Museum of the Moving Image – Astoria, New York

The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York City, is the only museum in the United States exclusively dedicated to film, television, and digital entertainment.

Cover image: photo by Peter Aaron/Esto. Courtesy of Museum of the Moving Image

Opened in 1988, the museum is housed in one of the thirteen buildings of the Astoria Studio Complex (now known as Kaufman Astoria Studios), a filming facility, located in the New York City borough of Queens and once belonged to Paramount Pictures, still in use for the production of popular films and TV shows. The Museum of the Moving Image is housed in a former production building, refurbished and enlarged in 2011 on a design by Leeser Architecture.
The museum’s permanent collection amounts to over 130,000 items and is one of the largest in the world in its kind.
On 160,000 square feet, the Museum of the Moving Image’s core exhibition Behind the Screen illustrates the creation and production of films, television shows, and multimedia entertainment products, through over 1,400 artifacts, interactive exhibits, audio-visuals, and artworks commissioned by the museum.
The museum organizes temporary exhibitions, art installations, educational programs, workshops for adults, families, and children, guided tours, screenings, and live events.
The building also contains a 267-seat theater, a 68-seat screening room, an amphitheater, an educational center, a multipurpose outdoor area, a store, and a cafe.
The Museum of the Moving Image is fully accessible to people with disabilities; a limited number of wheelchairs are available free of charge.

Museum of the Moving Image, photo by Francis Dzikowski/Esto

All images courtesy of the Museum of the Moving Image