“Wings of Unity”
5th Avenue between 34th and 35th Street
Artist: Yukiko Izumi
Special thanks: The Green-Wood Cemetery
“Birds symbolize peace, freedom, and migration. New York, especially Sunset Park, is home to many immigrants, adding to the cityʼs vibrant diversity. Green-Wood Cemetery, often thought of as just a burial ground, is actually also a famous bird-watching spot where many birds thrive. From this location, we envision painting a scene of various birds, each with unique patterns, soaring freely across the New York sky.” – Yukiko Izumi
1. Securing the Wall
In 2023, several community members raised safety concerns about the 5th Avenue Corridor along the Green-Wood cemetery, highlighting the lack of foot traffic and the presence of trash and graffiti in the area. Taking this feedback into account, we reached out to the Green-Wood Cemetery about painting a community mural on their wallspace, with the goal of bringing more community members into the area and building positive associations with the space.
2. Designing the Mural
Once we secured the wallspace, we hosted idea generation workshops to get community input on the design. During the workshop, participants reflected on their relationship to their communities in Sunset Park and completed an art activity about someone they wanted to uplift in the mural. Each bird on the final mural is designed by and represents an actual person who lives or works in the neighborhood!
3. Painting the Mural
For the final step in our mural making process, we held 2 community paint parties so that the community could participate in and have ownership over the art going up in their neighborhood. Over 50 community members attended, and many individuals who attended the idea generation workshop returned to paint their own bird!
