Community

Beloved North Fork artist nurtured creativity in others

Amy Worth of Orient was not only a creative force, she fostered it in those within her orbit.

A beloved North Fork artist, she died unexpectedly of leukemia on Aug. 26. The impact of her loss was felt strongly in the North Fork’s vibrant arts community, and her legacy of inspiring creativity in others persists in the community and her family.

(Credit: Melissa Azofeifa)

Her son, Christopher Worth, said having her as a mother was a “blessing I can never live up to, but for which I’m eternally grateful.”

“She was an amazing and inspirational woman because she had the courage to take risks in order to live a meaningful life, the strength and determination to see her projects through, and the heart to lift up those she met along the way who reached out to her,” he said.

After a 25-year career as a textile artist, producing designs for lines such as Ralph Lauren, Paloma Picasso and Calvin Klein, Ms. Worth, then in her early 40s, turned the experience of a difficult divorce into a new career. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Queens College and a master’s from C.W. Post. She then taught art at Huntington High School for 12 years.

Ms. Worth was instrumental in launching the fashion and design careers of many of her students, said her mother, Joan Berglund, in a recent interview.

“She was very interested in young people, in helping them with art,” Ms. Berglund said. “All the students that she had she still stayed in touch with and helped them get into places like FIT.”

At one point, Ms. Worth started a fashion design and illustration class at the high school. She and fellow teacher Kristen Singer assigned students to design inaugural gowns for first lady Michelle Obama and her daughters that were so well received the class was invited to meet Ms. Obama and attend a ceremony at the Smithsonian marking the donation of her gown.

Ms. Worth also taught private classes in drawing, painting, collage and color theory and supported the careers of those students as well. 

The South Street Gallery, which Ms. Worth opened with her late husband, Tom Payne, featured local artists from 2006 to 2021. Her student Christopher Maiorana, born with Down Syndrome, sold all of his paintings during a show there in 2016. The gallery was also known for a popular winter fundraiser, the 10×10 show, which supported the North Fork Environmental Council.

“At the gallery, while performing at a high level as a teacher, she had simultaneously created a space that was recognized for its fine art, welcoming atmosphere, community classes and [the] 10×10 show. She was also simultaneously creating her own works of art,” Mr. Worth said. “To do all this, my mother worked incredibly hard, but she very rarely appeared stressed or overwhelmed and she always put family first.”

Ms. Worth’s daughter Emma Worth recalled that her mother would take charge of designing the costumes for her and her siblings’ school theater productions in middle school.

“She just kind of took ownership of designing the costumes, which was really no small affair because they would pack so many kids onto the stage,” Ms. Worth said. “She would show me how she would study the time period and then she’d think of something that was thrifty and economical that’d be a component that she could teach the other parents, and they could go home and do a portion and then come together and work on it.”

Ms. Worth expressed her own creativity typically with oils, collage, clay and fiber. Her work has been showcased at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, the Southampton Cultural Center and the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook. Her latest work was shown recently in an exhibit called “A Sense of Place” at Fiedler Gallery in Greenport, where nine of her pieces will remain through April 2025.

In her obituary, Ms. Worth was remembered as a generous volunteer and a board member for NPR affiliate WPPB Peconic Public Broadcasting, as well as an art teacher for recovering addicts in Vermont.

Artist Wendy Prellwitz of Peconic worked closely with Ms. Worth and described her as always being open to new things with her art. She recalled Ms. Worth’s excitement when they used a new technique to make papers for a collage workshop earlier this year.

“She was such a resource for the arts community,” Ms. Prellwitz said. “She was always just a great person to be connected to because of her spirit and always willing to try something new.”

While Emma Worth acknowledges her mother’s talent with fabric, oils and other mediums, she said her legacy was also in community building.

“What was so meaningful to her was this aspect of bringing people together and fostering spaces where creativity could thrive, and people felt that they had an inroad to be expressive,” she said.