FREE ADMISSION!
Queens cultural centers open
their doors on Fridays
BY ROB MACKAY
There are a few great reasons
to scream “TGIF!” in Queens
these days.
Three local cultural venues
are currently offering free admission and
special programming on Fridays. It’s a
weekly phenomenon at the Museum of
the Moving Image (MoMI) and a monthly
treat at the Noguchi Museum and the
Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
(JCAL).
MoMI, which is located at 36-01
35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts
District, bequeaths gallery admission
every Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., thanks
to a $75,000 grant from the Richmond
Country Savings Foundation and public
funds from the NYC Department of
Cultural Affairs. This means that visitors
can peruse the ongoing exhibitions, but
they can’t attend screenings without
paying a fee.
The most popular current attraction
is The Jim Henson Exhibition, which
features almost 300 objects, including
47 of the namesake’s puppets (not
all are Muppets), as well as character
sketches, storyboards, photographs, and
costumes. Plus, monitors show film and
television clips and behind-the-scenes
footage.
Other popular MoMI gallery shows
are Behind the Screen, which explores
how film, television, and digital media are
made, marketed, and shown; A Whole
Different Ball Game: Playing Through
60 Years of Sports Video Games, which
provides a selection of more than 40
playable games spanning the last six
decades; Don’t Forget the Pictures:
Glass Slides from the Collection, which
presents projections and installations of
more than 100 glass slides from 1914–
1948; and “Crossover (The Scene),” a
video that Ahmed El Shaer created with
inspiration from the lives of migrants in
a refugee camp in Calais, France.
On April 5, Noguchi, which is at 9-01
33rd Rd. in Long Island City, will offer
free admission from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tours of the site, which was founded by
prolific, multi-talented artist and land-scape
architect Isamu Noguchi, will
be offered in English and Japanese
at 2 p.m.
The program, Free First Fridays, will
expand next month, and Noguchi will stay
open until 8 p.m. with a cash bar on first
Fridays from May through September.
46 APRIL 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Meanwhile, JCAL, 161-04 Jamaica
Ave., organizes its First Friday Series as
a talent incubator. With 7:30 p.m. start
times, artists of all disciplines develop
and refine their unfinished works in
front of live audiences that can attend
for free (donations accepted).
Rising Stars of Classical Music is set
for April 5. Three youngsters — QingYu
Chen, Li Yu Chen, and Jenny Jiang — will
play songs by Bach, Leclair, Shosta-kovich,
and other classical composers.
Qing Yu Chen is a National YoungArts
Foundation finalist who took second
place at the 2017 Cooper International
Violin Competition and the 2017 Stul-berg
International String Competition. Li
Yu Chen, who plays violin and piano, is
in her first year at Queens High School
for the Sciences at York College. She
has been studying at the Juilliard Pre-
College School since she was 12. Jiang,
is a freshman at The Spence School in
Manhattan. She studies cello at the Pre-
College Division of the Juilliard School.
Kita P, a singer/songwriter/guitarist,
will take the stage at JCAL on Friday,
May 3. Then, multimedia performance
artist/videomaker Tara Mateik and cho-reographer/
dancer Brandon Coleman
will present a Gay Pride Month Celebra-tion
on Friday, June 7.
Film
Images: Sachyn Mital/Museum of the Moving Image;
Nicholas Knight/The Noguchi Museum
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