Art For Action in MacDonald Park

Yvonne Shortt is a social sculpture artist. As a social sculpture artist she creates to inspire change while at the same time she works collaboratively with her community sharing her expertise and her resources. "When you see one of my pieces you know it's a collaborative effort," says Shortt. You also know that there will be a significant meaning behind the work. For example, take her current work in MacDonald Park in Queens, NY. This piece involved over 50 people including a senior center, Young Israel of Forest Hills Senior Center, and a public school, P.S. 99 of Kew Gardens. The piece is meant to spur volunteerism in the community.

The piece is called 'Functional Bodies'. "Every person was created with some part of them-self that can function in service of our parks," says Ms. Shortt. "Our hands can be used to put in plants, our feet can be used as leverage to dig holes, our minds can be used to determine what to plant where."

"Functional Bodies was inspired by what's going on in MacDonald Park and NYC Parks in general," says Ms. Shortt. "The parks are significantly underfunded, and for many parks, volunteers on a consistent basis can be hard to find." To get across this message 'Functional Bodies' plays with perspective. The pieces are created in slices and mounted separately on seven u-channel posts. Depending on where you are you can't see the pieces in their entirety. One has to spend a little time walking around the work to see the dog, flowers, and girl.

Ms. Shortt says just as the piece takes time to understand, so does the way our parks are maintained. Most people think parks are kept up by the Department of Parks and Recreation but that is not whole truth. In fact, most parks in NYC rely on volunteers. Volunteers like Stephen Melnick talk to their council member to get funding. Then, they put in a great deal of time cleaning, planting, and recruiting others to make their park beautiful.

On the day Ms. Shortt installed her artwork, Mr. Melnick was there. He was planting. His face and neck were covered in sweat, Ms. Shortt said. "When I went to hug Stephen to say 'hi,' he said, 'No, don't I'm sweaty.' I told him, 'Sweat is a sign of the hard labor you do to keep this park beautiful,'" said Ms.Shortt who hugged him anyway. Ms. Shortt also said how important and proud she was of her council member, Council Member Koslowitz, for funding this park and so many others in her district.

For more information on volunteering in a park, see if your park has a friend's Facebook or web page. To volunteer in Macdonald Park, go to 'Friends of MacDonald Park' on Facebook. Next week MacDonald Park will need lots of volunteers because there will be a lot of plants in need of soil delivered to the park through council member funding. And remember, most people you see working in the park are actually volunteers. They do this work for all of us without pay and they could use our help.