Queens Tribune

Queens non-profit brings borough artists into homes.
ArtSpy is a series of half-hour television shows produced in partnership with the Queens Council on the Arts and Queens Public Television. The series presents lively conversations among established and emerging borough artists and authors.

The focus of the presentation is to explore Queens’ diversity and artists that express the borough’s uniqueness.

The Queens Council on the Arts has worked with Queens Public Television for eight years producing similar programming. The ArtSpy series first premiered a year ago, and was followed by another version this year. All programs are shown on QPTV, channel 56.

New episodes premiered earlier this month, starting with the title, “Hooked, Hot Art, Cool Scenes in Queens,” which featured local artists Domenick Di Pietrantonio, and his grandmother, Nonna Maria Di Pietrantonio. This episode highlighted knitting artists passionate about their work and discussions of unconventional and innovative knitting projects.

Other shows in the series explored various other topics related to art in Queens. These titles included, “Art Collectives, Hot Art, the Write Scene and Project Diversity”

Art collectives featured representatives of various Queens Art Collectives discussing the resources and support they offer to artists. Hot Art offered viewers a conversation with emerging artists that are excited about living and working in Queens and a discussion of their life and work.
The show’s formats are informal, roundtable discussions about artist’s lives, the creative process and the inspiration that is Queens.

The ArtSpy series tries to give viewers an understanding of the perspectives that define the cultural diversity of Queens.

According to Queens Council on the Arts, ArtSpy is
an “opportunity for artists and cultural organizations to represent themselves, show their work and acclaim the ever-growing arts community of Queens.”

Hoong Yee Krakauer, executive director of the Queens Council on the Arts, says the mission of the series is to “bring exposure to arts, and local artists,” throughout the borough.

“The idea is to produce shows that express Diversity,” Krakauer said.

This presentation of the ArtSpy series is a reincarnation of an earlier version.

Krakauer says her organization began working on this
project with QPTV in November 2006 when four shows were produced and aired. The current four shows were all taped in one day in November 2007, were aired on QPTV and were rebroadcast on Manhattan Neighborhood Network and Ovation TV.

The Queens Council on the Arts is a non-profit organization founded in 1966. In addition to producing the ArtSpy series, QCA is intimately involved in the Queens arts scene.

The private organization holds seminars throughout the year that bring artists together from throughout the borough. The purpose of these seminars is to help artists gain exposure and build industry skills to advance their careers.

Past round tables have focused on helping artists fund their projects, instruction for professional development for Queens’s artists and outreach methods for selling work.
Director Krakauer believes the group’s mission benefits our cultural society and exposes the entire city to an arts scene they may not be aware of.

“We try to give people a sense of the interesting arts in the borough. There are so many interesting artists and projects in Queens and this gives people a view on that,” Krakauer said.