Announcing Queens Rising

Northwell Health signs on as Inaugural Lead Sponsor 

Queens Rising is a month-long, multi-disciplinary arts celebration created to highlight the borough’s culture and creative diversity. Scheduled throughout June of 2022, Queens Rising will partner with the many arts organizations, multi-purpose venues and galleries in Queens to present dozens of performances, exhibitions and cultural events that showcase the borough's artistic and cultural communities. 

This initiative arose from an Arts Advisory Board meeting of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, where leading individuals representing various Queens-based arts and culture organizations gathered to form a Planning Committee. The larger Queens artistic and cultural community were invited to join various Working Groups to help with Queens Rising’s programming, operations, marketing, and fundraising.  

Queens Rising has mobilized the borough’s artistic community to collaborate and create an opportunity to highlight and promote all the incredible people who contribute to the vibrant culture and essence of Queens neighborhoods. 

Participating organizations will present work that highlights the immense variety of traditions and cultural expressions that make Queens one of the most diverse regions in the world, a borough whose resiliency and strength will overcome any present—or future—challenges. While Queens Rising’s core programming will take place within Queens, the celebration will be extended throughout New York City, with arts and cultural institutions in other boroughs showcasing Queens-based artists and organizations. 

“As the most diverse place on the planet, Queens is rich with an arts and culture community that reflects that diversity and its unmatched beauty. I’m thrilled Queens Rising will kick-off in the summertime to welcome visitors to the World’s Borough,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. “Now more than ever, it’s important to showcase the resilience and creativity of our artists and cultural institutions — because even in the darkest days of the pandemic, culture never closed — as we work to rebuild our economy and come back stronger.”

“As a community hospital that not only serves the health care needs of Queens but also draws the majority of our staff from within the diverse neighborhoods that make up our borough, LIJ Forest Hills is Queens,” said Lorraine Chambers Lewis, PA, Executive Director of Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, part of Northwell Health. “We were at the epicenter of COVID, and came through it with the help of our community more resilient than ever. That’s why we’re so thrilled to be part of Queens Rising NYC to celebrate the rich tapestry of arts, culinary and creative communities that make our borough so unique.”

Karesia Batan of the Queensboro Dance Festival added, "We're excited to be part of this multidisciplinary initiative to celebrate all of Queens together. We envision this to be an unprecedented way that large and small arts groups in our borough work together, and that Queens Rising will be wonderful visibility for the many unsung cultures and stories of our artists here will be accessible for everyone to experience."

Leonard Jacobs of Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning quotes, “Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning was honored to be among the organizations involved in the Queens Rising initiative from the moment of its inception—and we couldn’t be prouder of what it represents to the arts, entertainment and culture sector. Because it is a fact: Queens is rising. Collectively and individually, we’re giving the long-overdue recognition that our borough, dynamic and diverse, absolutely deserves.”

Current collaborators include: 

A Better Jamaica | Allure Art Studio | APAC | Art House Astoria | Astoria Park Alliance | Bowne House Historical Society | Center for the Women of New York | The Chocolate Factory | The Church-in-the-Gardens | Culture Lab LIC | Dance Entropy/Green Space | Dancing Classrooms | FitzgeraldArt | Flushing Town Hall | Forest Hills Choir | Glow Community Center | The Godwin-Ternbach Museum | Greater Astoria Historical Society | Indo-American Arts and Cultural Forum | Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning | King Manor Museum | Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Inc. | Kupferberg Center for the Arts | LaGuardia Performing Arts Center | Lewis Latimer House Museum | Louis Armstrong House Museum | Maspeth Squash | MoMA PS1 | Museum of the Moving Image | Musica Reginae Productions | New York Hall of Science | NYC Department of Transportation | QED | The Queens Borough President’s Office | Queens Botanical Garden | Queens Chamber of Commerce | Queens Economic Development Corporation | Queens Historical Society | Queens Museum | Queens Public Library | Queens Theatre | Queens Tourism Council | Queens Underground International Black and Brown Film Festival and The Artist Market NYC Live | Queens World Film Festival | Queensboro Dance Festival | RISE Rockaway | School of Rock Queens | South East Queens Artist Alliance | Thalia Spanish Theatre, Inc. | The Garage Art Center, Inc. | Theatre Beyond Broadway | VP Music Group | Wild Heart Performing Arts Studio | Yeh Art Gallery, St. John's University

Join our mailing list, make a donation, or find out more about getting involved at www.queensrising.nyc. 

For more information or comments, please contact:

Jon Yanofsky, Kupferberg Center for the Arts - Jon.Yanofsky@qc.cuny.edu

Jeff Rosenstock, Kupferberg Center for the Arts - Jeffrey.Rosenstock@qc.cuny.edu

Mike Faba, Project Coordinator, Queens Rising - mike@queensrising.nyc 

Nora Lyons, Shore Fire Media - nlyons@shorefire.com

Rebecca Shapiro, Shore Fire Media - rshapiro@shorefire.com