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Even as the Louis Armstrong exhibit at the Queens Museum of Art begins to draw crowds from throughout the borough, crates still line the walls and sawdust still flies in other parts of the building.
Construction crews and museum staff have been working side by side in the past few weeks to prepare for next month's unveiling of a three-year, $15-million facelift to the museum. The work is part of a larger project to renovate and develop Flushing Meadows Corona Park and the institutions within.
The museum, which has doubled its exhibition space and now offers galleries two stories high, will feature a 9,500-square-foot architectural scale model of New York.
The model, called The Panorama, was created for the 1964 World's Fair, which the park hosted. Its 270 4-by-10-foot panels will take up about one-third of the exhibition space at the museum.
In the past, the museum has concentrated on contemporary art. Its goal, with the new space it has, is to continue that while building on a permanent collection featuring Queens artists, said Carmen Fauntleroy, executive director of the museum.
"If you do what you do very, very well, you'll receive the recognition," Fauntleroy said.
The museum already has received international recognition for some of its exhibitions and is now showcasing one on jazz...