moved to a carriage house on West 8th Street in Manhattan, and
relocated to another carriage house on East 69th Street. In 2001,
the agency purchased its present site. The building was then
redesigned by Maya Lin, the landscape artist who designed the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. It was more
recently expanded and renovated by Andrew Berman Architect.
Address: 44-19 Purves St., Long Island City, and www.sculpturecenter.
org.
SELF-TAUGHT GENIUS GALLERY
Founded in 1961, the American Folk Art Museum is devoted
to traditional folk art and creative expressions of contemporary
self‐taught artists from around the world. Its primary location is
in Manhattan, but the museum also runs the Self-Taught Genius
Gallery, a roughly 1,800-square-foot Queens space devoted to
showing works from its permanent collection.
Inside scoop: The permanent collection includes more than 8,000
paintings, textiles, sculpture, furniture, fraternal art, pottery,
books, photographs, and works on paper by self-taught artists
from the 18th through 21st centuries.
Address: 47-29 32nd Pl., Long Island City and www.
folkartmuseum.org.
SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK
Socrates Sculpture Park is NYC’s only public area dedicated to
giving artists the chance to exhibit large-scale creations. Visitors
might marvel at huge banners proudly flapping beside a largerthan
life replica of a bear or ponder a dormant pick-up truck with
water lilies growing in its cabin and hatchback.
The outdoor venue is located at the banks of the East River with
fantastic views of Roosevelt Island and Manhattan’s Upper East
Side, including Gracie Mansion, where the mayor lives. The air
has a slightly salty aspect, due to ocean water rolling in from the
Long Island Sound, and birds are all around.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the park was an abandoned landfill
that had become an illegal dumping site. In 1986, a group of
artists and local activists reclaimed it. Today, in addition to
the exhibitions, it hosts outdoor movies, an annual kite-flying
extravaganza, a circus, a bicycle parade, workshops, a farmers
market, and other activities.
Inside scoop: Socrates is only one block from the Noguchi
Museum and across the street from a Mansard-Roofed Clock
Tower. This L-shaped tower is atop a building that once housed
50 QUEENS IN YOUR POCKET • www.itsinqueens.com
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