MoMA Qns Set To Van Gogh

MoMA Qns, which has made its temporary home in Long Island City for the past two years, will be going back to a renovated and expanded home in midtown.
The cultural icon, along with taking its expansive trove of treasures and artwork, will also appreciably decrease ancillary business revenue.
"Theyre going to be very well missed," said Keri Gavin, manager of Dazies Restaurant. "We got a considerable amount of business from them well miss them. Culturally, they were a great outlet for kids, who didnt have to travel into Manhattan."
In the time it has been at its Queens location, MoMA, with its annual attendance of 400,000, has attracted tourists, patrons, and the admiration of the many other LIC cultural institutions, as it has drawn attention to the pre-existing artistic value of the neighborhood.
"Long Island City has had a long-standing history with the arts," said Dan Miner, Senior Vice President of the Long Island City Business Development Corp. (LICBDC). "The area has a number of art institutions, including PS1 Contemporary Art Museum [a MoMA affiliate], Socrates Sculpture Park, Sculpture Center, the Nougouchi Museum, the Museum for African Art, Thalia Spanish Theatre, Museum of Heliography and the Fisher Landau Center, all of which have been here for quite some time."
MoMA has even helped to facilitate formal relationships between these diverse cultural centers, leading to the birth of the Long Island City Cultural Association.
And though most local business owners are concerned that the loss of MoMA will mean a sharp decline in revenue, Miner is not worried.
"Long Island City was not starving or impoverished before MoMA came," he said. "It has always been an economically stable and diverse neighborhood. Im sure the people here will adapt, because MoMA moving will not leave a huge hole in the economy of LIC it wont be a traumatic shift. It will remain here with staff and a large presence."
And according to MoMA officials, this will be very true.
"We feel that we have been part of a wonderful thriving cultural community in Queens," said Ruth Kaplan, Deputy Director of Marketing and Communications for MoMA. "For us, it has been a privilege to be part of the community; we feel were not leaving Queens, but instead our connection will remain very strong because of PS1."
MoMA will reopen on November 20 at 11 West 53rd Street, with an admission price of $20. Its Queens facility will be utilized both for storage and as a study center for scholars.
E-mail this reporter at toni@queenscourier.com.