Pelham's Discarded Plastic Is Moving Into the Art Center Courtyard for the Winter

Starting Saturday, November 14, plastic that Pelham households gave away will hang in the courtyard at 155 Fifth Avenue. It is woven into a public artwork that stays there through the cold months and into spring.

The piece is called "Tree Flags," by the environmental artist Sari Nordman, and Pelham Art Center says it was "created using soft plastics collected and donated by members of the local community." The rest of the Art Center's November follows the same idea. The fundraiser serves food from local businesses, the holiday show sells work by local artists, and most of the workshops send you home with something you made yourself. Few months on Fifth Avenue draw this much from Pelham itself.

What the courtyard piece is made of

Nordman's 2026 portfolio describes Tree Flags as a fiber-art installation of found wood and colorful discarded plastic. Plastic is woven through the Y-shaped forks of branches to make a flag-like form, and each branch is tagged with the tree and location it came from. She writes that the work responds to single-use plastic and to the way discarded material gets "caught in trees and other plant life."

So each flag carries two labels: where the wood grew and, in Pelham's case, the households that gave the plastic. The Art Center will keep the installation in its courtyard for six months. Counting from the November 14 opening, that runs to about mid-May 2027, past the holiday lights, through the snow and into the season when real trees on the street start leafing out again.

Nordman isn't new to this kind of work. She is part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's 2026 Arts Center Residency cohort. She has exhibited at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and South Street Seaport, has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, and holds an MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. In 2025 she made an "Anxiety Flag" from discarded plastic and cloth. In her community workshops, participants knot discarded plastic film into small and large weaves that are later sewn into one larger piece.

The opening reception and installation is Saturday, November 14, at noon, and the Art Center's invitation says guests can meet the artist.

A fundraiser with a new name and a local menu

Before the flags go up, the Art Center holds its big fall night. For years the annual fundraiser was called Studio Cafe. This year it has been renamed "Fall for Art," and the first theme is "Flora & Fauna," as the Pelham Examiner reported on September 24. It runs Saturday, November 7, from 7 to 11 p.m. The evening includes local food tastings, dancing, live painting and art auctions, and the dress code is "Garden Glam."

The food is where the theme of local material shows up first. According to the release the Examiner published, Depot Dave Catering is putting together a selection of dishes from local businesses for the night. Guests can bid on three paintings made live during the event, a feature the release says is returning by popular demand. The auctions are set up with works at a range of price points.

The evening is also a gallery opening. Co-curators Paula Wood and Jen Cacciola, both on the Art Center's Gallery Advisory Council, asked artists for work inspired by "nature's contradictions during the hibernatory months," built around a single question:

"In an artist's practice, what gets stored during the deceivingly quieter seasons of life, only to bloom at a later time?"

The question fits Tree Flags well. A piece that goes up a week later will spend the whole dormant season in the courtyard.

General admission is $125. If you opt in to the ArtsWestchester Challenge Grant match at checkout, your ticket, sponsorship or gift can help unlock matching funds. The event is chaired by Board President Chris Dlutowski and board member Jaime Wright, and its sponsors include Pencil Projects Architecture Studio and the Koonce Family. Tickets are sold online or by calling (914) 738-2525 ext. 111. "Fall for Art represents not only the season, but also our collective experience of falling in love with art," Interim Executive Director Nancy Mazzei said in the release.

Three Saturdays in a row at 155 Fifth Avenue

The Art Center's three big November events land on consecutive Saturdays. Each one draws on a different part of the community:

• Saturday, November 7, 7–11 p.m.: Fall for Art: Flora & Fauna, with food from local businesses and the nature-themed gallery opening.
• Saturday, November 14, noon: Tree Flags reception and installation, made from plastic donated by residents.
• Saturday, November 21, noon–2 p.m.: Opening reception for ARTFUL FINDS, the 2026 Holiday Boutique of local art and handmade gifts, on view through December 23.

Gallery admission is free. That means two of the three events cost nothing to walk into. The boutique is the one that turns into holiday shopping, and the Art Center describes it as a way to find gifts "while supporting local artists."

If you're planning the November 14 reception, Fifth Coffee is at 153 Fifth Avenue, just two street numbers from the Art Center. The Pelham Examiner covered its opening in July and noted its menu of coffee, pastries, gelato and juice.

Workshops where you leave with something you made

Between the receptions, the Art Center's fall workshop calendar is full of seasonal projects. Everything below is listed for 2026:

Kintsugi, the craft of repairing broken ceramics, fits a month built around reuse. The botanical wreath class lands two days before Thanksgiving.

For teenagers, Teen Open Studio runs 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on November 6 and 20 and December 4 and 18. The Teen Artist Council meets from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturdays, November 28 and December 5.

The same idea is running across Pelham this fall

In October, the Pelham Examiner listed a run of fall sustainability events organized with the Village of Pelham Sustainability Advisory Board, the Chamber of Commerce and EcoPel. They included a free Halloween costume swap and a sustainability table at the Pelham Farmers Market. EcoPel's Healthy Yards meet-up took place at four homes on the Esplanade in Pelham Manor and covered leaf mulching, native plants, composting and rain barrels.

One part of that program continues past October. Residents can drop off food scraps at the Farmers Market every Sunday for the food-scrap recycling program the two villages run. The Pelham Market on Harmon Avenue runs Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Thanksgiving, according to the Examiner's July report. Thanksgiving is November 26 this year, so that leaves four more market Sundays after this post goes up. In practice, Sunday is for compost on Harmon Avenue and Saturday is for the plastic-made art on Fifth Avenue.

The season ends at Gazebo Park. The Pelham Chamber's Winter Wonderland sponsorship page lists Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 2 to 5 p.m., with pony rides, a petting zoo, caroling and the tree lighting. The Chamber's general upcoming events page still shows a November 29 date with no year. Last year's Winter Wonderland was held on Saturday, November 29, 2025. Check with the Chamber before you plan around either date.

Plan around the closed days

The Art Center's hours are more limited than the busy calendar suggests. The visit page lists weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the center is closed on Sundays through January 2027. Upcoming closures:

1. Sunday, November 8, the morning after Fall for Art
2. Wednesday, November 25 through Friday, November 27, over Thanksgiving
3. Thursday, December 24 through Sunday, January 3, 2027

Out-of-town guests arriving the Saturday after Thanksgiving will find the center open, the boutique on view and the courtyard flags up. Anyone coming over Christmas week will find the doors closed until January 4.

I've watched a lot of Novembers on Fifth Avenue, and I like that this one is built from things Pelham handed over itself. If you'd like to talk about how Pelham's calendar shapes the seasons on your own street, or if you're starting to plan your own next season, reach out to April Helene Monaco for a free home valuation and a personalized market plan.