NEW YORK, NY.- Fifteen of the city's preeminent galleries-all clustered on the Upper East Side-are hosting simultaneous opening-night receptions to kick off the first edition of October Art Week, October 20 to 26.

The gallery receptions, open to the public and comfortably walkable from one another, are being held to expand upon the buzz and excitement generated by the opening of TEFAF in New York City. Taking place at the Park Avenue Armory, TEFAF, the world's premier art fair, will bring together the treasures of nearly 100 dealers from around the globe, showcasing outstanding examples of fine art, design, furniture, jewelry and more.

"With the opening of TEFAF New York, we thought it was the perfect time to launch October Art Week. TEFAF draws the world's foremost collectors and curators and while we look forward to seeing them on our stand, we really wanted to get them into our galleries, too," says Bria Koser, director of Otto Naumann Ltd., who with Lydia Johnson, director at Robert Simon Fine Art and Frances Beatty, president of Richard L. Feigen & Co., came up with the concept.

Koser and Johnson envisioned some special way to observe the week-long activities swirling around the art world. In addition to TEFAF, Christie's has moved their sale dates to coincide with the fair and Sotheby's, too, is holding their private selling exhibitions of Old Master paintings during the week. "We considered various ideas, trying to come up with an exciting way to bring people together to make the most of everything going on this Fall in New York."

The 15 participating galleries, several of which are exhibiting at TEFAF, include:

• Jill Newhouse Gallery, 19th- and 20th-century European works; 4 East 81st Street

• Schiller & Bodo, 19th-century European paintings, with emphasis on works from the French Academic, Realist, Barbizon and Post-Impressionist traditions; 4 East 81st Street

• Otto Naumann Ltd., Old Master Paintings; 22 East 80th Street, Second Floor

• Robert Simon Fine Art, Old Master paintings; 22 East 80th Street, Fourth Floor

• Shepherd W & K Galleries, 19th-century European paintings, drawings and sculpture, and modern art; 58 East 79th Street

• Les Enluminures, manuscripts and miniatures from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well as rings and jewelry from the period; 23 East 73rd Street, Seventh Floor

• Jack Kilgore & Co., European old master paintings; 154 East 71st Street, Third Floor
Richard L. Feigen & Co., wide-ranging works, from Sir Joshua Reynolds to Ray Johnson; 34 East 69th Street

• Didier Aaron, Inc., predominantly French paintings and drawings from the 17th- through 19th-centuries, plus European furniture and decorative arts from the same period; 32 East 67th Street

• Taylor | Graham, American and European art from the 19th century to the present, and sculpture; 32 East 67th Street

• Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts, European art, chiefly Renaissance and Baroque sculpture (exhibiting at Dickinson Roundell, Inc.); 19 East 66th Street

• Dickinson Roundell, Inc., old master, Impressionist and contemporary paintings and works of art; 19 East 66th Street

• Daphne Alazraki Fine Art, European paintings of the 17th through 21st centuries; and Trinity House Paintings, Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, modern British and 19th-century works; 24 East 64th Street

• Mark Murray Fine Paintings, 19th-century, early 20th-century and Impressionist art; 159 East 63rd Street