What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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FEBRUARY 7-13, 2021 WHAT'S UP! 5 Folding Favorable Future Mindful art seeks to manifest peace JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette D uring a pop-up event on Feb. 14 — and through the rest of February — if art lovers were to swing through the 10,000-square-foot open-air studio at the Fayetteville co-working space Likewise Community, they will be greeted by, hopefully, 1,000 folded paper origami cranes. In a community art-making project to welcome the new year by culminating in a public art installation, Trillium Salon Series and Likewise are inviting the community to fold 1,000 paper cranes. "They say that folding cranes, and especially folding them collectively, can be a way to usher in peace or wish someone well," explains Mallory Berry, Likewise co-founder. "It's been a really nice way to be able to just slow down and think of what your intentions are for this next season, and for this strange time that we're all experiencing. It's a really great way to participate in something that's transformative." A handful of folding sessions took place in the studio space where Trillium founder Katy Henriksen led a "folding party" on Zoom. Folks from across the country have tuned in and mailed their cranes to Fayetteville to be included in the installation. "I've done some other Zoom classes from people around the world and I just love that whole idea that we can all get together and do" something, JoAnn Kaminsky, a local artist and play therapist, says of "attending" the party virtually. "I really like doing projects in groups — where we all get to give our input and make it bigger than we are individually." The folding of 1,000 origami cranes — a symbol of good fortune and longevity in Japanese culture — has a history in ancient Japanese folklore of granting the maker one wish, or happiness and eternal luck. The practice gained worldwide attention in the 1950s when 12-year- old Sadako Sasaki developed leukemia after radiation exposure during the Hiroshima bombing. Inspired by the legend, she set out to fold 1,000 cranes in the hope of curing her disease. Though the cranes could not extend Sadako's life, the Peace Crane Project and numerous other initiatives grew out of her story, encouraging hope, peace and an end to suffering. "In my contemplation, it's not the kind of thing that one person can, from the top, just order," Kaminsky muses on both the numerical and the philosophical goals of the project. "It's something that we all have to be involved with, and maybe just a little bit every day we need to do. "My husband [Hank] did the Peace Prayer Fountain on the [Fayetteville] square, and it turns. Any person can turn it, and it's kind of that same philosophy that it takes all of us. More than likely we're not going to fold 1,000 cranes each. But if I do 200 and somebody else does 200, before long, we've got 1,000. And that's another really cool part of being a part of it — that you're working on something bigger than yourself." Berry adds that she was surprised at how meditative and peaceful the folding was once she found a rhythm. Being immersed in the moment, with a few others there in person as well as those at home tuning in virtually for the folding party, manifested exactly the type of connection Berry was hoping would come from the project, she shares. "We have been working with existing organizations and businesses and individuals to try to find safe but still meaningful ways for the community to still be able to connect at this time," she says. "And since we're planning for this to culminate in a public art installation, it was really exciting and empowering to be thinking of the ways that these would be displayed in a way that's safe for the community to be able to come and participate." The pop-up event to unveil the installation will also welcome a handful of local musical acts to perform and feature a socially distance "community hang" from 3 to 7 p.m. Feb. 14 in the large, open-air garage space at Likewise. A folding station will remain set up at Likewise until Feb. 10 for drop-by folding any time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., or for folders to come by and pick up paper. Fayetteville companies Shindig and Little Mountain Bindery have donated gorgeous papers for anyone who would like to participate. (Courtesy Photo/Mallory Berry) FAQ 1,000 Crane Installation Pop-up Event WHEN — 3-7 p.m. Feb. 14 WHERE — Likewise Community, 70 N. College Ave. in Fayette- ville COST — Free INFO — trilliumsalonseries.com, members.likewise.community/ events FYI — Cranes may be dropped off at Likewise on or before Feb. 10. FAYETTEVILLE