THE QUEENS MUSEUM! I was so excited to go there since I am from Queens! I also had been to the Queens Museum of Art before and I knew it was really cool and interesting! Even though these exhibits didn’t meet the expectations from my last visit there two years ago, it was still great to see the Panorama again! One thing I didn’t know until I started reading The Power Broker by Robert was that Robert Moses played a huge role in World’s Fair took place here in 1964. Corona park is a part of my childhood, my family has spent summers here, we have attended festivals, and we even attended Billy Graham’s last crusade in 2005 here, which was a three day event and hand over 90,000 people in attendance of all faiths and beliefs!

I’m learning to enjoy the journey of where I’m going and class trips have been no different! Getting off the 7 train, we walked past this bridge that led us over where the trains are laid to rest, which  then lead us into Corona Park. This walk is an experience by itself. The landscaping and change of scenery makes you want to put your phone down and take the moment in. In the above picture, our class is walking ahead, while I stayed a few steps behind to captivate the moment. There is this industrial feeling while walking through here, and in contrast to the other weeks, there aren’t many tall buildings in sight, reminding you that you are outside of Manhattan. Below are the trains I mentioned.

Once we entered the Queens Museum, the first stop was The New York City Panorama. We were all anxious to get inside and experience it since it was was conceived as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure by World’s Fair President Robert Moses for the 1964 Fair. As per the sign at the exhibit, the Panorama was built by a team of more than 100 people working for the great architectural model makers Raymond Lester & Associates over the course of three years. It was also the most successful exhibit at the 1964 fair, costing $0.10 per “ride” since it was marketed as an indoor helicopter ride of NYC.

Later in 1992 Lester & Associates were called again to bring the model up to date. This model contains each of the city’s 895,000 buildings constructed prior to 1992 and every street, park and some 100 bridges are represented and assembled onto 273 individual sections comprising the 320 square miles of New York City. This model still includes the World Trade center before September 11 attack. The Panorama is a metropolis in miniature, but in person it feels massive since it takes up a huge room.

The inside of the museum, on the second floor has the most beautiful view of the globe and I was capturing this picture below! This globe is huge and anytime I’m returning home from a a trip by plane, I always spot it from the air! It’s a reminder that I’m home! This globe is actually referred to as the Unisphere, and below is a little bit on it’s history.

The Unisphere, located at the center of the radial pathways in the northern half of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, was commissioned for the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65. Designed by landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke (1892–1982) in aluminum with metallic mesh continents, the Unisphere was further refined in stainless steel by industrial designers at Peter Muller-Munk Associates. American Bridge Company, a division of US Steel, engineered, fabricated and erected the 350-ton, 120-foot-diameter globe, which was the centerpiece and icon of the fair.

Above information provided by:

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/flushing-meadows-corona-park/highlights/12761

After looking to the side, in NYC fashion I realized they were doing a photoshoot for wedding and it made me think of how much we experience in NYC constantly. It’s an overload of stimulation and if I weren’t at the museum to specifically observe I probably wouldn’t even notice it as I walk by photoshoots, movie sets, and sometimes even celebrities in NYC streets and don’t realize!

After this exciting wedding photoshoot, I went back to exploring the museum and experienced Pia Camil’s exhibit called “Fade into black: sit, chill, look, talk, roll, play, listen, give, take, dance, share”. As per the below picture and stated in the exhibit to describe Camil’s work was “Pia Camil’s work uses textile, sculpture, and performance to create environments which confront the politics of global consumerism through the language of theater and retail. Recently, Camil has begun to recycle and alter textiles to reflect the larger socio-political forces which inform their production and distribution.” Walking through it felt a bit horderish, and made me think of what an over consumer I am! I most definitely have too much clothes in general and that’s exactly the point of this exhibit, to stimulate thought of your contribution to pollution.

The jeans on the floor were filled to represent human bodies, and that creeped me out! Even though there were people sitting and lounging on them.

The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass is the below picture. And this exhibit reminded of me HH Holmes since he used to tell the public he had a glass company and it was the excuse he used to build the box in the basement that would heat up to ridiculous temperatures– which he really used to burn bodies of those he killed. This room also had beautiful lamps and mosaic pieces of furniture which reminded me of my grandmother’s house! It’s incredible to see how much work a simple lamp was to make and how detailed it was.

 

Thank you for spending this week in Queens with me!

See you next week,

xoxo,

P