FATE OF THE FAIR MOSAICS

A recent jaunt took me into Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where I noticed that the set of pavement mosaics installed honoring the first and second Fairs were in worse shape than ever. I notified Queens’ King of Preservation Mike Perlman, who recently rediscovered and brought back from Massachusetts a mural that had hung in a Queens Boulevard Howard Johnson’s. Mike wrote a note to NYC Parks, who informed him that they considered the mosaics too far gone for repair and were removing them in 2025.

My suggestion was that they be carefully removed and exhibited in Queens Museum or somewhere similar. Mike wrote a letter to the National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association that reads:

I commend you on your superb work in regard to restoration and new creations, which encompass the revival of old-world art. I am a historic preservation in Forest Hills, NY, who founded Rego-Forest Preservation Council. Additionally, I am a longtime Forest Hills Times news columnist and an author. I love the beauty and durability behind both artistic and functional mediums. 

My colleagues and I would very much appreciate your help. Queens residents & World’s Fair enthusiasts, including myself, are campaigning to the Parks Department to restore and not discard the 1939 NYWF & 1964 NYWF mosaic tributes that were designed and installed outdoors in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the late 1990s. Some mosaics have been chipping, and the Department has not maintained them. They reference them as a hazard. Residents observed cars parked on top of them on a few occasions. 

The Parks Department responded 6 days ago to my detailed letter recommending preservation, where I said that I would help as a liaison to restore them on the ground, or to have the mosaics reinstalled in an upright position, also at residents’ requests. They were dismissive of both recommendations, and said they would discard them in 2025, to be replaced with banal pavers… Three additional installations are paved over, either partially or completely. 

What are your thoughts for restoration on the ground, in an upright position, or having them picked up with the pavement around it & reinstalled at the Queens Museum or elsewhere? I am hoping that you can advise us and help our borough. We are losing historic buildings, artifacts, and tributes at an alarming rate. Hopefully we can achieve a preservation victory in the form of A, B, or C. 

The colorful mosaics depict scenes from the ’39-40 and ’64-’65 Fairs, including Salvador Dali’s “Venus” (’39-’40), Elsie the Cow (’39-’40), and Andy Warhol’s portrait of Fair mastermind Robert Moses (’64-’65; Moses didn’t like it.)

Stay tuned in FNY regarding the disposition of these informative and historic artifacts.

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10/23/24