Mural in the works to mark 25th year of Glen Cove music series

Next week a piano keyboard will begin to snake 30 feet into the air on the side of the staircase enclosure at Glen Cove’s Brewster Street parking garage, one brush stroke at a time.

The mural, which has been commissioned by the Glen Cove Business Improvement District, will celebrate 25 years of the city’s Downtown Sounds summer music series.

“It represents what happens in Downtown Sounds,” Patricia Holman, executive director of the business district, told Newsday. “It certainly weaves our community together.”

At last week’s concert, for example, “Everybody was dancing with everybody, and it’s just a wonderful night that we celebrate our people in our community,” Holman said.

The concerts are held on a stage at the Village Square, a mixed-use development built around an open space that debuted in 2020 at the intersection of Bridge, School and Glen streets.

On Tuesday, at its regular meeting, the City Council gave permission to the district to paint the mural after some questions about the design and maintenance.

“How long can we expect it to look in a very nice condition, and once it stops looking in a very nice condition, who’s responsible for either repairing it or covering it up and replacing it?” Councilman Jack Mancusi asked.

Holman said other murals by the artist, Shei Phan, are coated with protective layers of waterproofing and have held up for 10 years. If the mural gets defaced by graffiti in ways that the city cannot clean it, the artist can be brought back in to fix it, Holman said.

Though council members had viewed Phan’s design, which the Business Improvement District’s board approved, Holman said there were some changes still being made, including the addition of lettering to say it marks the 25th anniversary of Downtown Sounds and changes to some of the people who were in the first rendering, which had been based on photographs from the concerts.

“We wanted to make sure it’s very clear that there’s young people dancing at these concerts,” Holman told the City Council. “We want to make sure that the whole mural represents the diversity of Glen Cove.”

Weather permitting, the mural is expected to be finished in mid-August, Holman said.