The upcoming exhibit “Robert Moses and the Modern City” will no doubt draw a few new visitors to the Queens Museum of Art, which houses Moses’s detailed panorama of the five boroughs. The museum is slightly off-the-beaten path for car-less Manhattanites, but under its current director, Tom Finkelpearl, it is building a substantial role for itself in the local community, and preparing for a renovation that Mr. Finkelpearl hopes will significantly increase its profile.

The panorama, built for the 1964 World’s Fair, is the museum’s star attraction, and Mr. Finkelpearl readily acknowledges that, right now, it’s more famous than the museum itself. “I meet people all the time, and I say, ‘I’m the director of the Queens Museum,’ and they go, ‘Mm-hmm.’ I say, ‘We have this panorama,’ and they say, ‘I’ve been there!’ I hate it, but we’re working on it.”

The renovation, which will start in 2008, is budgeted at $37 million, and it will increase the museum’s annual operating budget to $4.5 million from $3.2 million. The museum is looking into launching a capital and endowment campaign. (There is currently no endowment.)

The major goals of the renovation are to make the museum more visible and more transparent from the outside, and to create effective gallery spaces inside. Mr. Finkelpearl began a recent discussion of his vision for the museum by emphasizing what he doesn’t want to do, which is to try to compete with wealthier Manhattan museums like MoMA or the Guggenheim or the Whitney. “We don’t have the resources, and it’s not the right thing to do,” he said. “What can we do better than other people?”

One thing, Mr. Finkelpearl said, is to organize shows that draw on the history of the museum’s site. The New York City Building was built for the 1939 World’s Fair and used again for the 1964 World’s Fair; much of the museum’s collections relate to the two fairs. Taking advantage of this, in 2003, the museum collaborated with the Dali museum in Spain on a show about the pavilion Dali designed for the 1939 World’s Fair.

Another show in the planning stages would reassemble a work that Andy Warhol did for the 1964 World’s Fair, called “Thirteen Most Wanted Men.” Warhol painted 13 portraits of criminals wanted by the FBI, which were installed in a grid on the exterior of the New York State Pavilion. Within a few days, Moses had the paintings whitewashed over; later, they were covered in black cloth, and, still later, removed. Fortunately, Warhol also did individual versions of the portraits, which have been reunited only once since 1964, and not in New York. Mr. Finkelpearl hopes to borrow these from the museums and collectors who own them and mount a show in 2010, when the museum reopens after the renovation.

The museum also puts on exhibitions that reflect the diversity of the borough, which studies have shown is the most culturally diverse place in America. (Diversity is measured by the statistical probability that, if you pick two people randomly, they will be of different races.) The show currently up, “Queens International 2006: Everything All at Once,” features local artists, 60% of whom are immigrants. In June, the museum will mount a show of artists who belong to “Generation 1.5” ––a term referring to people who immigrate between the ages of 12 and 18.

Mr. Finkelpearl, who before coming to the Queens Museum was the program director of PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, and, before that, the director of the city’s Percent for Art Program, which supports public artworks, has written one book on public art and is currently writing another on socially collaborative art. He is eager for the museum to explore ways to engage the local Corona community, whether through traditional museum activities like artist talks, or through less traditional activities – like a street soccer league to encourage girls to exercise.

“Corona is a community that has economic and crime problems,” Mr. Finkelpearl said. “We’re asking: What can we do that’s going to have a positive impact?”

In collaboration with Elmhurst Hospital Center, and with funding from the Ford Foundation and the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, the museum has developed a program called “Heart of Corona,” to encourage a hearthealthy lifestyle. (Queens residents have high rates of obesity and diabetes, Mr. Finkelpearl said.) The museum is organizing activities, including performances and public art, in Corona Plaza and, along with the hospital, is publishing a cookbook of local recipes, adapted by cardiologists and nutritionists to be hearthealthy.

The museum is organizing several programs with the Queens Public Library. Among other things, the two institutions are in discussions about housing a new branch of the library in the renovated museum.

The museum and the library, with funding from the IMLS, have also organized artist talks, in the artists’ native tongues, and a family literacy program, in which a child and parent together take an English class, then walk around the galleries with the teacher and talk about art. “It’s arts literacy meets language literacy,” Mr. Finkelpearl said.

On the east side of the museum, the renovation will restore an original 1939 colonnade and create a lawn with tables where people can eat or simply hang out. “One of the things that makes a place look alive is people sitting out front,” Mr. Finkelpearl said. New skylights inside the building will make it easier to see into the building.

Inside, although the ceiling is 40 feet high, Mr. Finkelpearl and the architects, Grimshaw Architects, wanted to create galleries that were not overwhelming in scale. The solution they found was to make galleries with 16-foot walls, and an elaborate system of louvers above that will filter in some natural light, but not enough to damage the art. A very large gallery, called the winter garden, will provide a space for film screenings and other events.

If the museum can raise enough money, it will also transform the western side of the museum, which is adjacent to the Grand Central Parkway but almost invisible to people driving on it. Budget pending, the museum would like to transplant some trees and create a drop-off zone and entrance on that side, which would allow a straight vista through to the Unisphere in the park.

Mr. Finkelpearl said the museum is continually working to define itself and its role. “We’re still trying to figure out what’s special about us,” he said. “Why would anybody come here? It’s hard to get here.” His initiatives have earned praise so far. The city’s commissioner of cultural affairs, Kate Levin, said in a statement that, under his leadership, the museum “has come into its own as an example of thoughtful and productive community engagement.”

The historian Kenneth Jackson said he visits the museum about twice a year to show people the panorama. “If it were located in Manhattan, it would be one of the biggest tourist attractions anywhere,” he said. He thinks the renovation will attract attention and get more people to come. “You don’t have to get Manhattanites; Queens has got more people than Manhattan,” Mr. Jackson said. “If you’ve ever been to Flushing Meadows park in the spring or summer, it really gets a big crowd. There’s a lot of people right outside the door; he just needs to get them in.”