Who We Are

Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) is the only museum in the U.S. that explores the central technology of the present moment. Screens are all around us. We use them to educate, entertain, and communicate. The moving image—encompassing film, television, video games, and other forms of digital media—shapes how we see and feel the world. With exhibitions and screenings on the art, history, technique, and science of the moving image, MoMI presents the real and imagined worlds of our past, present, and future. With ground-breaking education programs, digital literacy initiatives, and cutting-edge media labs, MoMI is not just a museum but also a place where we can all make sense of the forces and experiences that create our shared reality. MoMI is an open world in the heart of both Astoria, NYC, and our entire creative community. 

The Museum fulfills its mission in person and online through temporary and permanent exhibitions; film screenings; live conversations with artists, filmmakers, scholars, media educators, and other industry professionals; articles published in MoMI’s online film magazine Reverse Shot and science and film resource Sloan Science & Film; access to the Museum’s collection of more than 130,000 objects; and the online presentation of a range of films—including acclaimed new release features and award-winning science shorts, plus archived video of Museum events, and more. The Museum’s Education department serves approximately 70,000 students each year, through guided tours of its exhibitions, educational screening programs, and hands-on workshops. Follow MoMI on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Statement

Museum of the Moving Image serves as a bridge to connect diverse communities to the moving image, in all its forms, with the goal of together building a more equitable and inclusive cultural future. MoMI strives to be welcoming to everyone who passes through our doors, with programs, exhibitions, and a staff that reflect the diversity of our community. MoMI’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is informed by an anti-oppressive, intersectional, international, and community-centered approach to all that we do. A ubiquitous and powerful form of creative expression and communication, the moving image can serve to enliven, uplift, and build a deeper understanding of ourselves and one another.

 

Screenings, Public Discussions & Exhibitions

Screenings

Each year the Museum screens more than 500 films in a stimulating mix of the classic and the contemporary. With live music for silent films, restored prints from the world’s leading archives, and outstanding new films from the international festival circuit, Museum programs are recognized for their quality as well as their scope. The Museum’s diverse screening program presents a panoramic view of the moving image, from the global discoveries presented in the annual showcase First Look to the popular ongoing series See It Big!, which celebrates the excitement and immersive power of big-screen moviegoing.

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Public Discussions

The Museum is pleased to welcome some of the world’s great film, TV, and digital artists for in-depth conversations and Q&As, which we record for posterity and many of which are made available on our website as video or audio conversations. Some of these are part of our ongoing series of audio conversations with creative professionals in film, television, and digital media made possible by the Pinewood (now Pannonia) Foundation. This initiative includes conversations from the Museum’s stage with such leading figures as Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, Agnieszka Holland, Ava DuVernay, David Cronenberg, Charles Burnett, Wong Kar-wai, Todd Haynes, Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Thomas Anderson, Glenn Close, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam, Albert Maysles, Mira Nair, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Frank Oz. Many of these conversations are available online.

Education Programs

The Museum’s curriculum-based education programs are an unparalleled resource for elementary, middle- and high-school students and their teachers. Many student visitors are from the New York City public schools and surrounding area, though the Museum regularly provides programs for students traveling from around the country and around the world. Through guided tours of its exhibitions, educational screening programs, and hands-on workshops, the Museum serves approximately 70,000 students each year in the Ann and Andrew Tisch Education Center. The Museum also offers professional development seminars and workshops for teachers, and after-school programs that develop academic and technical skills. The Museum serves thousands more children, teens, and families in weekend and summer studios, workshops, design jams, courses, and camps.

Community Engagement

The Collection

The Museum maintains the nation’s largest and most comprehensive collection of artifacts relating to the art, history, and technology of the moving image—one of the most important collections of its kind in the world. Begun at the Museum’s inception in 1981, today the collection comprises more than 130,000 artifacts from every stage of producing, promoting, and exhibiting motion pictures, television, and digital media, from pre-cinema optical toys to 21st-century digital technology. The collection also includes significant works of art by such artists as Red Grooms and Nam June Paik. More than 1,400 collection artifacts are currently on display in the Museum’s core exhibition, Behind the Screen, and thousands more can be seen on the Museum’s online collection database, collection.movingimage.us.

Online Projects and Publications

Online Projects

The Museum has been at the forefront of online education and exhibitions in the use of its website for groundbreaking projects. The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952–2020, an invaluable archive of more than 300 ads from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run. The Living Room Candidate is used by millions of people around the world.

 

Publications

As part of its programmatic mission, Museum of the Moving Image offers online publications dedicated to the art and study of the moving image. Sloan Science and Film, made possible by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is devoted to the public understanding of science through its depiction in film. Publishing weekly, the online publication features interviews with filmmakers and scientists, news about goings on in the world of science and film, and original articles exploring the cinematic depictions of scientific ideas and the science of film. 

Reverse Shot, the acclaimed online film magazine, edited by Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert, was founded in 2003, and has been the Museum’s publication for criticism since 2014. Support for this publication has been provided through the National Endowment for the Arts. MoMI’s previous publication for film writing and criticism, Moving Image Source, was developed with generous and visionary support from the Hazen Polsky Foundation, in memory of Joseph H. Hazen.

The Museum has also published three director anthology books in conjunction with Reverse Shot: CineVardaUtopia, Martin Scorsese: He Is Cinema, and Steven Spielberg: Nostalgia and the Light, all available for purchase through the Museum’s store.