The Noguchi Museum, chartered as The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, is a museum and

sculpture garden A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings. A sculpture garden may be private, owned by ...

in the

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

section of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, designed and created by the

Japanese-American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asia ...

sculptor

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several ...

. Opening on a limited basis to the public in 1985, the museum and foundation were intended to preserve and display Noguchi's

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, architectural models, stage designs,

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

s, and

furniture design Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

s. The two-story, museum and sculpture garden, one block from the

Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

, underwent major renovations in 2004 allowing the museum to stay open year-round.

History

To house the museum, in 1974 Noguchi purchased a

photogravure Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) and ...

plant and gas station located across the street from his New York studio, where he had worked and lived since 1961. The Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum opened to the public in 1985 on a seasonal basis.Ken Johnson (1 September 2009)
A Stillness in the City: The Raw Grace of Noguchi’s Nimble Constructions
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New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. At the time, it was the first such museum to be established by a living artist in America. In 1999, the Foundation Board approved a $13.5 million capital master plan to address structural concerns,

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

and NYC Building Code compliance and create a new public education facility. During renovation, the museum relocated to a temporary space in

Sunnyside, Queens Sunnyside is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It shares borders with Hunters Point and Long Island City to the west, Astoria to the north, Woodside to the east and Maspeth to the south. It contains ...

, and held several thematic exhibitions of Noguchi's work. In February 2004, the museum was formally chartered as a museum, and granted 501(c)(3) public charity status. The Noguchi Museum reopened to the public at its newly renovated space in June 2004. The museum building continued to suffer from structural issues into the early 2000s and a second $8 million stabilization project was begun in September 2008. As a result, there are now 12 galleries and a gift shop within the museum. In 2022, the museum was awarded $4.5 million in capital funding, $1.5 million of which came from

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Eric Adams Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and retired police captain serving as the 110th mayor of New York City since January 1, 2022. Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York C ...

and the rest from

Borough president

Donovan Richards Donovan Richards, Jr. (born April 9, 1983) is an American politician serving as the Borough President of Queens. He is also a former New York City Council member, having represented the 31st district. He is a member of the Democratic Party. His ...

. The funds will be used for a restoration of the artist's original 1959 living and studio space situated opposite the museum as well as for a new two-story, 6,000-square-foot building adjacent to the studio to house the museum's collection and archival material.

Tree of Heaven

Until March 26, 2008, a -tall 75-year-old

Tree of Heaven ''Ailanthus altissima'' , commonly known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, varnish tree, or in Chinese as ''chouchun'' (), is a deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae. It is native to northeast and central China, and Taiwan. Unlike other membe ...

(''Ailanthus altissima'') was a prominent centerpiece of the sculpture garden at the museum. The tree was spared by Noguchi when in 1975 he bought the building which would become the museum and cleaned up its back lot. " a sense, the sculpture garden was designed around the tree", said a former aide to Noguchi, Bonnie Rychlak, who later became the museum curator. By early 2008, the tree was found to be dying and threatened to crash into the building, which was about to undergo an $8.2 million renovation. The museum hired the Detroit Tree of Heaven Woodshop, an artists' collective, to use the wood to make benches, sculptures and other amenities in and around the building.

Programs

Exhibition

The museum celebrated the 25th anniversary of its opening with the exhibition ''On Becoming an Artist. Isamu Noguchi and His Contemporaries, 1922 - 1960'', which open from November 17, 2010, to April 24, 2011

Education

The

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996), ...

has recognized the museum's educational program, ''Art for Families'', as a stellar example of a community outreach program, and ''Art for Tots'' as a “superb approach” in making young children comfortable in a museum setting.

Isamu Noguchi Award

Since 2014, the Isamu Noguchi Award has been given annually “to individuals who share useum founderNoguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness, and East-West exchange.” Recipients have included: * 2014:

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Nor ...

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory. Early life and education Hiroshi Sugimoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He reportedly took his earliest photographs ...

* 2015:

Jasper Morrison Jasper Morrison (born 1959) is an English product and furniture designer. He is know for the refinement and apparent simplicity of his designs. In a rare interview with the designer, he is quoted as saying: "Objects should never shout". Ear ...

Yoshio Taniguchi Yoshio Taniguchi (谷口吉生, ''Taniguchi Yoshio''; born 1937) is a Japanese architect best known for his redesign of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which was reopened November 20, 2004. Critics have emphasized Taniguchi's fusion ...

* 2016: Tadao Ando,

Elyn Zimmerman Elyn Zimmerman (born 1945) is an American sculptor known for her emphasis on large scale, site specific projects and environmental art. Along with these works, Zimmerman has exhibited drawings and photographs since graduating with an MFA in painti ...

* 2017:

John Pawson John Ward Pawson , (born 1949, Halifax, England) is a British architect whose work is known for its minimalist aesthetic. Architectural Registration Board (ARB) of UK asked Dezeen magazine not to refer him as architect although this was critic ...

Hiroshi Senju is a Japanese ''Nihonga'' painter known for his large scale waterfall paintings. Biography Hiroshi Senju was born in Tokyo. He has one brother, composer Akira Senju, and one sister, violinist Mariko Senjyu. He completed the BFA, Tokyo Univers ...

* 2018:

Naoto Fukasawa Naoto Fukasawa (; born 1956) is a Japanese designer, author, and educator, working in the fields of product and furniture design. He is known for his product design work with the Japanese retail company Muji, as well as collaborations with compa ...

, Edwina von GalClaire Selvin (14 March 2019)
Rei Kawakubo Wins 2019 Isamu Noguchi Award
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ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...

''. * 2019:

Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. She is the founder of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market. In recognition of the notable design contributions of Kawakubo, an exhibition of her designs entitled '' Rei ...

* 2020:

David Adjaye Sir David Frank Adjaye (born 22 September 1966) is a Ghanaian-British architect. He is known for having designed many notable buildings around the world, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. ...

, Cai Guo-Qiang * 2021: Shio Kusaka,

Toshiko Mori Toshiko Mori (born 1951) is a Japanese architect and the founder and principal of New York-based Toshiko Mori Architect, PLLC and Vision Arc. She is also the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Gra ...

Directors

* 1989–2003:

Shoji Sadao Shoji Sadao (貞尾昭二, January 1927 – November 3, 2019) was a Japanese American architect, best known for his work and collaborations with R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi. During World War II he was stationed in Germany and was a ...

* 2003–2017:

Jenny Dixon Jane ("Jenny") Hoadley Dixon (born October 1, 1950) is an American arts administrator. Dixon has undertaken initiatives which contributed to the development of four New York City cultural organizations—the Public Art Fund, Lower Manhattan Cultu ...

* 2018–present: Brett LittmanAndrew R. Chow (5 February 2018)
Noguchi Museum Hires New Director
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''.

References

External links

*
A quick visit to the Noguchi Museum

The Noguchi Museum at Google Cultural Institute
{{authority control 1985 establishments in New York City Art museums and galleries in New York City Art museums established in 1985 Artists' studios in the United States Astoria, Queens Long Island City Museums devoted to one artist Museums in Queens, New York Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in New York (state)