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Arts & Entertainment

Local Designers Raising Funds for "Art Not Arrests" Anti-Violence Project

Local design firm hopes to build art installation at Crow Hill Community Garden to encourage creative programs for kids.

Six months after a on Labor Day, two local creative thinkers want to see more art education instead of gun violence on the streets.

Ground Up Designers has launched their Kickstarter page, where they hope they can raise a total of $4,500 to build their “Art Not Arrests” installation in the Crow Hill Community Association’s garden, in Crown Heights. As canopy that would stretch across the garden, the net will be made entirely of colorful disposable plastic handcuffs. Each handcuff, sponsored by a community member, will represent a commitment for more art programs for kids, as a way to keep them off of the streets and away from violence and guns.

“We decided to use the handcuffs as a symbol of both the youth violence and the overbearing police presence that our neighborhood is continually confronted with,” says the Kickstarter page.

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As of today, they have received over $2,000 in pledges, and have three days left to reach their goal. Locally, they’ve received sponsorship from Washington Avenue’s , as well as Classon Avenue’s Neptune Diner, and members of the Prospect Heights Parents group.

Lana Zellner, along with design partner Kristen Svorka, said they got the idea to work with the plastic handcuffs when, after Labor Day’s , Zellner saw a chain of the cuffs sitting next to a CHCA flower box. Besides being the right lightweight material to create netting out of, Zellner said the cuffs were “the perfect symbol for the problems we are looking to address.”

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The group explains that once they reach their goal amount, they will distribute the handcuffs at participating businesses throughout Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. When an individual sponsors a cuff, they will be given a packet of information to take home, as well as the cuff to personalize with a message and then leave in a collection box for pick up. Once a week, Ground Up Designers will collect the sponsored cuffs and add them to the installation.

The group says that if 1,000 cuffs are sponsored at the suggested $3-5 donation, they will have between $3,000 and $5,000 to then fund free summer art classes for kids at the garden, running from June to September. They hope to give any remaining money to community organizations that are working toward education programs for kids and against gun violence.

Zellner and Svorka are also looking for local input as to where best to give the money to, and are open to suggestions.

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