Madison Avenue Hosting Gallery Walk, Free Art Exhibition

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two concurrent events will hit Madison Avenue this weekend: an annual gallery walk and an art exhibition that is brightening shop windows.

Madison Avenue Art & Design Weekend began Friday and continues through Sunday, sponsored by the avenue's business improvement district. It includes window displays in eight different storefronts with nearly 100 pieces of artwork designed by students from the School of Visual Arts.

Meanwhile, the Madison Avenue Spring Gallery Walk will be held Saturday, with 38 galleries opening their doors for tours and discussions of their current exhibitions.

Here's more information about both events:

Art & Design Weekend

Dubbed "WINDOWS Open to the Sky," the window displays adorn formerly vacant windows, which were donated by their landlords in order to be part of the exhibition.

Artworks focus on "a city coming back from the COVID-19 pandemic, from antique sleds transformed into modern vehicles to specially-built bicycles stamped with positive messages.

The artworks are installed at the following addresses:

• 698 and 700 Madison Ave. (between East 62nd-63rd streets)
• 777, 779 and 781 Madison Ave. (between East 66th–67th streets)
• 1015 Madison Ave. (between East 78th-79th streets)

The installations will remain on view through Tuesday.

Gallery Walk

The gallery walk will be held by appointment in order to abide by social distancing rules. Make a reservation online at the Madison Avenue B.I.D. website.

The galleries run along Madison and some adjacent side streets between East 57th and 86th streets. Works on display include: illustrations by Karl Bodmer at the Arader Gallery, sculptures by Alexander Calder and Henry Moore at Van de Weghe, and masterpieces of Himalayan and Indian art at Kapoor Galleries, among dozens of others.

Learn more about both events at madisonavenuebid.org.