Chappaqua Bridge Transformed Into Vibrant Public Art Space

By Tomás Thor 

One might spot a honeybee mid-flight; or a Lord of the Rings movie playing on a Chromebook; or the word “belonging,” between bursts of color.  No matter what catches the eye first, the beauty of Chappaqua is captured in the new murals under the once-deserted South Greeley Avenue bridge.

On Saturday, June 14, New Castle residents gathered to celebrate the unveiling of three murals, marking the transformation of the once-ignored space beneath the South Greeley Avenue bridge into the Bridge Gallery—a vibrant canvas of community art.

“A year ago, the Arts and Culture Committee had just been reconstituted after years of dormancy,” explained Jennifer Klein, a town board member and liaison to the committee. “We were driving around town looking at possible sites, and this bridge just screamed gallery to us. It was dreary, unless something drew people in, no one would come here. But the alcoves? They were perfect.”

What followed was a year of coordination between the committee, town employees, artists, students, and legal teams. 

“It took so many people, so many thinking caps to determine how we could make this happen,” Klein said. “But no one was going to let this fail—not a single person involved.”

Each mural was created by different local artists, all responding to the given theme of community. After soliciting proposals from artists last summer, the committee selected three works: Just Bee by Thomas G. Quaranta, Memory Lane by Jessie Rubin, and The Lunch Table by Horace Greeley High School seniors Sophia Kong and Rowan Hillard.

Memory Lane – Jessie Rubin

When it came time for artist Jessie Rubin to unveil her mural, Memory Lane, she didn’t step forward alone. Surrounded by her family, arms linked and smiles wide, they pulled back the mural’s cover together.

Memory Lane combines past and present in a patchwork of bold, graffiti-like imagery. It’s layered with details that reflect Rubin’s personal connection to the town and its generational heartbeat.

“This is a community I was raised in,” Rubin said, “and now I raise my own children here.”

“She brought such heart to this project,” said New Castle native Ethan Klingman. “It was emotional watching her reveal it with her family. That’s the whole point of this gallery. It’s about coming together.”

The Lunch Table – Sophia Kong & Rowan Hillard

For Horace Greeley seniors Sophia Kong and Rowan Hillard, support didn’t come with big speeches or grand gestures. It looked like a lunch table.

That table is now a mural beneath the South Greeley Avenue bridge. Every detail in The Lunch Table tells a story. The calculator? Technically Hillard’s—“but everyone’s borrowed it for a test at some point,” she laughed. Even the doodles scattered across the mural’s faux homework pages have meaning.

“We actually asked our friends to come in and draw on it—whatever they’d scribble in the margins during class,” Hillard said. “Some of it’s physics formulas. Some are little characters. It’s all part of them.”

Despite being science students, the two spent three intense weeks painting—tucked into a small lunchroom at the New Castle Police Department, which became their makeshift studio.

What they leave behind is a time capsule of growing up in New Castle. 

“I want students to walk by and say, ‘Hey, that’s my APUSH textbook!’” Kong said. “Or ‘That’s my quesadilla!’ I want it to feel familiar. I want it to bring back something small but meaningful.”

Just Bee – Thomas G. Quaranta

Before his mural was revealed, artist Thomas G. Quaranta took a step back and turned to face the crowd. With a warm smile, he invited everyone to join him in the unveiling. In that moment, it wasn’t just a mural being revealed—it was a message coming to life.

“This mural is about unity,” Quaranta said later. “About how the hive is stronger than the bee.”

The piece, titled Just Bee, bursts with colorful, mosaic-like geometry. A central bee hovers in motion, surrounded by shapes that suggest both energy and intention.

“All three murals are about community,” Quaranta explained. “But mine is specifically about collaboration. Individual accomplishment is great—but if we work together, especially in a world that can sometimes feel sour, we can make things a little sweeter.”

Quaranta, a Chappaqua resident and a professional artist who also works at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, submitted the mural proposal more than a year ago. 

“A friend on the committee reached out and said, ‘Hey, you should apply,’” he recalled. “So I did. We refined the concept together over months. And now… here we are.”

What’s Next

Looking ahead, the Bridge Gallery is far from finished.

“We’ve filled three out of eight,” said Arts & Culture Committee co-chair Joan Schildkraut. “There’s more to come. My hope is that people will take the train up just to walk through this space—that they’ll grab coffee, visit the shops, and remember that this is what a community can be.”

Public art projects like the Bridge Gallery do more than beautify—they also build community pride, invite diverse perspectives, and create spaces that uplift emotionally, committee member Roberta Lasky observed, noting how the effort is transforming the area into “an inviting uplifting, vibrant, place filled [with] happiness.”

As for Klein, she pointed out how project itself became a living embodiment of its own theme. 

“The idea was community,” she said. “But what I didn’t expect was that we would live that message while creating it. This took everyone. Every email, every paintbrush, every QR code. No one let it fail.”

The bridge is just beginning its transformation—but already, it’s doing what bridges do best: bringing people together.

Correction: Joan Schildkraut’s last name was misspelled in an earlier version. The piece also misidentified people in photo captions. This article was updated on Sunday, June 15 to reflect the changes. We regret the errors.