Art Museums and Community Cooperation

Abstract

As I exit the train at 103rd Street in Corona and walk out onto the sunny, open air elevated platform, I hear fast paced music and I feel a sense of anticipation. I descend the metal stairs and exit the station into Corona Plaza where a few hundred people are gathered; some move among the tents of activities and local businesses set up along the perimeter, others talk and laugh, while children play together. A circle of people has formed in the middle of the plaza around the local performance group Danza Azteca Chichimeca who fill the space with the energy of their movements and the rapid drum beats of their music. The performers are dressed in elaborate traditional Aztec costumes adorned with long feathers and beads which jump with them as they dance, creating a blur of color and energy. It is hard not to move along with them as they perform traditional pre-Columbian movements that continue to be practiced across Mexico and by immigrants in the United States. Today the dance has evolved from its indigenous Mesoamerican roots to also embody a political call for civil rights and to decolonize contemporary cultural traditions (Guerrero, 2010). In that moment though, on this sunny late May afternoon, whether or not the audience knows the history of the dance or its contemporary political implications is secondary to the enthusiasm and joy that is shared among the attendees gathered in Corona Plaza for a regular Oye Corona! community art event sponsored by the Queens Museum. While Danza Azteca Chichimeca performs, some families are gathered at a large craft table under a tent making art with a professional artist and a group of children has taken over the remaining free space in the plaza for a game of soccer. Corona residents told me that the small, centrally located Corona Plaza has become "the gateway to our neighborhood" and that "when something happens there, everyone is coming" (Corona Community Member, anonymous interview with author, December 5, 2014; P. Reddy, interview with author, December 5, 2014). This former underused parking lot that became a public plaza through a unique initiative of the Queens Museum is clearly the place to be on Oye Corona! Saturdays, it is abuzz with people coming out to be in community in this active, inclusive commons. PU - PALGRAVE PI - BASINGSTOKE PA - HOUNDMILLS, BASINGSTOKE RG21 6XS, ENGLAND