All About THE ARC: The Full-Block Arts & Music Center in Queens

About a year ago, news spread that DMNDR—a global community of music lovers, photographers, filmmakers, artists, writers, and curators—was opening The Arc, a 20,000-sq.-ft. concert and recording space in Astoria. Okay, it’s advertised as being in LIC, but the address is technically Astoria and to me its location constitutes Astoria too.

Located at 36-30 36th St, the venue’s first public shows started this month.

The Concept

South Ozone Park native John Belitsky, a real estate mogul-turned-music man, started DMNDR in 2014 with the main purpose of allowing writers and visual artists to publish interviews, live sessions and more of their favorite musicians.

When Belitsky first procured the space, he told QNS.com it would be his community’s home...”it’s a real home where we can support artists in a real way,” he said. There’s a venue space for shows and jam sessions as well as a recording studio and large kitchen (it was formerly a sushi factory) for local chefs to experiment with new recipes.

More recently it was announced that former Webster Hall Executive VP and COO Rich Pawelczyk joined The Arc’s management team. The space takes up a full city block, and Billboard says it will also include “a media center for streaming, a 24-hour café featuring the cuisine of 600+ local food vendors and spaces for local talent and community collaborations.”

Current Performances

You can check out what this space is all about with their current performance series “NABRHOOD”. Their goal is to help “solidify Queens as the cultural corridor of NYC” and they chose “NABRHOOD” as the name of the first public event series to “underscore the very richness that brought us to LIC.”

The series started last week, and the last two nights are this Thursday and Friday, May 16 and 17. It includes live music, projection art by 3 Legged Dog, and an exclusively curated food menu created by Bareburger. Bulleit Whiskey and Don Julio Tequila are providing custom drinks, and the Bareburger menu is ONLY available for those who pre-order (this system allows for zero waste).

You can purchase tickets HERE, and see the full lineup below:

Located right near Kaufman Astoria, do you think this space will help reinvigorate the arts scene in Queens? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

2 Comments

Dan Horn May 14th, 2019

I recently saw a show at this new venue, one of the first public showings at the Arc since the NABRHOOD concept was introduced. The space itself was impressive – the large wood trusses seem to be suspended above the concert-goers heads. The space is really huge as well, even though the event itself had no more than 200 people. It seemed pretty empty but that I predict will change as The Arc hosts more shows local shows in the near future. The bathrooms and back-of-house probably need some renovation and it is still yet to be seen where local musicians will be able to rent out monthly/hourly studio space here as I don’t believe it is built out yet. Overall it was a great experience and looking forward to going there again soon!

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Claire Leaden May 22nd, 2019

This is really great feedback, thanks so much for sharing!

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