Happy Earth Month!

For this special Hands-on Science, we will be using recycled plastic water bottles to make an ocean in a bottle experiment. Stop by the museum to participate and learn more about how we can help our planet through recycling and other environmental initiatives. Plastic water bottles and ingredients (and an aquatic critter) will be provided for this activity.

If you’d like to use a specific water bottle (perhaps decorated), bring your own! Plastic water bottle will be provided for this activity.

After the activity, be sure to visit our Streamline exhibit! This exhibit will be taken down later in April.

Hands On History is a FREE family program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm.

Let’s consider creative recycling solutions by bringing and using recycled plastic, synthetic garments, yarn, and decorative pieces, such as beads and ribbons to create sculptural art pieces. Sari Nordman, the teaching artist, will teach how to make decorative lights from onion bags using crocheting and weaving techniques. Participants are also invited to bring clean, recycled plastic film to the workshop—the more colorful the better—to make long braids for hanging the light.

This workshop is free and open to adult learners and crafters!

Teaching Artist bio:

Sari Nordman, a Finnish interdisciplinary artist, creates public art projects, video works and dance performances. She is passionate about environmentalism and has discussed her projects, environmentalism and social engagement in her process in many publications and artist talks. She holds a M.F.A. from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. She has worked as a Teaching Artist in NYC public schools for over ten years and loves to teach. sarinordman.com

On April 8th, 2024, for about 4 minutes and 27 seconds, New York will have the rare and beautiful opportunity to view a total solar eclipse! Looking directly at a solar eclipse without the proper eyewear can cause permanent damage to your eyesight. Do you have the right equipment to view this amazing celestial event?

Come by King Manor to make an emergency solar eclipse viewer and learn about the history of solar eclipse tourism and viewing!

This viewer can be made and used by all ages.

Hands-on History is a FREE family program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm.

In Rufus King’s time, sheep were mainly used for their wool and not yet for their meat. King had 26 sheep on the property, and we have original wool carders, a loom, and a spinning wheel that were all used to make clothing and blankets. For this HOH craft, we are putting the wool back ON the sheep!

Join us in using recycled packing peanuts to create your own cheery sheep puppet. It may come in handy when you are having trouble sleeping at night, especially due to Daylight Savings (March 10th)!

Hands-on History is a FREE family program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm.

Happy Women’s History Month!

This year, we are honoring the last King Family member to live at King Manor: Cornelia King! Cornelia was Rufus’ granddaughter and 7th child of John Alsop King. After the death of her father in 1867 and her mother in 1873, Cornelia lived at King Manor with a handful of servants until her death in 1897. Cornelia was well known for being quite charitable. She left money to local BIPOC organizations in her will and was an active church member. The church of St. Phebe’s dedicated their flower guild to her, naming it Miss Cornelia’s Flower Guild. Flower Guilds operated to beautify places of worship with floral decorations.

Stop by to learn more about Cornelia, make your own paper flowers, and pick up some free garden seeds ready for March planting!

All ages welcome.

Hands On History is a FREE family program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm.

School’s out for summer winter! Join us at King Manor for Freezin’ Season, a week-long activity series for your mini-Winter Break.

Looking for fun crafts to have a purrrfect day?

Make no bones about it, we have an activity that will get your tail wagging!

Join our friends from Animal Care Centers of NYC as they come to King Manor Museum for DIY Pet Crafts.

We will make both cat and dog toys, that you can take home for your pet or share with ACC to bring back to their shelters to help those pets still looking for homes!

This activity is FREE, for all ages, and open to the public!

School’s out for summer winter! Join us at King Manor for Freezin’ Season, a week-long activity series for your mini-Winter Break.

Who doesn’t love puzzles? Join us in our classroom as we assemble puzzles ranging from 65 to 1000 pieces. All puzzles are themed around Black history! Help us put them together to receive some free giveaways!

This event is free and open to the public.

School’s out for summer winter! Join us at King Manor for Freezin’ Season, a week-long activity series for your mini-Winter Break.

Using recycled white packing peanuts, we will be making our own miniature igloos! Stop by and warm up in our cozy classroom for this fun, free activity.

Open to all ages!

School’s out for summer winter! Join us at King Manor for Freezin’ Season, a week-long activity series for your mini-Winter Break.

Let’s consider creative recycling solutions by bringing and using plastic bags and packaging materials, synthetic garments, and decorative pieces, such as beads and ribbons to create sculptural art pieces. Sari Nordman, the teaching artist, will teach a simple knotting technique to make weaves out of recycled plastic. Participants will have an option to donate their weaves for Nordman's project to be exhibited in the future. Participants are also invited to bring clean, recycled plastic film to the workshop—the more colorful the better.

This activity is suitable and fun for the young and old. Capable fingers in tying knots are needed.

This activity is FREE, for all ages, and open to the public!

Feedback from a previous teen workshop: “I liked helping to use pieces of plastic for beautiful artwork and how colorful it was.”

Sari Nordman, a Finnish interdisciplinary artist, creates public art projects, video works and dance performances. She is passionate about environmentalism and has discussed her projects, environmentalism and social engagement in her process in many publications and artist talks. She holds a M.F.A. from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. She has worked as a Teaching Artist in NYC public schools for over ten years and loves to teach. sarinordman.com

Join us for Season 6 of the Queens Underground Red Carpet Black History Film Festival!

Saturday, February 17th will feature 2 Industry Panels with local Filmmakers, Producers and Distribution Platform Executives. Trailers for the upcoming April 2-Day Film Festivals, A Special Effects Make-Up Demonstration, Red Carpet and plenty of Networking!

Friday and Saturday, April 12th & 13th will include Red Carpet Interviews, all of this Seasons' Selections, Nominations for each Category and the Winners will be announced on Saturday Night.

Food, Beverages and Vendors will be available on all 3 -Days.

Dress up and join us for a spectacular Event with Drama, Action, Comedy, Music and Poetry Videos, Series Episodes and Filmmakers, Cast & Crew from around the Country and Submissions from around the World!

Submissions are still open through February 24th, just in time for the April Dates.

For Info, Tickets & Submission link: QueensUndergroundFilmFestival.com

Thanks to the generous donations from the Growing Up Green school and BlaQue Resource Network, King Manor Museum has dozens of books dedicated to Black history and literature left over from our Back-to-School Book Giveaway in September. We are giving them all away for free this Black History Month!

Stop by for free books ranging from baby to adult, covering topics such as self-love, The Great Migration, the lives of Civil Rights activists, grade school history, and adolescence. We will also be designing our own miniature legal gavels in honor of the first Black American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson.

Representation matters!

This event is free and open to the public! Walk-ins welcome.

Kick off the Season of Love with Victorian valentine making using reproductions of historic patterns and ephemera. Mean valentines, known as Vinegar Valentines, were also popular during this period, so broken hearts are welcome! This activity is for all ages. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hands On History is a FREE family program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm.

****No Cost, take what you need!****

Stop by KMM and pick up free clothing and toys!

Sponsored by Growing Up Green PTO.

Donation Collection Dates:

1/11 & 1/12 (1 - 2pm) — Accepting New and CLEAN gently used items.

Saturday, January 13th (10 am - 1 pm) — Clothing, Toys, Essentials Giveaway!

If you would like to be a part of this event, email gug2pto@gmail.com

Cleaning out your house post-holidays? Do you have any clothing or toys you’d like to donate? Bring them to King Manor!

We are accepting New and CLEAN gently used items for our giveaway Saturday, January 13th.

If you would like to be a part of this event, email gug2pto@gmail.com

This event is sponsored and organized by Growing Up Green PTO.

Cleaning out your house post-holidays? Do you have any clothing or toys you’d like to donate? Bring them to King Manor!

We are accepting New and CLEAN gently used items for our giveaway Saturday, January 13th.

If you would like to be a part of this event, email gug2pto@gmail.com

This event is sponsored and organized by Growing Up Green PTO.

Interdisciplinary artist Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow is bringing her dynamic workshop to King Manor!

Jodie explores the different characters of the Jamaican Junkanoo through a series of performances and workshops. Audience members are invited to create their own Junkanoo-inspired character as a way to educate and revive this tradition. This workshop will feature a historical overview of each character along with costume building using ready-made materials. Shredded clothing and ‘junk’ will be used to create Junkanoo costumes and props that are meant to be activated not only during the traditionally held Christmas Holidays but during other times of the year as participants see fit.

Unlike the carnival processions during Labor Day in Brooklyn that are celebratory for being Caribbean, Jodie celebrates decolonizing by bringing Junkanoo to a heightened relevance through a series of educational workshops, exhibitions, and performances during other times of the year. She has researched the customs of the past to re-invent ways to address today’s political climate, instilling the known present and the building of more informed futures. With this workshop, Jodie offers an in-depth study and a more conclusive understanding of this Pan-African tradition. 

Advanced registration required.

This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program,  a program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature and administered by Flushing Town Hall.

Join us in celebrating the holiday season ⭐--1850s style-- ⭐with an evening of historic cocktail making, 19th century dance lessons, live period music, a magic lantern show, light food and drink (cash bar for alcohol, must be 21+ with ID), and more!

Formal dress code is suggested and Victorian Period attire is encouraged!

The Governor's Victorian Holiday Ball got its name from John Alsop King, Rufus King's eldest son. John was Governor of New York from 1857-1859 and during John's ownership, King Manor was referred to as the "Governor's House" and retained this name well into the 20th Century.

Limited door tickets available!

Come and imagine "The Future of Queens" in this art workshop where creativity meets foresight in a vibrant exploration of the diverse and dynamic borough of Queens, NY. This workshop invites participants to embark on a visionary journey, using art to imagine and depict the exciting possibilities that lie ahead for this iconic part of New York City.

Guided by the belief that art has the power to shape and inspire communities, "The Future of Queens" workshop encourages participants to channel their artistic expression into creating artworks that envision the borough's continuing evolution. This includes an exploration of the impacts of gentrification and how it might shape the future landscape of Queens.

Get creative with cartography by designing your own fantasy world! By randomly (or strategically) dropping rice onto a piece of paper and outlining the shapes formed, you will be able to develop and design unique lands on which your fictional (or nonfictional) villages and/or empires live.

This activity is open to ALL AGES!

Hands-on History is a FREE family program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm.

It is time to celebrate our Queen of the Manor: Mary! No, not Mary King. Super cat! In honor of our favorite cat and National Cat Day (October 29th), we will be using puff paint to create one-of-a-kind, colorful cat works of art. Cat lovers, rejoice!

Craft inspired by Timm Sevitz (@timmsevitz)

Hands on History is a FREE family program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm. All ages welcome!

King Manor Museum invites the public to a special lecture presentation of

The Torah in the Tarot

Torah scholar Stav Appel will present his shocking thesis that the original Tarot was a tool for clandestine Jewish education during the centuries of the Inquisition.

Were the original Tarot cards a secret vessel for Hebrew letters, Torah stories, Judaic ritual objects and Jewish holy days?

Come hear the historic new thesis that has astounded the Tarot world and reach your own conclusions.

This event is free and open to the public!

This presentation is part of Fall Festival.

We will be joined by Brewstoria (21+), Growing Up Green, Tools & Tiaras, Keiko Studios Music Academy, Project NY, and several vendors from QFA Fest. We will also be making Victorian mourning buttons and corn husk dolls, providing FREE books, and more!

This event is free to the public!

David J. Goodwin is back for another Lovecraft at the Manor, and this time with his book on the horizon!

Author and historian David J. Goodwin will discuss his research on the influential horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his years in New York City—the subject of Goodwin’s forthcoming book, Midnight Rambles: H. P. Lovecraft in Gotham. Coincidentally, Lovecraft visited King Manor in 1925, describing it as “one of the major discoveries” of his “New-York explorations.” Following his presentation, Goodwin will join our resident horror historian Abigail Waldron in a conversation about television episodes and films inspired by Lovecraft’s fiction.  

About David:

David J. Goodwin is the Assistant Director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University and was a Frederick Lewis Allen Room scholar at the New York Public Library from 2020 to 2023. He has contributed to Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History, The Metropole, The Providence Journal, and Urban Archive and he has spoken widely on artists, authors, cities, and culture. His new book, Midnight Rambles: H. P. Lovecraft in Gotham (Fordham University Press) will be released on November 7, 2023.

Novelist, painter, and puppeteer George Hagen presents “Narratives of the Enslaved & the Free.” Using shadow puppets, Hagen’s short film “Jupiter Washington, Carpenter” (2022) tells the tale of an enslaved man on the Washington family plantation in Virginia in the 1730s. It’s a fictional tale; Jupiter is a composite of people who existed on the boyhood farm of George Washington. Additionally, Hagen will discuss the real enslaved person Sam Anderson who was freed when Washington died, but he couldn’t leave because his wife and children were still enslaved by Martha Washington, so he proceeded to work to buy back his family. These two tales give insight into American enslavement, those who were enslaved, and George Washington, enslaver and first president of the United States.

This presentation is free and open to the public!

Celebrate Spooky Season with us by designing your own mourning jewelry using our custom pinback button-maker! While mourning jewelry has existed for centuries, it gained popularity in the 1800s when Queen Victoria’s Prince Albert died. There were strict rules for mourning a loved one, with each stage having its own dress and etiquette guidelines. Broaches with your deceased loved one’s hair was incredibly popular as well.

Whether you are mourning a recent loss of a loved one, a pet, your favorite poet or movie star, or simply want to make macabre Memento Mori pins, join us!

Hands on History is a FREE program series held each first and third Saturday of the month at King Manor from 1-4pm.