BUFFALO, NY (WKBW)-A growing community-based art project needs the help of the City of Good Neighbors to fulfill its mission.
The Peace Dots Project collects moments of peace, or random acts of kindness, experienced by the community around Queen City. It is tracked on a map.
The group’s inspiration came from maps that traditionally track crime scenes.
Social practice artist, Saira Siddiqui wants to rethink “dots of crime” using “dots of peace.”
Eventually, he will have a visual representation of the City of Good Neighbors.
In the light of the darkness “5/14” brought to Queen City, Siddiqui, a Buffalo artist, is on a mission to shift Buffalo’s focus by highlighting good coming out of the city.
Siddiqui said, “It allows people to think about positive framing, instead of thinking about traditional negative framing. That’s prevalent today.”
She is an urban planner by day, with balancing needs as a grad student. He is currently a Multidisciplinary Masters Candidate, studying in the same MFA Department at the University of Buffalo, at the Creative Studies Department at Buffalo State College.
Siddiqui said, “We are always mapping data. We are taking hard data about crime, health and wealth disparities. One day, I thought, ‘why are we mapping these disparities. Where are all the peace dots?’. “
His artistic brain began to kick into gear. Thus, The Peace Dots Project was born.
How does this work?
- Find a Live location.
- Funded by the New York State Council on the Arts, there is an installation located at 1215 Niagara Street, in partnership with Stitch Buffalo; the Broadway Market at 999 Broadway (scheduled to launch Saturday); and Explore & More – Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum, in Downtown Buffalo.
- Each location has a dot and a map where to place the dots.
- Each place also has a submission box, which includes index cards and writing materials for you to describe what a random act of kindness is .. whether it happened to you or yours.
Siddiqui said, “You can go to any of those locations and submit your dot. You can also go to the website: www dot peace projects dot com and submit your projects and submit your dot that way, or submit your random act of kindness that way. “
On the Peace Projects website, the map came to life showing dots not just from Buffalo, across the country.
Siddiqui said, “It’s starting to change the narrative. It’s starting to allow people to really focus on the positive, on random acts of kindness, on things that happen on a daily basis. Things as little as a smile from a child or someone helping you cross the street. “
The deadline to submit random acts of kindness is September 30th.
Follow The Peace Dots Project’s next mission on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
