 million annex expansion of the landmarked Louis Armstrong House Museum, named for the famed jazz musician, is on the way after meeting zoning regulations.

Plans have been filed with the Buildings Department on Friday to construct the proposed educational visitors center on vacant land near the museum at 34-49 107th St. in Corona.

Design work on the new center dates as far back as 2007, but construction on the project was stalled due to a necessary variance application from the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA).

The new two-story project needed approval for a waiver to be built closer to neighboring property lines than zoning laws allow.

The BSA gave the project the green light last year, following support from Community Board 3 and the borough president’s office. Now the project is in the construction phase, according to a representative.

The museum is hoping to build the new 8,737-square-foot annex, which is designed by architecture firm Caples Jefferson, for more exhibit space and a store to better accommodate the more than 12,000 visitors who come to the museum each year.

Benefits associated with city ID card

From NYC.gov:

Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the City’s Municipal ID, which will launch in January 2015, will give all ID card holders access to one-year free membership packages at 33 of the City’s leading cultural institutions, including world class museums, performing arts centers, concert halls, botanical gardens, and zoos in all five boroughs. The Municipal ID/CIG one-year membership will be comparable to each institution’s standard one-year individual or family membership package, depending on the institution, and will give ID card holders a range of benefits including free admission, and access to special events, and discounts to museum shops.

The 33 institutions belong to the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) which is comprised of private nonprofit cultural organizations located on City owned property. The first member of the CIG, the American Museum of Natural History, was created in 1869 and the group has grown to include a diverse cross section of institutions in each of the boroughs. The City provides capital, operating and energy support to CIG members and in turn each institution is charged with providing access to cultural services and programming to all New Yorkers.

“The Municipal ID Program is one that has the potential to transform lives, and to help ensure its success the cultural community, and in particular the Cultural Institutions Group’s members, have stepped up to the plate,” said City Council Majority Leader and Chair of Libraries & International Intergroup Relations Committee Jimmy Van Bramer. “Culture is always important in our City and with this announcement we are reminded of the centrality of the arts to our City. Access to the arts for all and a more just City is being accomplished with the help of these great institutions. It is a great day.”

“I am grateful to the Cultural Institutions Group for teaming up to make New York’s municipal ID program the envy of other cities,” said Municipal ID Bill Sponsor Council Member Daniel Dromm. “This world-class ID will make our city’s world-class cultural institutions accessible to every New Yorker, from recent immigrant families to students and young professionals. With all of the fun and exciting options that this card will provide, New Yorkers will have no excuse to fail to get a card or to stay at home.”

Queens locations:
Flushing Town Hall
Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
Museum of the Moving Image
New York Hall of Science
MoMA PS1
Queens Botanical Garden
Queens Museum
Queens Theatre

From the Observer:

But plenty of questions about the IDs still remain — including what documentation will be required to receive them and whether financial institutions will accept them to grant bank accounts or other services that were key to the argument the cards were necessary.

Mr. de Blasio told the Observer the process of determining what would be needed to prove identity and residency had been a thorough one that involved the NYPD, and Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Nisha Agarwal said draft rules would be up for comment soon.

“There will be a public hearing in early October to discuss things like what documents you need to bring to be able to show identify, residency, and what are some of the other rules and details of this program,” Ms. Agarwal told the Observer.

As for getting banks to accept the cards, Ms. Agarwal said progress was being made there, too.

“We’re in active conversations with the financial institutions as well as with their regulators to hopefully be able to announce soon enough the commitment of financial institutions participating with the municipal ID as well,” Ms. Agarwal said.

Inside the 9/11 Museum

Proposal to move 5 Pointz to MOMA PS1

WPIX has the story.

Louis Armstrong Museum seeking variance

From the Daily News:

A Corona museum dedicated to celebrating the life of a jazz pioneer is proposing to build a $20 million educational annex across the street.

Louis Armstrong House Museum officials asked Queens Borough President Helen Marshall to throw her support behind granting the center a building variance at a Thursday land-use hearing at Borough Hall.

The variance would enable the two-story center to be built closer to the property lines than is permitted under the area’s new zoning. The land for the project, as well as the museum, are under the umbrella of Queens College.

Community Board 3 District Manager Giovanna Reid said the variance was overwhelmingly approved at the board’s March 21 meeting. “We support this application,” she said.

The project must ultimately be approved by the city Board of Standards and Appeals.

Enjoy what's left of the South Street Seaport (while you can)

From AM-NY:

New Yorkers will have one last summer to enjoy the South Street Seaport they’ve visited for years.

Ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, dozens of Seaport businesses are still closed, and those that were able to stay open continue to suffer, thanks to dwindling foot-traffic and a depressed aura that’s stayed since the October disaster.

Further still, the biggest transformation will come this fall, when Pier 17, known for its restaurants, shops and breathtaking waterfront view, will be torn down by the Howard Hughes Corporation, which owns the lease on the property, to make way for a glassy new complex in 2015, complete with larger stores and a green roof. There’s even a talk of a first-class hotel and apartment buildings later on.

Pier 17 businesses were supposed to be out this week, but City Council late last month granted them one last summer up to Sept. 9.

Of 92 tenants in the Hughes' directory for the Seaport, 35 are closed. All Hughes tenants on Fulton and Front streets, including chains like the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch, are still shuttered.

South Street Seaport Museum, though it reopened in December, is still crippled from water damage, and some galleries in its main location will close this month for roughly two years to repair heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, the museum's general manager Jerry Gallagher said.

Hope springs eternal for Steinway Mansion

From DNA Info:

The sprawling Steinway Mansion, once home to the world's most famous piano-making family, has had a "For Sale" sign perched on its stately lawn for the past several years.

Now a newly-formed coalition of Queens stakeholders have banded together to seek a buyer for the landmarked Astoria property, in the hopes that it could be used as a public museum or cultural center.

"The Steinway Mansion is indeed a place of significance, and should be saved for the benefit of future generations," said Bob Singleton, head of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, which announced the formation of the Friends of Steinway Mansion earlier this week.

The 27-room mansion, an Italianate-style villa situated atop a hill at 18-33 41st St., not far from the Steinway & Sons piano factory, was built in the 1850s. It was home to the Steinway family from the end of the 19th-century until 1925, and declared a New York City landmark in 1967.

Local groups have been calling for a public use of the building for years, Singleton said, but this is the first time an official effort has been launched. So far, the coalition's members include Assemblywomen Margaret Markey, Astoria Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas, the Long Island City-based Artisans Guild of America as well as the Steinway and Sons company itself.

Singleton said the coalition is working to garner public support for their vision, and is hoping a strong candidate will come forward soon to purchase the home for the purpose of a community use.

What about Vallone?

New museum exhibit highlights World's Fair

From the Daily News:

A new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York that opened Wednesday provides a view into that time when dishwashers and toasters were considered exotic and a wise-cracking, cigarette-smoking robot enchanted millions.

The exhibit, which examines all six fairs of the era, is a travelling show from the National Building Museum. But the Museum of the City of New York dipped into its vast archives — including Kodachrome slides and original design drawings — to expand the experience for visitors.

Along with photos and drawings, the exhibit includes pavilion models, guidebooks and modernistic lamps and chairs.

One highlight is a full-scale replica of Elektro the robot, who dazzled fair audiences at the Westinghouse Pavilion.

9/11 memorial an expensive embarrassment

From Huffington Post:

With its huge reflecting pools, ringed by waterfalls and skyscrapers, and a cavernous underground museum still under construction, the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is an awesome spectacle that moved and inspired some 4.5 million visitors in its first year.

But all that eye-welling magnificence comes with a jaw-dropping price tag. The foundation that runs the memorial estimates that once the roughly $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate.

The anticipated cost has bothered some critics and raised concerns even among the memorial's allies that the budget may be unsustainable without a hefty government subsidy.

By comparison, the National Park Service budgeted $8.4 million this year to operate and maintain Gettysburg National Military Park and $3.6 million for the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Running Arlington National Cemetery, which has more than 14,000 graves and receives 4 million visitors a year, costs $45 million annually.

Officials at the 9/11 memorial say they face unique challenges that make comparisons to other national memorials difficult.

Foundation officials didn't respond to requests for information about other costs at the site, including the anticipated expense of running the museum, which is still unfinished and might not be anytime soon.

There was also a very expensive pissing contest happening amongst our fearless leaders over this. They supposedly finally resolved it last night. Makes you proud to be a New Yorker, doesn't it?

As for the WTC itself, here's what's being pushed to the side for it. From the Wall Street Journal:

The $7.7 billion that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has committed over more than a decade to remake the 16-acre site has meant that long-planned repairs and expansions at its other properties, especially at the area's three major airports, have been put on hold or scrapped altogether.

The effect has become increasingly visible. When it rains, trash cans collect drips inside the central terminal at La Guardia Airport, which was supposed to be in line for a substantial upgrade before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks upended the agency's plans.

Newark International Airport's shabby Terminal A, which also had been eyed for a redo for years, frequently elicits traveler complaints. Buses clog Manhattan's West Side; the Port Authority had committed money to building a garage where they could idle between trips but postponed the plan after World Trade Center rebuilding costs grew. A proposal to replace the Goethals Bridge has faced delay after delay, though a plan to find a private contractor has been inching forward recently.

If not for the cost of rebuilding in Lower Manhattan, "they would be working on the terminal at La Guardia, I think they would be working on Terminal A at Newark," said Robert Boyle, the Port Authority's executive director from 1997 to 2001. "They definitely would already be doing the Goethals."

New plan for NYS Pavilion

From the Daily News:

Author Jeannette Remak wants to re-fashion the New York State Pavilion — built for the 1964 World’s Fair but left vacant for decades — into a tourist hotspot where vintage airplanes hang from the ceiling.

Remak has support from the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in East Elmhurst, which has offered interns to help run the museum.

Vaughn’s executive director of training, Domenic Proscia, called Remak’s vision “a great idea.” But he said the college would not provide funding.

Remak estimated that opening the museum in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park would cost at least $50 million and require a decade’s worth of renovations.

Remak, a former historian at the Intrepid museum in Manhattan, is counting on funding from Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. She met last Wednesday with Marshall’s deputy, Barry Grodenchik.

Marshall said in a statement that she couldn’t comment on the project since she had not seen a proposal. “Obviously, funding would be a major issue,” she said.

A spokesman for the city Parks Department, which is charged with maintaining the pavilion, said Remak’s plans are “too premature” for the agency to comment.

Elevator museum in LIC

From the Daily News:

A Long Island City man hopes to lift Queens tourism with the nation's first elevator museum.

Retired elevator executive Patrick Carrajat, 67, has packed 4,000 artifacts he salvaged and bought online into his fledgling 44th Ave. institution. Displays range from White House elevator inspection certificates to an animation cel of the Pink Panther by an elevator.

"I saw the history disappearing and said to myself, 'Somebody has to preserve it,'" Carrajat said.

Carrajat transformed a former classroom for prospective cabbies into the museum at 21-03 44th Ave., where shelves are filled with buttons, cigarette lighters and golf balls with names of elevator manufacturers.

Carrajat said he chose to open in Long Island City because it's close to the subway and about 20 elevator companies operate in a 10-block radius.

Is any taxpayer money going toward funding this?

Trouble at the South Street Seaport

From the Huffington Post:

New York City's South Street Seaport Museum is in crisis mode.

Its ships are in terrible condition and, according to the NY Times, the museum is in talks to move all its ships to another port. This is a terribly sad turn of events, at least for those who realize that South Street is more than just a collection of chain stores on a quaint cobblestoned street.

Even the most absent-minded of shoppers and tourists can't miss the tall-masted ships in the harbor. Soon enough, those ships may be gone with no money to bring them back. If that happens, South Street will truly be just an outdoor mall.

Volunteers -- the museum has always had many good volunteers -- have started a blog called http://saveourships.wordpress.com/ and are calling on supporters to petition the mayor and other elected public officials to lend some financial support. The hope is that it's not too late. Given the tight budget and the loss of money from Albany, the city may not be in a generous mood for a museum but maybe the mayor, who gives away millions to charities each year, can come to the rescue.

City not interested in Steinway Mansion

From the NY Times:

In Astoria, there has been talk of getting the city to buy the mansion. Peter Vallone Jr., the City Council member from the neighborhood, whose grandfather played pinochle with Michael Halberian when they were young, said proudly that the city’s parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, had paid a visit last fall.

Don’t count on a deal with the city. One requirement is an organization that could run it as a public museum or cultural center. Another is money. “Currently the city does not have the funding for and is not pursuing the acquisition of this property,” a parks department spokeswoman, Vickie Karp, said.

Mr. Vallone is not giving up.

“I’ve reached out to the mayor’s office and asked for good dates in the near future,” he said. “He has to see it. Anyone who walks in falls in love with the place.”

Armstrong museum expanding

From the Wall Street Journal:

The man known to millions as "Satchmo" is in the news again this week thanks to a pair of announcements by the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens. The Armstrong collection was opened in 1994, and the 107th Street house itself, where the trumpeter lived from 1943 until his death in 1971, was opened to the public in 2003. Up to now, the archive has been housed at Queens College, and has been described as the largest collection devoted to a single jazz musician anywhere in the world.

At a press conference at the Armstrong house last week, the museum's director, Michael Cogswell, announced that ground will be broken in the Spring of 2011 on a new visitor's center to be located on the other side of 107th Street. The building, which will be completed in 2013, will house the entire Armstrong library and include an 80-seat space for musical performances and educational purposes.

Said Mr. Cogswell, "The world is more interested than ever in Louis Armstrong."

The library includes material not only from Armstrong and his wife, Lucille Armstrong, but also from Phoebe Jacobs, who helped found the Armstrong Educational Foundation (the organization that supports the museum) in 1969, and Jack Bradley, an avid jazz researcher and photographer who gathered and took thousands of photos of the Armstrongs through the decades.

EDC allowing historic buildings to fall apart

From the Daily News:

A set of stunning 140-year-old buildings in an up-and-coming corner of Staten Island has been neglected so long that the interiors are rotting and foliage is growing from the inside out.

Big plans for the 3-acre Lighthouse Harbor Site in St. George have gone unrealized for more than a decade, despite millions in city funds spent to keep the buildings intact.

Two of the buildings, including one protected by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, were selected by the federal government in 1997 to house the National Lighthouse Museum, but preservation groups have failed so farto secure enough funding and get the museum up and running.

Triangle Equities, a Queens-based real estate firm, was selected in 2007 to develop the remaining three buildings. The firm announced plans to transform them into a massive mall with shops and restaurants, but the project has gone nowhere.

"The city is invested in this site. We've done a lot to put a plan in place that will make it a great Staten Island destination," said Julie Wood, spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp., which owns the buildings.

Wood said the EDC has spent $6.5 million to keep the buildings structurally sound.

If the EDC is involved, you know it won't go well.

9/11 artifacts at JFK

From Fox 5:

The Wall Street Journal reporter Ralph Gardner Jr. was given access to the artifacts stored at JFK Airport's Hangar 17.

From bicycles to mangled steel, a wide variety of objects damaged in the 9/11 terror attacks are being kept in the hangar before they're moved to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

Good Day New York spoke with Gardner on Tuesday about what he saw.

For a look at the artifacts at JFK Airport Hangar 17, CLICK HERE.

Meanwhile, there's concern over the design of the new WTC.