Diverse Learning Experience Awaits Visitors In Queens
REPORTED BY DIANA SANDERS

The warmer months of the year are approaching, and while not quite warm enough to indulge in beaches or fun-in-the-sun, Queens has just about everything for families to enjoy no matter the season, for example:

The Museum of the Moving Image in Long Island City, a landmark in the Astoria and Long Island City area, offers film screenings, exhibitions, seminars and history of film education.

In the world of art, the Queens Museum of Art (QMA), located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is a cultural Mecca. The museum is best known for its Panorama, built for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. A 9,335 square-foot model of all five boroughs that make up New York City is still a popular tourist site that averages about 1,500 visitors on a daily basis. QMA is also the permanent home to the Neustadt collection of Tiffany Glass as well as housing exhibitions of local artists. Currently on display are Open Routines: Recent Projects by Pedro Lasch, ABCDF: Portraits of Mexico City, and Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao: Habitat 7.

Japanese American sculptor, designer, architect, and craftsman Isamu Noguchi's serene and classic works of clay, stone, wood and metal are on display in the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City.

His gardens and fountains bring out the beauty their locations possess. The large abstract stone sculptures are both majestic and personal. He believed that through sculpture and architecture, one could better understand the struggle with nature. It is that search for understanding which brings together his many and varied works. The Museum of African Art displays many African historic art forms mainly through sculptures. Currently in LIC, the museum will be moving to Manhattan in 2008, but until then the store remains open and exhibitions will be on display throughout New York and the rest of the country.

Finally, the Queens County Farm Museum in Floral Park puts a unique spin on art forms. It is the only working farm in all of New York City that is open year round where children and adults can see and feed the farm animals. Museum-goers can also take a tractor-drawn hayride, visit the herb garden, orchard, greenhouse and planting fields or attend events such as an antique car show, American Indian Pow-Wow or attend the Big Apple Depression Glass Club collectible and antique show and sale.

Queens county's rich art forms and places of exhibition are an excellent way for families and visitors to spend their days, while at the same time being exposed to scores of historical pieces and learning not only about art but diverse ethnicities as well.

The article about museums in Queens was compiled by hdcnyc.com