GENERAL INFORMATION Museum Closed for Renovation. Grand Re-Opening, January 15, 2011. From October 12 through December 23, 2010 the core exhibition Behind the Screen will be open to school and adult groups by appointment. MISSION Museum of the Moving Image advances the public understanding and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. It does so by collecting, preserving, and providing access to moving-image related artifacts; screening significant films and other moving-image works; presenting exhibitions of artifacts, artworks, and interactive experiences; and offering educational and interpretive programs to students, teachers, and the general public. RENOVATION AND EXPANSION Museum of the Moving Image has begun a major expansion and renovation of its existing Astoria home. Designed by architect Thomas Leeser, this major undertaking includes a new three-story addition and the complete renovation of the Museum's first floor. When it is completed, the new Museum building will be ideal for showcasing the moving image in all its forms, ensuring the Museum's place—creatively, intellectually, and physically—as one of the great moving-image institutions of the world. ARTIFACT COLLECTION Moving Image houses artifacts from every stage of producing, promoting, and exhibiting motion pictures, television, and digital media, more than 130,000 objects in all. Holdings include licensed merchandise, technical apparatus, still photographs, production design materials, costumes, fan magazines, publicity materials, and video and computer games. CollectionSpace is a web-based, open source collections management system developed by the Museum. The Museum's work on CollectionSpace has been recognized by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which recently provided a $2.5 million grant to support the development and deployment of a significantly expanded and refined version of the collections management system. SCREENINGS AND RELATED PROGRAMS The Museum's film screenings are often presented with personal appearances by directors, actors, critics, and scholars. With live music for silent films, restored prints from the world's leading archives, and outstanding new films from the international festival circuit, Moving Image programs are recognized for their quality as well as their scope. All screenings are accompanied by program notes, offering original writing or carefully selected and researched background material, which help to place the films within their historical and artistic context. During construction, the Museum will continue to present screenings and dialogues off-site. Programs will be held throughout New York City and include the Museum’s discussion events at The Times Center in Midtown and preview screenings at theaters in Manhattan. Upon its reopening, the Museum will return to presenting a regular schedule of more than 300 screenings each year, in its new 264-seat theater and 71-seat screening room. In warm weather, screenings will also be presented in the Museum's new Courtyard Garden. EXHIBITIONS The Museum's core exhibition, Behind the Screen, has been praised by The New York Times as "a show for the mind as much as the eye and ear" and by New York magazine as "staggeringly comprehensive." This innovative blend of historical artifacts, commissioned art works, video clips, and interactive exhibits shows how moving images are made, marketed, and exhibited. Visitors are able to make animations, select sound effects, and create flipbooks of themselves, among other activities. More than 1,200 objects from the Museum's collection are on view. A key feature of the expanded building will be a new gallery devoted to changing exhibitions. This will enable the Museum to offer a regular schedule of new, stimulating, and cutting-edge projects, many of which will be devoted to digital interactive art. WEBSITE Online features at movingimage.us reach a global audience, and have set a high standard for their combination of intellectual depth, elegant design, and sophisticated programming. The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008 offers more than 400 commercials from every presidential election since the start of television campaign advertising in 1952. The Museum's critically acclaimed website, Moving Image Source features original articles by leading critics, authors, and scholars; an international calendar of major retrospectives, exhibitions, books, and DVDs; and a regularly updated guide to online research resources. Sloan Science and Film, a website established with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, allows visitors to view award-winning student films and discussion programs, and to read original articles on science themes in cinema. EDUCATION The core of the Museum's mission is education. A recent BusinessWeek.com article cited Museum of the Moving Image as a leader among U.S. museums using technology to educate young audiences. Each year, 32,000 intermediate and high-school students and their teachers visit the Museum. In the expanded facility, the number of students and teachers who participate in its programs will more than double. Curriculum-based education programs use moving-image media to spark students' imaginations and spur interest in learning. Educator-led tours of the exhibition Behind the Screen facilitate object-based learning in which artifacts are used to explore the history of the moving image and its impact on culture and society. Navigating the Digital World introduces students to interactive media including digital art and video game design. The Museum presents professional development workshops for educators, an expanding after-school program, and new programs for senior citizens in partnership with community organizations. The after-school programs encourage students to express themselves creatively, improve their ability to use technology, and sharpen their critical and analytical skills through animation. MUSEUM HISTORY The Museum is located on the site of the Astoria Studio, one of the largest motion picture and television production facilities in the United States. Originally built as Paramount's East Coast production facility in 1920, the studio was taken over in 1942 by the U.S. Army and renamed the Signal Corps Photographic Center. Following the Army's departure in 1971, the site fell into disrepair. The Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center Foundation was created as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to restoring the studio buildings to productive use. In 1978, the Foundation obtained listing of the site on the National Register of Historic Places, and successfully returned the studio to feature film production. In 1981, Rochelle Slovin was appointed Executive Director of the Foundation. At her recommendation, the purpose of the organization, which had been to reopen the Astoria Studio for film production, was revised. The creation of a museum about motion pictures and television was established as the organization's new directive. In 1982, ownership of the entire studio site was transferred from the U.S. General Services Administration to the City of New York and, in recognition of the Foundation's key role in saving the site, the City set aside one of the original studio buildings for the Museum. The Museum received a provisional charter from the State University of New York Department of Education in 1984, and its final charter in 1993. Upon completion of its building in 1988, the Museum opened to the public. The Museum was granted accreditation from the American Association of Museums in 2006. FUNDING Museum of the Moving Image is grateful for the generous support of numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals.  The Museum receives vital annual funding from the City of New York through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.  Additional government support for operations is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation).  The Museum occupies a building owned by the City of New York. LEADERSHIP Rochelle Slovin, Director Herbert S. Schlosser, Chairman of the Board of Trustees ADDRESS 35 Avenue at 36 Street, Astoria, NY 11106