If you want to learn what’s most important to your neighbors, visit the just-installed “What’s in Your Heart” outdoor art exhibit located at the chain link fence surrounding the property at One South Main St. (That’s the lot that has been empty since a July 2019 fire gutted a handful of businesses.)
Organizer Denise Girardin, assisted by Jo LaFalce, brought the project to life. They and over a dozen volunteers asked everyone from school kids to Community Center visitors to Morse Institute library patrons the burning question: “What’s in Your Heart?”
1,910 people fell in love with the idea, painting 2,087 4 x 4″ wooden hearts with the distilled version of what was most important to them. Volunteers—let’s title them Keepers of the Sentiments— have taken seriously their job of securing hearts to fence, delaying the installation until the weather was cooperative. Each wooden heart has been treated with tenderness and mercy to ensure that not a single one is broken. If only our fragile human hearts received such loving care.
The Natick Center Cultural District served as a fiscal agent for the project so that donations could be made as charitable tax deductible contributions. Local businesses, organizations, and individuals generously provided donations for materials, and created hearts of their own for this civic-minded project.
Keep reading to find out what’s in the hearts of your neighbors. For thousands more sentiments, visit the fence.
Feel more of the Natick love
So what’s with that empty lot, anyway?
Natick’s most prominent undeveloped space, the fenced off 1 South Main St. plot resulting from the 2019 fire that razed a handful of businesses, could start returning to life by May or June. When they do, they should thank Denise Girardin and Jo LaFalce for the hours of clean-up work they did on the site ahead of the “What’s in Your Heart” installation. Read more in Natick Report’s December 2022 update post about the property.
- Subscribe to our Natick Report daily email
- Please send tips, photos, ideas to natickreport@gmail.com
- Support our independent journalism venture
Leave a Reply