Our Story
About Us
The Garage Art Center, inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community art center. The purpose of the organization is to support and promote the public interest, awareness, knowledge, and education in the visual arts in Queens, New York.
Our mission is to present quality arts that engage, educate and foster the diverse communities of Queens, New York. As a neighborhood art playground run by artists, we support both local and international artists, and arts organizations in presenting quality art exposure and educational experiences for the benefit of the local community.
The Garage Art Center, Inc. fulfills its mission by providing multi-disciplinary programs reflecting the diversity of our local community. We promote the pleasure and appreciation of art, support the creative endeavor of artists, and enhance the quality of life by introducing audiences to new forms and genres of art.
The Garage Museum Program:
Solo exhibitions to highlight the in-depth philosophy of an individual artist and occasional group exhibitions that explore compelling themes.
The Garage Education Program:
Hands-on art workshops, artist talks, art lectures, and panel discussions for the public.
The Garage Community Program:
Guided gallery group visit and onsite group workshop at community centers in the Queens area and beyond.We provide art workshops to seniors in our neighborhood organization and libraries including Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (KCS) and SelfHelp Senior Center. We are also collaborating with our local friend Dance to Wellness, Inc. who provides dance and fitness classes and interactive lectures that educate and inform the public of various health issues including seniors and 'differently-abled' people.
With generous venue support from cultural organizations in Queens, such as Flushing Town Hall and Queens College Art Center, we also provide curated group exhibitions. By working in collaboration with other organizations in our community, we create new connections and stronger bonds between community organizations to expand and amplify our mission to a broader audience and engage with the public.
Our Team
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Stephanie S. Lee
Stephanie S. Lee is an artist/curator based in Queens, NY. She received both MS and BFA from Pratt Institute and studied Korean Folk Art painting at Busan National University, South Korea. She teaches and promotes Korean Folk Art painting (Minhwa) to the public since 2013. While serving as a NY regional director of Korea Minhwa Association and a teaching artist of the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, she is currently working at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum.
Her work has been exhibited in many public venues and museums and featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Asia Week, The Korea Times, WNBC News, NY1 News, TKC TV, and many more.
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David B. Koo
David Koo is a Vice President of the Garage Art Center. As an entrepreneur who operates over ten restaurants across the United States, he brings operational know-how, insight, and discipline to the Garage Art Center. He earned a BS in Science from Seoul National University. Despite his background in business, he is a patron of fine arts. David found his love of arts as he supported his wife. The years of accompanying while she pursuing the fine arts and taking photographs of her artwork blossomed into a love for photography. He is now an avid photographer and focuses his artistic passion on taking photos of the various people and novel scenery he encounters in this travels.
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Sueim Koo
Sueim Koo is an artist based in Nanuet, New York. She earned her BFA at SUNY Purchase College and studied at The Art Students League of New York. She has enjoyed five solo exhibitions and was selected and invited to many group exhibitions and art fairs, such as Art’s Guild NJ’s International Juried Exhibition in New Jersey, the Monmouth Museum, the Library of Weill Cornell Medical Center, Bridge to Korea at IHOUSEPHILLY in Philadelphia, the Edward Hopper Art Center, and many more. Her works were awarded the Da Vinchi Art Alliance, Ring Gallery, and the Our Common Grounds Artist Guild Gallery.
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Seon Hee Choi
Seon Hee (Sunny) Choi holds a position as a Secretary at the Garage Art Center. She earned a BA in German Language & Literature in South Korea and changed her career to studying further in the fashion and art field. She studied Fashion Design at F.I.T and worked as a senior fashion designer at Kay Unger New York evening wear department for over 17 years. Currently, she is a U.S. divisional director in Jianye Textile, Inc.overseeing the textile design and managing U.S. accounts.
As an art lover living in Queens and as well as an art collector, she values arts and willing to help and supports local artists and its community.
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Frances Hynes
Artist Frances Hynes lives in Bayside and taught at LaGuardia Community College until 2013. She received an MA from New York University and a BA from St. John’s University. She also studied at the Art Students League in NY and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy.
Frances has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including one-person shows at MoMA PS1 and the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. Her work is represented in numerous museum collections, including the Hudson River Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, Albany Institute of History and Art, and the Farnsworth Art Museum, among others.
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Tina Seligman
Tina Seligman is an artist, composer, writer, and curator based in Queens, New York. After earning a BA in Art from Queens College, she studied music and movement including Isadora Duncan dance technique. Her 2018 solo exhibit at Flushing Town Hall explored patterns from solar, lunar and tidal cycles. In 2016, Tina's video collaboration with Dan Rubin was screened as an experimental short at the New York Independent Film Festival.
Since 2000, Tina has been a Teaching Artist-in-Residence through Flushing Town Hall. In 2018, she became an Education Representative for their CASA afterschool programs and set designer for Adam Crescenzi’s CASA student productions. She contributed to Art of the Times magazine from 2005 through 2013 and wrote essays for art books including Duoling Huang: The Cultural Landscape in 2014.
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Seung Lee
Seung Lee is currently a Professor of Fine Art at Long Island University Post. He received a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from Pratt Institute.
His paintings, drawings, and large-scale installations have been exhibited extensively in the U.S. as well as internationally: China, Italy, France, Japan, Germany and Korea. He has received numerous reviews in the New York Times, Newsday, Kyoto Times, Korea Daily News, Busan Daily, Art Word Magazine, Art Price Magazine, Art in Culture Mmagazine, Art Price Magazine, Art and People Magazine, and included in “Artist Profiles of Korea and Japan.”
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Janet M. Schneider
Artist, curator and arts administrator, Janet M. Schneider lives in Flushing and East Hampton with her husband, Michael F. Sperendi. Janet has been active as a curator for The Queens Museum and various other organizations and served as Executive Director of the Queens Museum from 1977 to 1989.
She is a summa cum laude graduate of Queens College, with a major in Fine Arts, and completed special study in Fine Arts at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute. Her work has also been included in various group shows in the New York City Area. She joined the Prince Street Gallery in 1973 and held solo exhibitions there in 1974, 1976 and 1981.
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Changgyoo Lim
Changgyoo Lim is a Director of the News Department at K-Radio, AM1660. He was a news reporter at Kyounggi-do, South Korea. Besides his career in the News Media field, he has a deep passion in the field of arts, especially in theater and performance.
He was an actor, stage director, and production manager in many plays and festivals including the World Outdoor Festival and the World Passage Ritual Festival while he was in Korea. He was a member of the Korean actors' group - Gillajai (길라잡이), Kumsijo (금시조), and Opera stage Shin (오페라무대 신). He continued performing several plays as an actor and a director after immigrated to New York. His latest directed Korean Pansori epic chant performance took place at Carnegie Hall in 2018.
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Jo Ann Chai
Jo Ann Chai is a Queens resident and rising fourth-year architecture student at Pratt Institute. Her recent partner project for a community center had been chosen to be archived as part of the recognized student collection.
She attended high school at Singapore American School and was a member of the National Art Honor Society. At the art program in her high school, part of the art classes required her to visit galleries and from then on, she took an interest in them. With an expanding curiosity in the arts, she is choosing to learn more about museums and galleries while also finishing her architecture degree.