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MoCA L.I.ghts 2026 in Patchogue: the sites, the nights, and the map

MoCA L.I.ghts 2026 projects art onto building fronts across downtown Patchogue from Thursday, October 22 to Monday, October 26, with the building projections running 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM each night. This guide lists all 15 sites, the tours and performances, and every night in order.

South Shore Digest guide · updated October 18, 2026

At night, a white columned building reading THE PATCHOGUE BANK is washed in pink and blue projected light while a crowd in jackets watches from the street.
The old Patchogue Bank building on West Main Street under projected light at a past MoCA L.I.ghts. Photo: Patchogue Arts Council

For five nights, downtown Patchogue turns into a canvas. From Thursday, October 22 to Monday, October 26, artists project art, animation and media onto the fronts of some of the village's best-loved contemporary and historic buildings. This year's theme, Antiquity to Innovation, traces how art moved from pigment and chisel to the printing press, the camera and now projection and light, timed to the country's 250th anniversary. The Patchogue Arts Council puts it on with the Museum of Contemporary Art L.I. and the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce.

This guide walks the numbered sites in the order of the organizer's map, sites 1 through 15, then the tours, the performances and the Night Market, and finally each night one at a time. Every time listed here comes from the Patchogue Arts Council's own schedule.

If you only go once

Saturday, October 24 holds the most in one evening. The Night Market sets up on Roe Walkway, a Vanderbilt astronomy educator brings a telescope out for a look at Saturn, the camera obscura is open, the official tours run, and Andrei Budescu plays a live sound set at site 3. If the opening is what draws you, come out Thursday, October 22 for LUCIDITY Opera & Dance. Pick your night by who is coming with you: Saturday for a full, busy walk, Thursday for opening night.

How MoCA L.I.ghts works

You can walk it or drive it. The sites sit along West Main Street, East Main Street, South Ocean Avenue, Church Street and the Terry Street side of downtown. The theme follows art from pigment and chisel all the way to projection and light, marking the 250th.

The building projections, sites 1 to 10

These are the ARTchitecture projections, mapped onto the fronts of contemporary and historic buildings with projection mapping, video and light.

The organizer's printed street map panel numbering sites one through fifteen and marking parking with a P across West Main Street, Ocean Avenue, and nearby streets.
This is the organizer's 2026 map, and its numbers match the numbered sites in this guide. Tap the map to open the whole map at full size. Map: Patchogue Arts Council

1. Lights on MoCA L.I., Patchogue Arts Council

A group program on the arts council's own building, with work from thirty artists.

2. ArchAngels, United Methodist Church

Jonathan Monaghan's ArchAngels takes over the church front at the corner of South Ocean Avenue and Church Street.

3. .aetherium, Historic Industrial Coverage Corp.

Andrei Budescu's .aetherium runs on the building here, and Budescu plays a live sound set at the site on three of the nights.

4. Rythem and Motion, Historic Carnegie Library

Ari Dykier brings Rythem and Motion to the front of the Historic Carnegie Library.

5. History Illuminated: Stories of Lakeview Cemetery

This is the first projection at the cemetery in the festival's history, telling Patchogue's legendary tales and historical figures through light and storytelling. It features local actors from the Patchogue-Medford Library, among them Roy Ruland, a descendant of the Ruland family.

6. History of Patchogue, Shands General

A special projection for the 250th, drawn from the village's own archives.

7. Realm of the Unfamiliar, Bank of America

Sahar Moussavi's Realm of the Unfamiliar lands on the old Patchogue Bank building, its name still carved across the front.

8. Art on the Marquee, Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts

The theater's digital marquee becomes a screen for artist-made videos, gifs and animations, chosen from an international open call. It is an idea the arts council created for the festival and, by the organizers' account, the only marquee exhibit on Long Island, and it keeps running well past the festival, through December 31.

9. Holotropic, U.S. Post Office

MetaCaustics brings Holotropic to the Post Office front on East Main Street.

10. Patchogue Waterways: a Sanctuary, Main Patchogue-Medford Library

Joyce Yu-Jean Lee's Patchogue Waterways: a Sanctuary runs on the library's brick wall, presented in cultural partnership with MTA Arts & Design.

Night Visions and the library mural, sites 11 to 15

Night Visions is a pop-up projected gallery with several screening spots around the heart of the village. The 2026 works come from an international open call to artists in every medium, plus invited artists and two programs, PEACE Connections, curated by Takafumi Ide, and Project Vote.

11. Night Visions Projected Gallery, Roe Walkway Piazza

The Night Visions gallery runs each night on the Roe Walkway Piazza.

12. Mural Activation, Roe Walkway

Every year the arts council and the library add a new mural to the library's south side. For the festival, projection mapping brings this year's mural to life.

13. Night Visions at Endless Beauty Suites, Oak & Mane

A Night Visions screening set into the west corner windows at Oak & Mane.

14. Night Visions screening, Plaza Cinema

The gallery moves onto a cinema screen for the one daytime event of the festival.

15. Night Visions at The Better Man Distilling Co.

This Night Visions stop runs opening night only.

Tours, performances and the Night Market

Official MoCA L.I.ghts tours with Glow Guide Robbie Crothers

Glow Guide Robbie Crothers walks you through the 2026 projections, the ideas and the artists behind them. Along the way the tour covers the history of the village's architecture.

Opening performance: LUCIDITY Opera & Dance

The festival opens with voice and movement together, operatic soprano Danielle Davis and interpretive dancer Wendi Weng. It is a MoCA L.I.ghts tradition, classical music and dance meeting in one form.

Camera obscura: Antiquity & Innovation Converge

Light painting artist Alina Wilczynski built a room-sized dark chamber for this year, a device that came more than 2,500 years before modern photography. Step inside and you see the new library mural and the projections the way people once saw images, through a lens of antiquity.

Live glow painters

Artists paint live around downtown each evening, with a different lineup every day.

Live sound with Andrei Budescu

Andrei Budescu plays a live sound set at site 3, where his projection runs, on three of the festival nights.

MoCA L.I.ghts Night Market

Curated artist vendors and live painters set up on Roe Walkway for Saturday night.

Bunny, live outside the library

Bunny is a Long Island party-noise band built on beatbox-driven funk that keeps shifting shape and locking into grooves. Dancing is encouraged.

Family pavilions

Kids color their own fish and watch it swim on screen in a digital aquarium, then meet glowing creatures in a live touch tank with Sea Explorers Marine Camp and Cornell Cooperative Extension. The L.I. Clean Energy Hub is there too, with ways to cut the utility bill, do-it-yourself steps, and how to reach incentive programs for bigger home upgrades.

Outside the Patchogue-Medford Library at night, two people in fish hats staff a Sea Explorers Marine Camp table with pamphlets as visitors lean in to look.
The Sea Explorers Marine Camp table outside the Patchogue-Medford Library at a past MoCA L.I.ghts. Photo: Patchogue Arts Council

Saturn through a telescope, Vanderbilt Museum & Planetarium

An astronomy educator from the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport sets up a telescope so the public can look at Saturn, weather permitting. There is art and astrophotography of the universe to see as well.

Night by night

Thursday, October 22

Opening night brings the LUCIDITY performance and the only Better Man Distilling stop of the festival.

Friday, October 23

Friday adds Budescu's live set and the family pavilion inside Toast Coffeehouse.

Saturday, October 24

The fullest night of the festival, and it starts at noon with the Plaza Cinema screening.

Sunday, October 25

Sunday brings Bunny outside the library at 8:00 PM.

Monday, October 26

The last night keeps the projections, the glow painters and the final tours.

Plan your night

The photo shared with this guide is by the Patchogue Arts Council.

Official links

Official pages for tickets, times, and the latest details:

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