By Dustin Brown
A former staple factory in Long Island City is now a modern art mecca for the masses.
By Sunday night, more than 20,000 people had passed through the blue walls of MoMA QNS during its opening celebration, inaugurating the museum’s three-year exhibition program in Long Island City while its Manhattan home undergoes massive renovations.
“We were delighted that so many visitors came to the museum from all parts of New York City and other parts of the country and even other parts of the world on this opening weekend,” said Ruth Kaplan, the deputy director for marketing and communication for the Museum of Modern Art.
Admission was free between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and for much of that time a line stretched out the museum’s frosted glass doors, down 33rd Street and around the corner past the New Thompson’s Diner on Queens Boulevard.
“It seemed like an event,” said Adam Goldberg, 31, a Brooklyn resident who was among the first in line Saturday morning.
Nearly 17,500 patrons stepped through the museum with the free weekend admission stubs and more than 5,000 attended an invitation-only opening party last Thursday night, braving heavy rains as they waited to get inside — although many were turned away at the door.
If the lines were long, travel time was anything but.
The 10-minute subway ride from Manhattan not only tops the museum’s sales pitch but is also a point of pride for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who praised the easy ride when he helped cut the ribbon last Thursday morning at the renovated Swingline staple factory.
“For the record, I left City Hall at 10 o’clock sharp and at 10:30 I was here. All you have to do is take the 4 and the 7,” Bloomberg told the crowd seated in a central hall which opens into three galleries. “Anyone can get anyplace in New York City.”
But if the idea of hopping on a subway — and riding it into Queens, no less — seems to conflict with the museum’s high-brow reputation, no one was better suited to draw a laugh from the incongruity than its own chairman.
“I have never been on the 4 train or the 7 train,” said Ronald Lauder, the chairman of the museum’s board of trustees and a former mayoral candidate, in a glib retort to the mayor. “As a matter of fact, I don’t even know where they are.”
MoMA’s decision to move out to Queens was a brazen display of chutzpah and risk, a gamble that left many wondering whether the patrons would follow it across the East River.
But follow they did.
“This brought us out,” said Linn Hallas, 75, who frequently visits New York from North Carolina with her husband but rarely leaves Manhattan. “Next time we’ll spend more time in Queens.”
“It’s a first for MoMA,” said Evelyn Goldsholl, 76, of Rego Park. “I was very curious to see how they could fix up this old staple factory into a museum. It looks so far like they did an outstanding job.”
Most patrons said they were impressed by the exhibits and the innovative use of space, although many also were disappointed the galleries were not more extensive.
The museum embraced its new home with a devoted passion, launching an aggressive publicity campaign that shared the spotlight with the neighborhood’s other museums, such as the Noguchi Museum and the American Museum of the Moving Image.
“MoMA has moved to Queens, not as a stranger but as a partner,” Borough President Helen Marshall said at the ribbon-cutting. “This is probably the greatest wonder that we have built out of these old factories that once were the lifeblood of our city’s economy.”
The museum opened with four exhibitions: selections from the permanent collection, including master works like Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”; “Tempo,” which explores perceptions of time in contemporary art; “Autobodies,” the museum’s car collection, seen together for the first time; and photographs of Astoria and places in Queens by Rudy Burckhardt.
“The permanent collection in this new space is like seeing it again for the first time,” said Brooklyn artist Nina Katchadourian.
The celebration also was rife with symbolism. A kitschy procession in which replicas of the master works were carted across the Queensboro Bridge June 23 was preserved for all to see in a video exhibit at the museum.
Then on Saturday night, hundreds of people crowded the piers at Gantry Plaza State Park to watch a minute-long burst of fireworks in which the letters “MoMA QNS” flashed across the sky before a rainbow of colors united Manhattan with Queens.
Even before it opened, MoMA had established itself as a borough icon via the sign on its roof. When viewed from the No. 7 train, the word “MoMA” comes together for a brief instant from pieces painted onto an assortment of rooftop surfaces before splitting back into a meaningless jumble.
“It’s like a force of habit now,” said Peter Wing, 40, a computer consultant from Flushing, who said he always looks for the sign as he rides the train. “And then I wink when everything lines up.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
