We invite you to write your hopes, dreams, or wishes on the provided strip of paper, and tie it into an art installation outside the Downtown Library. During these challenging times, this art project aims to provide an opportunity for people to heal, and lend support to others. To participate, visit the low fence near the corner of W. 10th and Charnelton. Write or doodle on the provided cloths (with the provided markers), take a picture to share if desired and tie your cloth up with the others. Express your hopes or prayers, or unburden a weight. The project adapts the Japanese omikuji tradition of public wishing trees or boards.

Background: The hanging-papers tradition known as omikuji in Japan dates back to the 10th or 11th century. Small paper fortunes are sold at many Shinto shrines; people who buy them can hang their negative fortunes on a designated tree or board to distance from the negativity, or hang their positive fortunes to amplify them. The trees or boards become festooned with thousands of these papers. (In the Judeo-Christian tradition, accounts of amulets or written prayers being inserted into Jerusalem’s Western Wall date back to the late 18th century and a million people a year these days from many faiths leave their written prayers in the wall.)

For more information visit 1000hopes.com