MAKING IT WITH - FOR - ABOUT- THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Gateway to Sunnyside

2025

Gateway to Sunnyside was temporary lighting installation located in Sabba Park, a space that serves as both a veterans’ memorial and an entry point to the neighborhood. Born out of ongoing conversations around the Vision Plan for Public Space, the installation responds to community desires for more light, color, art, seating, and gathering spaces. The design incorporates historical Art Deco elements reflective of the neighborhood’s architecture, while also providing space for community art-making.

The lighting elements prioritize color flexibility, linear forms, and solar powered LED technology. By locating the installation at Sabba Park, we want to bring joy, exuberance, and whimsy to an underutilized park, enlivening it for all that pass through.

A Community Art Work

The installation features acrylic collages made by our Sunnyside community at different pop up engagements. The fabrication process centered our Sunnyside neighbors and greater Queens population as well, including public painting days in Lowery Plaza and Sabba Park, carpentry by Astoria Woodworker’s Collective, lighting engineering by an Astoria firm, and installation on-site by a cornucopia of volunteers. The local focus of our team made for both heightened investment from our collaborators and the extra potential of people being able to see their art and labor activated within their own backyard.

Joy and Celebration

When planning the kickoff event for the Gateway, we made sure to provide activity and entertainment for a diverse range of attendees. Given that color and joy were two priorities for the neighborhood, we brought in live music (a local band, of course), light-up activity toys for kids and adults, and had an art making station to echo the community art on display within the installation.

Lasting Impact

Throughout the installation and kickoff week, we received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from folks visiting the park. Over and over again, we heard that they never expected anything like this to happen in this park, without some underlying commercial goal, and that it was long needed. There have been many questions about why this structure is not a permanent addition, or part of a series. This park has no infrastructure for children, so neighborhood kids took to playing around and throughout the gates. Additionally, business owners that line the streets alongside Sabba Park, have expressed excitement at the life and light the structure brings to the area after dark. Our hope is this activation will help envision an enriched future for the park and neighborhood.