Image museum moves ahead with new space

In Hollywood, nobody wants a runaway production. In Queens, however, it's a different story.

At the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, what began as a modest plan to accommodate more visiting school groups eventually grew into a $67-million overhaul. The building has nearly doubled in size, adding a new lobby, cafe and outdoor courtyard. The museum now has two screening rooms, two amphitheater-style presentation spaces, a 50-foot wall for commissioned video-art pieces and even enough room to throw a shindig or two. The public will get its first glimpse at the grand reopening on Saturday.

"We're able to provide a completely different ambience," director Rochelle Slovin said last week as construction crews were still sawing, drilling and painting, "something more glamorous that befits our subject matter."

A NEW BEGINNING

Dedicated to preserving the history of film, video and digital media, the Museum of the Moving Image opened in September 1988 on a then-barren corner of 37th Street and 35th Avenue. It gradually helped attract new cafes and restaurants but remained too cramped to be a neighborhood hangout spot. Meanwhile, other New York City art institutions like the nearby PS1 and the Brooklyn Academy of Music began pulling in crowds by throwing parties with alcohol and live music, a trend the Moving Image venue couldn't follow.

One of the first events at the new museum will be the Saturday night multimedia party Signal to Noise, with musicians playing hacked Game Boys, live VJs generating visual mash-ups and a robotic orchestra playing to silent films. It's scheduled to last until 2 a.m.

LOTS OF MOVIES

And, of course, there will be movies. The new 267-seat screening room, with dramatically tiered seating and nearly silent air-conditioning, will be christened Saturday with restored 70-mm prints of Jacques Tati's "Playtime" and Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey." New equipment allows for previously unscreenable formats, such as 3-D and digital projection. And an added screening room with 68 seats can be used for specialized programming, like this weekend's retrospective of experimental films by the Kuchar brothers.

"That puts us at the forefront of a very small group of organizations that have museum-quality screenings," Slovin said. "There are very few of us, and we play an important part in screen culture."

WHAT: The Museum of the Moving Image

WHERE: 35th Avenue and 37 Street in Astoria reopens Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

INFO: $10; 718-777-6888 or go to movingimage.us for information on screenings, exhibits and events