LONG ISLAND CITY — The first Friday of each month may be the best time to visit the Noguchi Museum this summer, as it is offering extended hours, free admission and films for the first time.
During “Free Fridays: Summer Nights in the Garden,” visitors — apart from exploring the permanent collection galleries — can participate in “Center of Attention,” a conversation about a single work in the collection with a museum curator (at 6 p.m.).
This year for the first time the museum, in collaboration with the Architecture and Design Film Festival, is also offering film programming during First Fridays.
Among the short films that will be shown in upcoming weeks, beginning at 7 p.m., are “Louis Le Roi-Endless Work in Time and Space,” a portrait of the Dutch artist and his work, and “Monument to the Dream,” a film directed by Charles Guggenheim about the construction of The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. there will also be a cash bar with wine and beer in the sculpture garden.
The museum, in collaboration with Bang on a Can, is also offering “Music in the Garden,” held on the second Sunday of every month. Visitors will have the opportunity to listen to innovative music from across the globe, including Andy Akiho (a quartet of steel pan, bass, violin and drums), and Gyan Riley, who plays classical and electric guitar.
The museum — founded and designed by Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese-American sculptor who worked in the northern stretch of Long Island City beginning in the early 1960s — exhibits a selection of the artist’s works in stone, metal, wood and clay.
Located near Socrates Sculpture Park, the museum occupies a renovated industrial building dating to the 1920s and features a tranquil sculpture garden where the summer events are held.
For more information, go to: www.noguchi.org.
