The Queens Museum of Art is changing its name. The institution is changing its name to the Queens Museum. The renaming accompanies a planned $65-million, 50,000-square-foot expansion that is scheduled to be finished in October.
The Queens Museum of Art is located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York. It is housed in the New York City Building that was constructed for the 1939 World’s Fair and hosted the United Nations General Assembly 1946-50. Founded in 1972, the museum houses the well known Panorama of the City of New York, a scale model of the five boroughs built for the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
Situated in the most diverse county in the United States, the QMA has focused on outreach and access for a wide range of audiences. The museum is known for international contemporary art exhibitions that reflect the hyper-diversity of the borough. The museum’s Education Department is the first in America to employ art therapists in a dedicated, fully accessible classroom, while the Public Events department has hired community organizers to work on local improvement initiatives.