A giant heart paying tribute to healthcare workers is now on display in Queens

Now through the end of the month, New Yorkers walking by the Long Island City waterfront promenade at Hunter's Point South Park will notice a giant heart monument that pays tribute to health care workers, also functioning as a memorial to "remind the world to focus on love."

The public art piece is by sculptor Sergio Furnari and it was transported to its current location by Annalisa Iadicicco, the founder of the Blue Bus Project, a non-profit organization "that brings participatory arts events into underserved communities" throughout New York.

Currently on a mini "love tour" of the city, the giant stainless steel red heart was last seen in Central Park in late October of 2021 and it joins a roster of public art projects that have recently taken over the city. Also in Long Island City, for example, a slew of new structures are now adorning the neighborhood—including a 760-foot multi-panel mural along Thomson Avenue Bridge and a mural by graffiti artist Queen Andrea right by a construction site.

In Industry City, public displays of creativity hinge on the participatory when it comes to Brooklyn-based artist Jen Lewin's The Pool. The newly installed traveling piece is made of over 100 interactive circular pads that are activated by the touch of visitors. 

Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, on the other hand, has become a burgeoning site for art. Here, folks can actually charge their phones at the tree-like sculpture The Giving Tree and, nearby, a statue of rapper LL Cool J actually plays the artist's music from noon to 5pm throughout the week. Talk about creativity.

But it's one particular piece of public art that has captured everyone's attention in New York this past week: a massive gold cube that was placed smack-dab in the middle of Central Park for one day only. German artist Niclas Castello was behind the effort: he set up the $11.7 million, 400-pound cube in the park as a way to promote the launch of his upcoming non-fungible token. As they are wont to do, New Yorkers took to social media to unleash their reactions to the pretty absurd project.

But back to the giant heart in Long Island City: this weekend is looking particularly blissful weather-wise. Why not take a stroll down the promenade and pay respect to the health care workers that have helped us get through these very tough past few years?