ABOUT

Pollinating Kindness: Good Deeds Anonymous (GDA) is a participatory art project based on the idea that art and kindness expand and multiply via individual actions. Artist and writer Annie Buckley began this project for the innovative exhibition, “Olly Olly Oxen Free”, curated by Kristi Engle in the garden at Offramp Gallery in Pasadena, CA, in fall 2014. With the collective actions of participants, GDA will spread far and wide and long.

100 butterflies, folded using the method of origami master Akira Yoshizawa, each have a handwritten note inside with directions for an act of kindness. The butterflies will be placed in the garden and replenished throughout the run of the exhibition. As participants find and opt to take a butterfly, they agree to complete the act of kindness written inside.

Participants are also encouraged to refold the butterfly and place it in their own neighborhood for someone else to find and continue the chain of good deeds. Alternately, participants can keep the butterfly, write a good deed and fold one or many new butterflies for new participants to find.