Volunteers needed! If interested, email me at beawolert@gmail.com

Mock up for “The Heart of Greenpoint: Chalk Quilting Bee”, 2021

“The Heart of Greenpoint: Chalk Quilting Bee” is an action, a convening, a happening centered around process, play and mindfulness. It is an act of celebration, play, a passage and marking of time, a tribute to the park which served as an anchor and respite for the community during the pandemic. The rules of engagement are simple. Using traditional sidewalk chalk, all community members are invited to chalk the pavilion hexagons with bright colors to contrast with the surrounding greenery. The aim is to fill up as much of the hexagons as possible with vibrant colors. The project is akin to a large-scale quilting bee. Hexagons provide great geometric design possibilities. In numerous cultures, hexagons are symbolic of universal coherence, harmony, balance. They are found in beehives and are the most structurally stable shape for load distribution. They are utilized in cell phone towers to maximize surface area with no overlapping shapes. These concepts of stability and balance resonate with the project. Individual actions accumulate to showcase each participant’s contribution to the collective effort. It is my hope that the community’s gestures radiate outward and a memory of the experience remains, even whilst the colors wash and fade away. All are invited to participate.

This project is made possible through the City Artist Corps Grants program, presented by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre.