Mineola's Mural Fest Paints the Corner the Village Is Rebuilding

On Saturday, Nov. 7, 30 muralists will spend the afternoon painting live at Second Street and Main Street in downtown Mineola. Each artist gets one primed wall, 7 feet wide by 6 feet tall, and the theme is "Beyond the Walls." This is the festival's second year, and the location matters. The village has called this corner the key piece of its downtown revitalization. State money is also set aside for permanent public art and street changes within a few blocks of it. The pop-up murals are the temporary version of something Mineola has already approved and secured state money for.

The corner behind the walls

As Long Island Press reported in April 2025, a 2022 fire burned down the buildings that used to stand at the northwest corner of Main and Second. The Village's April 2025 approval clears a 62-unit mixed-use apartment building at 101–109 Main Street for that site, with DP Builders, Inc. as the applicant. The approved plan has five residential stories plus a partial sixth-floor amenity level. It includes 49 one-bedroom units, 13 two-bedroom units, seven affordable units and 85 on-site parking spaces.

The ground-floor plan has shifted a bit in the reporting. In March 2025, Long Island Press described two retail tenants and one or two restaurants. By April, the description was two or three commercial tenants, one of them a restaurant.

By Mineola standards, 62 apartments is a modest number. New York State credits the village's zoning changes with adding more than 1,400 housing units over the past decade. What makes this project stand out is where it sits. When the board approved it, Mayor Paul Pereira called the project "the key piece" of downtown revitalization and said downtown would start to look like a downtown once it was finished, as Long Island Press reported in April 2025. The approval findings also list streetscape work on Main and Second and the removal of utility lines among the project's public benefits.

How a construction fence became a festival

The first Mural Fest came out of that same site. In June 2025, Long Island Press reported that the corner had been empty since the fire and that an apartment building was going up behind a construction fence. Grace Kelly, co-founder of LI Pop Up Event Production, told the paper she had worked with Mayor Pereira to find the spot where murals would do the most good. "It was just kind of this ugly construction fence that was there," she said. "So together with the village, we came up with the idea to create a wall that would allow artists to paint their murals live in front of the public."

In the same Long Island Press article, the mayor explained why the village had used plywood for the fence instead of standard construction fencing:

"When we first scheduled the art festival, I just thought that it would be a great idea to put the construction fence around the empty property with plywood instead of a traditional construction fence and give local artists an opportunity to paint murals on there."

He called the day "a huge success." He also called it a "look into the future as we kick our downtown revitalization into high gear."

That festival was held on Saturday, June 21, 2025. Thirty-two muralists and local artists painted the fence from the corner of Second Street around onto Main Street. Kelly told the paper it was the first street mural festival in Nassau County and the largest linear art installation in the county's history. Sixteen of the painters came from the Museum of Urban Arts, which helped organize the event. One of them, painter Angie Rose, said she keeps coming to live-painting events because they bring local artists together. Babylon-based artist Hope Whittising, who had left a 9-to-5 job a few months earlier to pursue art professionally, talked about the support she had received from the community.

The format began as a way to cover up a construction site. It has now come back as its own event on the village calendar. At the Village Board's Sept. 23, 2026 meeting, Mayor Pereira announced the Nov. 7 Mural Festival on Second Street and Main Street, alongside the Fall Harvest Festival and the Chamber of Commerce street fair.

What changes in year two

The second festival moves to a new season, uses a set wall size and adds a theme.

According to the organizers' listing, the 2026 theme asks each artist to paint their own idea of a positive future for the next generation. The listing's tagline is "30 Artists. 30 Walls. 30 Visions of What Comes Next." Artists start arriving at 8:30 a.m., so by the time the public hours begin at noon, many of the walls will already be underway. The listed address is 182 Second Street. The event is part of the Mineola Event Series, which LiPopUp produces.

The festival will also have artisan and small-business vendors. The listing caps food trucks at four spaces. It also notes street closures and tells vendors that late vehicle entry can't be accommodated, but it doesn't give a closure map. If you usually drive through Second and Main on a Saturday, plan another route that day. 106.1 BLI has also promoted the event, mentioning the food trucks, the artisan vendors and the open call for muralists.

The permanent version is already funded

In May 2025, Governor Hochul's office announced seven NY Forward projects for Mineola, totaling $4.5 million. Four of them line up closely with what Mural Fest does for one afternoon:

• Second and Main streetscape, $1,300,000. This project widens sidewalks on the north side of Second Street and the east side of Main Street. It also buries power lines, adds landscaping and installs automatic bollards for temporary road closures, which is the kind of closure a street festival requires.
• Pavilion Garage mural, $505,000. A large-scale mural on the north-facing wall of The Pavilion Parking Garage, plus landscaping, lighting and seating on the ground below it so the area can host events.
• Station Plaza to Second Street passageway, $417,000. Better lighting and public art in the Mineola Boulevard Bridge underpasses and the Morgan Parc alleyway, to improve the walk between the train station and downtown.
• Small Project Fund, $300,000. Grants for property improvements, with public art listed among the eligible uses alongside façades, signage and accessibility upgrades.

The state's announcement does not name an artist or give a schedule for the Pavilion mural, and none of these projects came with a public completion date. Until they arrive, the station already has a permanent public artwork: Donald Lipski's 20-foot bronze sculpture "Bessie and Roxey," which the MTA installed as part of the Mineola station upgrade.

Taken together, these line items describe the corner the festival takes over for a day. The plan calls for wider sidewalks at Second and Main, bollards that make it easier to close the street, and art on the routes people walk between the train and downtown. Each November festival shows what that block could look like once the plan is built.

Planning the weeks around Nov. 7

Mural Fest falls in the middle of a busy stretch on the village and library calendars. Here are the dates from now through the tree lighting:

1. Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Halloween treats and crafts at Mineola Memorial Library. Stop by the Circulation, Reference and Children's desks while supplies last.
2. Saturday, Oct. 31, noon to 3 p.m. Village Halloween Party at Mineola Memorial Park, 195 Marcellus Road. The rain date is Nov. 1.
3. Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 a.m. to noon. Diwali craft in the library's Children's Library. No signup is required, and supplies are limited.
4. Saturday, Nov. 7, noon to 5 p.m. Mural Fest: Beyond the Walls at Second Street and Main Street.
5. Saturday, Nov. 7, 2 to 3:30 p.m. The Carlyle Players perform "True West" at the library. The show is for adults, and registration is required.
6. Friday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m. Holiday Tree Lighting at Mineola Fire Department Headquarters, 171 Jericho Turnpike.

On Nov. 7, a family could do the morning Diwali craft at the library and then head to Second and Main when the festival opens at noon. Adults with a "True West" registration can spend the first two hours at the festival before the 2 p.m. curtain. The walls will be furthest along later in the afternoon, before the event wraps up at 5.

Pat Gaglio follows how each new project at Second and Main changes downtown Mineola, from the approved building at 101–109 Main Street to the streetscape work planned around it. If you'd like to talk through what these changes could mean for your own home or block, contact Pat Gaglio to schedule a free consultation.