Noguchi Is Fêted in Chelsea
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The patrons of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City didn’t seem to mind having their annual dinner at the Frank Gehry-designed IAC Building in Chelsea. The relocation was due to an $8.2 million renovation under way at the museum.
But the consensus of guests was that the museum itself — which remains open during the construction, and which until Sunday is showing an exhibit of furniture Isamu Noguchi designed with Isamu Kenmochi — is the ideal venue.
“Give yourself a present,” the chairman of the museum, Samuel Sachs, told me. “Go to the museum. It’s easy to get to, and it’s a really cool place.”
The museum, in a former factory building, was created by the Mr. Noguchi himself, and preserves the studio where he worked. It contains galleries, an education center, and a garden.
“I can’t wait for the construction to be complete,” the city’s commissioner of cultural affairs, Kate Levin, said. (It is scheduled to be done in the fall). “It is one of the most beautiful spaces in New York.”
To reward visitors who come during the construction phase, the museum is serving coffee and tea, the director of the museum, Jenny Dixon, said.
