46 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 6, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Four wonderful decades at Flushing Town Hall
BY SAMI ABU SHUMAYS
Deputy Director, Flushing Town Hall
Forty years ago, it was hard to imagine
how rich the cultural life of Queens
would become, or the role Flushing Town
Hall would play.
In the late 1970s and 80s, New York City
was experiencing a period of urban decay,
and Flushing Town Hall was just another
abandoned building.
Thanks to our 2019 honoree, Claire
Shulman, we have become a force in the
community. At the same time, waves of
new immigration to Flushing, beginning
after the 1964 World’s Fair and picking up
in the 1970s, were beginning to transform
the neighborhood.
Jo-Ann Jones saw the potential. At the
time, she was singing with the Oratorio
Society of Queens, and helping fundraise,
and she wanted to raise the profile
of the growing cultural community
in the neighborhood. In 1979, she
reached out to Aaron Weiss, then head
of the Downtown Flushing Development
Corporation (DFDC).
Together they created the Flushing
Council on Culture and the Arts (FCCA),
which was initially an arts and culture
committee of the DFDC until its incorporation
as a separate organization in 1983.
Jones was one of several important leaders
Jo-Ann Jones, Cobi Narita, Jimmy Heath & other Jazz artists featured at FTH
in Queens who had major impacts on
Flushing Town Hall. For the first five years
of FCCA, she volunteered all of her time to
run the organization. Her broad-minded
and inclusive approach was clear from the
start: she was committed to presenting art
to the growing immigrant population and
presenting a wide variety of artistic disciplines
to the community.
In its first decade, FCCA partnered
with more than 50 venues across Queens
to present concerts and festivals, including
the Queens Botanical Garden,
Queens Museum, Queens Theater, and
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where
FCCA presented the “Asian Village” at the
Queens Festival every year from 1985-
1992. In 1992, FCCA made a bold move
at the festival, presenting an African
Pavilion alongside the Asian Village, and
developing cross-cultural arts education
programs. In Jones’ words, the goal of
FCCA was “To Reveal and Revel in the
Diversity” of Queens.
After FCCA opened its own small
art gallery in 1985, it presented exhibits
by numerous Haitian, Latino, and
Chinese artists (and an exhibition of
Isamu Noguchi’s work while he was still
alive). “Intercultural Exchange” was core
to FCCA’s mission.
*****
While FCCA was beginning to have a
greater impact on the borough’s cultural
scene, the Flushing Town Hall building
was falling into disrepair. Built in 1862 as
the town hall for the Village of Flushing,
the stunning Romanesque-Revival building
was converted to a courthouse when
the five boroughs incorporated in 1898.
In 1967, the building was given landmark
status. It passed through numerous
hands, and by 1989, it was a dilapidated
building with boarded up windows and a
crumbling façade.
Claire Shulman was one of the leaders
determined to save the building. Shulman,
as borough president, had an impact on
the cultural life of Queens that cannot be
overstated: she was responsible for saving
historic buildings and creating and
funding numerous cultural institutions
during her tenure. She took an active role
in the fight to save Flushing Town Hall,
along with Community Board 7. Finally,
in 1989, Judge Phyllis Flug issued a ruling
enabling the city to have the property.
Claire Shulman showing FTH to Mayor Dinkins
Claire Shulman Emily Lin
Dr. Hsing-Lih Chou teaching Calligraphy
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