There’s no shortage of neighborhoods teeming with amazing culture in New York City, but to date, only two areas—along 4th Street on the Lower East Side and the amorphous Fort Greene–Downtown Brooklyn hub that’s anchored by BAM—have been anointed official NYC cultural districts. That changes today: Astoria, Queens will become home to the city’s newest arts hub, the Kaufman Arts District.
Anchored by the Kaufman-Astoria Studios (hence the name), the new district will cover about 24 blocks, and will include institutions like the Museum of the Moving Image, the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and the Queens Council on the Arts. The neighborhood has a long history of arts production: Kaufman is home to series like Sesame Street and Orange is the New Black, and it recently became home to the city’s only backlot. But in recent years, as Moving Image has grown in popularity and more hotspots (like Studio Square and the Astor Room) have opened, its profile has risen.