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IN HIS NEW OFFICE, TOM Finkelpearl, the new executive director of the Queens Museum of Art, holds court where the United Nations once voted to create the State of Israel. Down the hall is a 9,335-square-foot panoramic replica of New York City, the largest architectural model in the world.
Few people know the historical significance of the museum's building in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and some aren't aware that the Queens Museum of Art exists at all. That is about to change.
"Right now, the museum looks like it's closed, even when we're open," says Mr. Finkelpearl, the former deputy director of P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. "Making it a bigger attraction is a huge agenda for me."
The biggest change won't take place for another four years, when the museum's $37 million expansion is finished. The museum now occupies only...