The Sweet Life on Hester Street just a few steps away from Seward Park (where our #storefront art installation is located) is sadly closing after after 36 years in business.

On a sandwich-board sign outside the candy 🍭 store we saw “last day 6/25/18 Monday.” There are a few reasons why owner, Gloria Farewell is closing the shop, including a hefty water 💦 bill for $4,000 presented to her by her landlord (although they don’t make any of their candy on premises) and the fact that she herself doesn’t work in the store and that much of her old customer base consisting of Jewish Lower East Side residents have now moved away from the area as it has become increasingly gentrified. The news of Sweet Life’s closure hit us especially hard because the very reason why we just installed our “Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S.” sculpture is to help raise awareness of the importance of mom-and-pop shops to the fabric of the community.

Please join us on Saturday, July 14th at 1pm for the opening celebration 🎉 for our art installation inside Seward Park. We will be discussing the purpose of our project and the inspiration behind it.

Even though our Kickstarter campaign has ended, if you would like to make a fully tax-deductible contribution to our art installation, please visit our Fractured Atlas project page as “Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S.” Is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a 501-c-3 public charity. Please see link in bio or visit: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/FiscalSponsorship/profile?id=17417