Upstater Destinations: Windows on Main Street, Beacon

  |  August 29, 2013
bank square coffee house

Window of the Bank Square Coffeehouse by Benjamin Taylor; photo by Benjamin Taylor

We were poking around the Chronogram for fun stuff to do as the summer winds down, and we found this event happening in Beacon until the second week in September. It’s art, it requires a trip to the cool town of Beacon, it’s free, and it’s called Windows on Main Street. It’s also just exactly the type of thing we’d expect to see in funky, creative Beacon: Local artists and shop owners teaming up to place works of art in the windows of shops on Main Street. Some window designs are straight-forward with actual paintings hanging up, but others are more quirky and abstract.

This isn’t a new event for Beacon. In fact, they’ve been doing Windows on Main since 2005, and this year, a mini-exhibition of the entire project will be on display at Dream in Plastic, one of our favorite stores carrying toys, tee-shirts, artwork, vintage cameras, fun house-ware ephemera, and all manner of things we didn’t know we wanted until we walked in the door. The mini-exhibit is called Tiny Windows and, just like everything else about Windows on Main, it’s free and open to the public.

Next time you’re strolling through Beacon between now and September 14, take a moment to stop, look in some shop windows, and appreciate that Beacon is one of those towns that will make art accessible to everyone simply passing by on the street, without ever having to step inside of a gallery. Although you should definitely do that, too, since you’re there, anyway.

For a complete list of participating Main Street businesses, the 38 participating artists, photos of their artwork, and a map, visit the Windows on Main Street official blog.

yankee clipper diner

Yankee Clipper Diner; window art by Nestor Madalengiotia. Photo from Windows on Main Street blog.

 

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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