Home to The Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park, the Queens community where northern Long Island City and Astoria converge is a textured, mixed industrial and residential community.  A resident since 1960, Isamu Noguchi was joined in the neighborhood by fellow artist and sculptor Mark di Suvero ten years later.  Throughout his career, Isamu Noguchi collaborated with many architects, designers and civic thinkers on various public projects and in 1985, realized his vision of a single artist museum in Long Island City.  One year later, di Suvero established neighboring Socrates Sculpture Park as an ongoing laboratory for art.  More than 25 years later, the realized visions of these two renowned artists--and the spaces they transformed--have brought international attention to the area.  

In response to this neighborhood, now undergoing significant change, The Noguchi Museum and Socrates Sculpture Park have forged an alliance through Civic Action: A Vision for Long Island City.  Four artists known for their work in the public sphere were invited to form individual teams featuring an architect or planner to conceive new approaches to development in this area of Long Island City that Noguchi and di Suvero helped to shape.  Artists Natalie Jeremijenko, Mary Miss, Rirkrit Tiravanija and George Trakas have explored visionary scenarios that would enable the community to continue to coexist alongside the light manufacturing and residential communities inherent to the area.  The outcome of this eight month process will be displayed at The Noguchi Museum through April 22, 2012.  Further realized components of each team’s proposals will be exhibited at Socrates Sculpture Park in May 2012.