HOLIDAYS
On Atlantic Avenue
Holidays on Atlantic Avenue are most festive, with stunning windows, tree-lighting festivities, and special events. You’re sure to find the most unique gifts and personal service.
Take a look at photos from the past years' festivities.
The AALDC Annual Toy Drive provided toys and donations to disadvantaged children and families at local homeless shelters. Information on those who we have partnered with can be found here. With your contribution, we were able to bring smiles to the faces of many children this holiday season. Any amount was appreciated and helpful.
Annual Tree Lighting
Families from the community were invited to the Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony on November 28. The free public event took place at the St. Cyril of Turov Belarusian Church, located at 401 Atlantic Avenue. Council Member Lincoln Restler officiated the ceremony with the Girl Scouts Troops 2133 and 2518 counting down to the official lighting of the holiday tree!
Holiday Festivities
Music, Santa and More Along Atlantic Avenue! Here are some festivities from Christmas 2023.
Walk the Windows
Check out these year's winners!
Meet the Judges
Atlantic Avenue Merchant Window Judging Competition
Tony Dokoupil
Co-host of "CBS This Morning." Previously, he was a CBS News correspondent and a "CBS Sunday Morning" contributor. His reporting has appeared across all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.
His cover stories for CBS Sunday Morning include features on the scourge of suicide, the promise and peril of electronic cigarettes, and a successful rehab program for drug and alcohol-addicted airline pilots.
Dokoupil joined CBS News after three years at NBC News, where most recently he was a correspondent for MSNBC. He was the network's lead reporter on a run of big national stories, including the Paris climate agreement and the Flint water crisis. He also covered the 2016 presidential primaries.
Dokoupil is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Last Pirate: A Father, His Son, and the Golden Age of Marijuana (Doubleday, 2014), a memoir in which he documented his father's exploits smuggling marijuana during the 1970s and '80s.
Grace Freedman PhD
Founder and lead curator of Why Not Art, which celebrates the vitality of the Brooklyn arts community by presenting interdisciplinary art shows in alternative spaces. Our mission is to support local artists while reaching expanded and diverse audiences with inclusive and inviting visual arts-based programs. Why Not Art has produced 15 community art exhibits in Brooklyn since 2021. Freedman has created pop-up installations for the Atlantic Art Walk in 2022 and 2023, has served as guest curator for 440 Gallery and The Old Stone House in Park Slope, and has hosted 4 fundraising art exhibits under Why Not Art’s Artistic Philanthropy program, benefiting CHiPs, Beam Center and Dancewave. In addition, Freedman has been a Boerum Hill resident and community advocate for over 25 years.
Ed Heck
A native New Yorker, HECK’s career is as paradoxical as the universe he paints. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, he went on to work at the American Museum of Natural History. His detailed drawings can be found throughout the museum’s fossil halls. Although these carefully considered renderings might at first seem at odds with the unique universe of his imagination, they in fact represent two sides of the same coin. While Ed HECK’s works on paper and canvas have lost all the excess baggage of detail, they are distilled into an essence that can only be the result of the most focused of study.
HECK's enigmatic canvases were first exhibited in New York City in 1999 and were an instant hit. Interest and demand continue to grow and HECK’s work can now be found in galleries around the world. Unique style and mass appeal have forged his reputation as one of the leading pop artists of our time.
Ed has written and illustrated numerous children’s books including Monkey Lost, Big Fish, Little Fish and his own line of board books from Penguin Publishing titled “ED HECK Just Board.” His images have been licensed on apparel, home furnishings, dog toys, and a line of Ed HECK luggage and travel accessories.
Sergio Delavicci
Internationally recognized SAG/AFTRA actor, motivational
speaker, professional athlete, model, philanthropist, and humanitarian known for his role in films such as John Wick 3,
Creed 2, The Post, and You Were Never Really Here.
Delavicci’s diverse career repertoire crosses over into fashion
having walked for major runway shows such as New York Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, Mercedes Benz Style, Men's Fashion Week, Miami Swimwear Fashion Week, NOLCHA Shows, Society Fashion Week, Couture Fashion Week and more.
In his ongoing humanitarian efforts, Delavicci is passionate about giving back to the community working with at-risk youths, those who are incarcerated, women empowerment groups, and motivating the next generation.
Sergio is also involved in the "Real Men Read Initiative," where prominent men are invited to read at NYC schools to promote literacy. Sergio’s giving back initiatives extend to working closely with organizations such as YWCA-NYC, Project Avary, Children's Village, Bowery Mission, and The Relief Program.
Dan Petersen
Brooklyn-based visual artist and muralist. He largely works within the abstract realm, with a strong embrace of the psychedelic, typically using acrylic paint or colored pencils to do so. He has painted several public murals in Los Angeles and New York City, including for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the NYC Parks Department. His work has been exhibited in several galleries and museums all over the country, including Susquehanna Art Museum, Kean University, The Hive Gallery, and Queen City.