When I find an unexpected friend

The Queens Museum is dedicated to presenting the highest quality visual arts and educational programming for people in the New York metropolitan area, and particularly for the residents of Queens, a uniquely diverse, ethnic, cultural, and international community.

The Museum fulfills its mission by designing and providing art exhibitions, public programs and educational experiences that promote the appreciation and enjoyment of art, support the creative efforts of artists, and enhance the quality of life through interpreting, collecting, and exhibiting art, architecture, and design.

The Queens Museum presents artistic and educational programs and exhibitions that directly relate to the contemporary urban life of its constituents, while maintaining the highest standards of professional, intellectual, and ethical responsibility.

Queens Theatre is the premier performing arts venue in Queens. Queens Theatre’s mission is to provide quality and diverse performing arts activities that are economically and geographically accessible to the 2.2 million residents of Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the nation, and the surrounding metropolitan region. To foster greater cultural awareness and appreciation, the Theatre presents and produces programs that reflect this diversity and features international, national and local artists.

Materials for the Arts (MFTA), a program of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, is NYC’s largest creative reuse center supporting arts nonprofits, social service organizations, public schools, and City agencies. MFTA operates a 35,000-square-foot warehouse and collects about 1.5 million pounds of supplies each year, which it makes available, free of charge, to its 4,000 member organizations. In addition to providing materials, MFTA has an Artist-in-Residence program and holds Third Thursday public events, which include gallery openings, conversations, presentations, and community workshops. The MFTA Education Center provides opportunities for teachers and students to learn about the importance of reuse, sustainability, and art through field trips, residencies, and professional development courses. Materials for the Arts was founded in 1978, and in addition to the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the program receives support from the NYC Department of Education and Friends of Materials for the Arts. Learn more at nyc.gov/mfta.

Shelton Lindsay (@Shelton_whimsy) is a creative director, writer and performer living and working in NYC. His company, Pink Wallet, specializes in unique theatrical events blending art and experience. Additionally he produces a bi-monthly talk show, Perfectly Queer, aimed at inspiring queer youth to live their boldest most authentic lives with the It Gets Better Project.

He is the creative director on a show for Virgin Cruises with the New York Neo-Futurists, a theater company he has been a member of for the last 7 years, and an independent director.

A frequent collaborator of MFTA he is dedicated to advocating for and raising awareness around sustainable, up-cycled and recycled art practices.

Colombian born artist Juanita Cárdenas turned her BFA from The Cooper Union into a one-of-a-kind career in the performing arts as a cutting edge innovator combining aerial performance and puppetry.  She works as a costume designer, circus performer, trapeze teacher, show producer, puppet/prop designer and fabricator. Her undying love for live performance and collaboration has fueled a life where one fever dream follows the next creating a world filled with a menagerie of animated creatures, glittering costumes, absurdist circus and inexhaustible joy.

She is the artistic director of the circus theater collective Visceral Abstractions currently in  development of Sex Ed episode 2 returning to House of Yes this November. She is also Puppet Designer for the Panto Project as well as set and production designer of Viva DeConcini’s Radical Lesbian Puppet TV show “Beautiful, Evil, Lost”.

Mujeres en Movimiento is a group based in Corona Queens, made up of women and their families, youth, children, and men who have come to enjoy the family atmosphere, focused on health and dance therapy.

This group was born within the International Immigrant Movement, which had its headquarters in Corona Queens from 2011 to 2018, leaving a deep mark on the lives of the inhabitants of Queens and the rest of NY. Mujeres en Movimiento began with the intention of its leader Veronica Ramirez, who was only looking for a place to exercise and thus try to get out of a severe depression, with the Tania Bruguera’s support and her tireless energy and ability to invent and perseverance was Gradually attracting other women and following the example of the Immigrant Movement International, maintaining free access for all members of the community who wish to come and participate, a space was created that is no longer held by the walls of a local, but rather it is part of the community itself, giving life to all its parks.

Mujeres en Movimiento practices Artivism, it has been the axis of many campaigns that range from marches against domestic violence, education, bicycle lines, participation in powerful community projects such as “El Festival del Pueblo” and the creation of the Bus del Pueblo, with Yazmany Arboleda, who has been an elemental part in the expansion of this constant movement.

The Women also participate in conversations, panels and activities that always have a component of movement, but above all of awareness of the participants.

With Mujeres en Movimiento, many women will be able to move from their situations of abuse and despair to a place that is not physical, but that goes beyond any space, a movement and a place that cannot be contained and that grows exponentially for the benefit of everyone with whom he connects in his constant activity that overflows with joy and brotherhood at every step.

Queens Public Library transforms lives by cultivating personal and intellectual growth and by building strong communities.