Montauk Artists Decorate Vacant Windows With Paintings for Winter Season

Works by local artists in hand, members of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce and the Montauk Artists Association teamed up this year to decorate the vacant windows of businesses closed for the winter season.

The idea is to make the town feel a little bit more alive during the holidays and through the course of the sleepy winter season, while also getting the ball rolling on what could develop into a new winter tradition.

It began when the Chamber of Commerce approached Chris Lucore of The Lucore Art, who received the idea warmly. From there, he and Donna Corvi from the Montauk Artists Association rallied the artists, while the chamber rallied the businesses.

“We’ve all sort of come together with this idea that we want to take the closed windows and just bring art from local artists and fill the windows to make the town feel a little bit more alive over the holidays,” Lucore said.

All of these works will be on display during an Art Walk, slated for December 6, when people will gather at the Chamber of Commerce building for cider before exploring town to see the windows.

Lucore, the Montauk Artists Association and the Chamber of Commerce were able to get 12 businesses to participate: the Montauk Visitor Center, Bambi’s Cafe, Hello Cando, Montauk T-Shirt, Below the Blue, The Bird on the Roof, Sand Shack, Wyld Blue, James Katsipis Photography, The 8th Drifter, the building that formerly housed White’s, Eye Gallery, Winick Fine Jewelry, Montauk Vintage and The Lucore Art.

The largest displays can be found at Montauk T-Shirt, Sand Shack and Wyld Blue. Lucore typically looked for the largest piece he could fit in a window and moved forward with that.

“Our goal was visibility and accessibility,” Lucore said. “Large, colorful, vibrant compositions were chosen to fill the available space.”

There will be 15 artists featured: James Katsipis, Lucore, Candace Ceslow, Connie Cortese, Kenneth Walsh, Bob Sullivan, Anna Watt, Mary Daunt, Corvi, Juliana Purcell Sheehan, Dalton Portella, Lindsay Bardwill, Carl Scorza, Haim Mizrahi and Alicia Suarez.

And Lucore, who makes contemporary, abstract paintings, said the arts community in Montauk doesn’t clear out when winter comes.

“The focus of the event is, for one, the town coming together,” Lucore said of the Art Walk. “It’s a big collaboration with all these businesses, the chamber, my gallery, the Montauk Artists Alliance. Like everybody’s coming together to make this happen. The other thing is, just accessibility of art in Montauk. I mean being able to get art out there and find places to display your work.

“This is just a step for art to be accessible in town and for people to feel like there is opportunity for their art,” he added.

The Art Walk will be held at 3:30 p.m. on December 6. The walk will end at The Lucore Art, where the gallery will have its holiday exhibition, which will start at 4 p.m.

“I want to honor that effort and make sure Montauk remains beautiful, active and inspirational year-round,” Lucore said of the local arts community. “I think that’s exactly what this event is doing.”