A partnership between Mercantile, a downtown shop and local hub of creativity, and the Easton Main Street Initiative, imagined an ambitious community art initiative to create and install 28,127 hearts throughout the city of Easton; one heart for each resident.
That’s a lot of hearts!
The Love, Easton community art initiative’s website describes the effort.
We’re turning the city into a gigantic art piece that embodies the kindness, creativity, and good vibes for which Easton has become known!
Why are we doing this? To play and have fun as a community while highlighting, in a big way, what makes Easton so special: the people and their love for this quirky little city of ours.
The Love, Easton website also offers a place to share your own story of why you love Easton in Northampton County, a compilation of upcoming events to meet and make hearts at local restaurants, breweries, club meetings and more, and a thermometer showing the progress of reaching the 28,127 hearts goal. There’s even a scavenger hunt challenging residents (and visitors!) to find all five of the special hearts displayed in windows downtown! A kick-off party on February 9 was the official meet-and-celebrate event for the community, held at the Easton Public Market.
Not only did they meet their goal — they exceeded it, and now there are more than 60,000 hearts on display! The hearts will remain in place until March 9. Plan a visit!
This project created opportunities for people to make hearts at home and drop them off at convenient locations, to gather together at local bars and cafes to meet and make hearts, and to volunteer their time and meet others while installing the hearts across town.
This is a wonderful celebration of place and shows how much these local residents LOVE EASTON! Check out the hashtag #LoveEaston to admire the results! You can also follow Mercantile on Facebook or Instagram.
For ideas on how you can show the places you love how much you care, read our Valentine blog post, with a link to download a valentine postcard you can deliver to the legacy businesses or local landmarks you love. And check back throughout the month for our 2024 valentines to places we love or enjoy the archive of previous year’s valentines!
We love the commitment of our members and donors who support our work of helping people save the places they love. If you haven’t already done so, please consider supporting our winter appeal or becoming a member!
If a place you love is threatened, visit our Pennsylvania At Risk page to see if it might qualify for our assistance.