A new arts district in Queens will promote Astoria to visitors and potential new venues, local elected officials will announce Friday at the Kaufman Astoria Studios.
The 94-year-old film studio, which once set the stage for classic Marx Brothers movies and the Cosby Show, will partner with the Queens Council on the Arts and the Museum of the Moving Image to promote art in the 24-block zone.
“Arts districts are a fantastic way to strengthen a place like Astoria by drawing attention to the depth of artists and arts groups, and by bringing in visitors to celebrate their work,” said Kerry McCarthy of the New York Community Trust, a nonprofit that donates funds to the two existing arts districts on E. 4th St. in Lower Manhattan and in the area surrounding the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The so-called Kaufman Arts District, which will be the first of its kind in Queens and just the third such designation in the city, will bolster the neighborhood’s historic creative community, supporters told The News.
The Queens district, which will run from Steinway St. to 31st St. and from 34th Ave. to 37th Ave., is packed with performance venues, arts schools and eateries — many of which have sprung up in just the past several years.
The partners will coordinate ad campaigns and create joint events to push the neighborhood as a destination.
The studios opened the city’s first outdoor soundstage in December in the same complex where stars from Rudolph Valentino to Tom Hanks once shot movies. A current exhibit at the museum shows the studio’s far-reaching impact on American films dating back to its opening in 1920.
Artists and venue owners expressed support Wednesday for the effort to recognize Astoria as an creative hub.
“We don’t have to create an artistic community — we just need to cultivate what’s already here,” said Micah Burgess, who runs the Art House Astoria conservatory with his wife.
Elsewhere in the area, the Astoria Jazz Band has been performing big band swing shows since 1986. Longtime saxophonist and group founder Carol Sudhalter hopes the district will buffer the arts scene against gentrification.
“It’s really ripe,” said Sudhalter. “There’s a lot of good, really healthy cultural activity. The only danger is that it gets too expensive and we all have to leave — you know that trend.”
And visitors to the museum and the studios will generate business for surrounding shops, said Pete Mason of Studio Square, an adjacent beer garden and music venue.
“It’s only beneficial to everyone in the neighborhood,” he said. “You’re not going to go home without getting a bite to eat.”
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