Walking a neighbor’s dog. Making dinner for a sick friend. Buying a slice of pizza for a homeless man. Those were some of the favors New Yorkers performed this year to quash the myth that we are not so nice. Those favors are now the objects of an art installation on display from November 6 through the 23. It is free and open to the public. The opening reception is on November 8.
The 14-by-18-foot installation, made up of over 120 hanging paper spirals, each inscribed with a favor someone did in conjunction with the project, will be hanging at the Space Gallery at 29-09 39th Avenue, Long Island City.
“To get a sense of the project, you move through the installation,
touch it, and read it,” said Priscilla Stadler, a LaGuardia Community
College administrator and Queens artist who spearheaded the project.
“It’s like walking through a living field of positive energy.”
The opening reception will be held on November 8 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00
p.m., featuring brief favor-related readings by authors Audrey Dimola
and Elisa Montesinos.
On November 16 from 10:30 a.m. to noon, there will be a FAVORS workshop
for adults and children where games will be played and stories shared
while participants will make favors spirals that will be added to the
installation.
The closing event on November 23, running from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.,
will feature an artist’s talk and a panel discussion on favors in
cultural contexts. The panelists include Adriana Escandon, a community
organizer and LaGuardia and Hunter graduate, speaking on the role of
favors in immigrant communities; and Rose Tang, an artist/journalist,
discussing the influence of capitalism and communism on favor-doing in
China. A Q&A related to the FAVORS project will follow.
Ms. Stadler noted that the project began in Queens, but soon expanded.
“You can be generous in your acts no matter where you are, so location
became less important as the project grew,” she said. “My real
agenda was encouraging people to connect in ways that they might not
normally do and to highlight an awareness of helping each other that
will outlast the project.”
The project was funded by a Queens Council on the Arts grant and on
April 19, 2013, Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer proclaimed that day
“Doing Favors Day in New York City.” Also supporting the project
were several community organizations, which each brought their own
unique perspective to the FAVORS theme.
The LaGuardia Performing Arts Center integrated FAVORS events into one
of its cultural festivals and worked with several classes of
LaGuardia’s humanities students to promote dialogue about the
significance of doing favors; Flushing High students recognized the
school’s unsung heroes by doing anonymous favors for them; Long Island
City Artists encouraged its artists to do favors creatively; and
Sunnyside Community Services Volunteer Program and Senior Programs did
favors for members of their community and others.
“For the installation, we asked residents to describe a favor they
did,” said Ms. Stadler, who explained that a favor should take three
hours or under, should not involve any kind of money or coercion, and
must be legal. “Every participant in this project is a co-creator of
this dynamic, interactive demonstration of positive spirit and
generosity in New York City.”