Project Diversity Celebrates Queens' Cutting-Edge Visual Arts Scene

From September to November the Queens Council on the Arts multimedia art exhibition will feature 87 Queens artists at 13 galleries, including art parties and family workshops.

The exhibits will also introduce visitors and residents to Queens' burgeoning arts scene, multicultural neighborhoods, and revitalized commercial districts.

Using the arts as a catalyst, "PDQ moves beyond the traditional exhibition experience and offers three months of bite-size, marvelous and unpredictable art all over Queens," Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, Queens Council on the Arts executive director said.

Project Diversity's diverse curatorial committee of Queens gallery owners, exhibitors, and arts professionals selected works by 87 Queens artists from some 400 entries, and then created 13 distinct, thematic exhibitions that incorporate all visual media.

Shows will be held at: Art About Us, Henry deFord III Gallery, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, MeatSpace Gallery, Queens Borough Hall, Queens Botanical Garden, Queens Museum of Art, Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, Repetti, Rockaway Artist Alliance, Topaz Arts, Inc., World Culture Opencenter at Koreavillage, and Y Gallery/ Augusto Yayiok.

"Project Diversity Queens focuses on bringing the artists of the borough together. Queens' exhibition spaces are dotted throughout the area many not knowing that the other exists. We are hoping that the artists and galleries become aware of one another and begin the type of conversations that are the building blocks of a vibrant artist community" Danny Simmons, executive producer of Project Diversity, commented.

Project Diversity Queens (PDQ) will build on the success of the 2005 Project Diversity in Brooklyn which helped build the community, audiences and the Brooklyn arts and culture scene. Similar results are planned for Queens.

Project Diversity Queens is presented by the Queens Council on the Arts (QCA), and produced by Project Diversity founder Danny Simmons, Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, endorsed by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and Councilmember Domenic Recchia Jr., chairperson, Committee on Cultural Affairs, and is supported by Bloomberg, LLP, Con Edison, Independence Community Foundation, Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, The New York Times community affairs, the New York state Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

For more information go to www.queenscouncilarts.org or contact Elise Raz, arts services director at 718-647-3377, ext. 17.