February 18, 2022 Submitted by Jill Segal
An Art Experience That Lifts Spirits While Supporting Local Senior Citizens Isolated by the Pandemic. On View Now Through April 3, 2022.
Derby Street Shops has unveiled an exciting new public art installation: Heart Warming. Comprised of a pink oversized heart, Heart Warming nods to the 120th anniversary of Sweethearts Candies conversation hearts, which were originally made at the NECCO Factory in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood, and were recently revived by Spangler Candy Company. The heart features uplifting sayings, Be You and Don't Quit, reminiscent of those now found on the beloved candy. The installation is on view now through April 3, 2022 and is located outside in front of lululemon.
Ensuring that the installation can radiate warmth and feelings of connectedness beyond the physical, Derby Street Shops has partnered with local charity Letters Against Isolation. Founded in March 2020 by two Cambridge-based sisters during the pandemic, Letters Against Isolation works to combat loneliness among seniors by sending encouraging letters to those in assisted living and senior homes across the world. Remarkably, in under two years, over 325,000 letters have been written to 19,000 senior citizens in six countries through the organization. Now, at Heart Warming at Derby Street Shops, visitors are prompted to fill out a postcard with a heart warming message and drop it into a designated mailbox. Letters Against Isolation will distribute the letters to local seniors, as well as send blank postcards for seniors to also write their own heart warming messages to others in the community. To spread additional positivity to the recipients of the letters, Sweethearts Candies will provide hundreds of boxes of candy printed with messages supporting the brand’s theme for 2022: words of encouragement.
Heart Warming can also be experienced across five additional outdoor, neighborhood destinations by Massachusetts based developer, WS Development: The Rocks at Harbor Way, Boston Seaport’s newest green space (111 Harbor Way) where eleven different hearts live and in singular variations at Legacy Place (Dedham, MA), MarketStreet Lynnfield (Lynnfield, MA), The Street Chestnut Hill (Chestnut Hill, MA), and Garden City Center (Cranston, Rhode Island).
More information on Heart Warming at Derby Street Shops can be found here.