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MacArthur Park's Lake Is Finally Getting Its Own Balls This Weekend
Volunteers help to paint the Spheres of MacArthur Park (via Facebook)
Thousands of huge, hand-painted balls will be launched into MacArthur Park's lake this weekend as part of a public art installation.
Beginning today, volunteers will fill the 8.39-acre lake with 3,000 colorful vinyl balls, as part of a project entitled "Spheres of MacArthur Park." The balls will range in size from 4 to 6 feet in diameter and are painted with bright fish and floral patterns. The brightly-hued balls will be floating in the lake for the next four weeks, Portraits Of Hope co-founder Edward Massey tells CBS LA. Every five days or so, the balls will be replenished with another set of roughly 3,000 balls. When the exhibit ends the balls will be donated to hospitals, schools and other organizations.
The public art installation is organized by the Santa Monica-based nonprofit Portraits Of Hope, which has created other colorful large-scale art projects across the country designed to offer "creative therapy for hospitalized children and civic education for students of all ages". Earlier this year, the beach-ball-like spheres were painted with the help of volunteers, which included hospital patients, students from local schools and young athletes from the Special Olympics.
Massey expects "Spheres of MacArthur Park" to be fully installed and ready for public viewing by Monday. But if you happen to be free this weekend, you can get a sneak preview by volunteering to help prep and launch the balls. And there's a lot of them, so they could definitely use some extra hands. Let's just hope nobody starts throwing shade at these balls like the ones in the L.A. Reservoir.
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Portrait's Of Hope at poh@portraitsofhope.org or by calling (310) 951-5936.
As an added incentive to help out with the ball installation, Langer's Deli will be staying open until 7 p.m. on Saturday—3 hours past their usual closing time. And we all know there's nothing like a #19 after volunteering for a good cause.
Don't miss "Spheres of MacArthur Park" Saturday - Langer's will be OPEN UNTIL 7PM that day only! pic.twitter.com/zm3cfTVer0
— Langer's Deli (@LangersDeli) August 20, 2015
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