Comments on: The Giving Shelf on Willoughby Avenue

By: Art Exhibit as Swap Meet: "Have a Painting? Leave a Painting. Need a Painting? Take a Painting" | Art21 Blog

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:18:05 +0000

[...] used to live in a loft building in Brooklyn where all the tenants spontaneously created a “giving shelf” where we would leave things for one another (art, books, appliances) so the idea of art [...]

By: hv

hv — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:22:05 +0000

I miss that shelf so much. It is a beautiful thing. I wonder what happened to some of that stuff. I do remember some thing would disappear and then reappear ages later…it was so quirky.

By: Amy Shaw

Amy Shaw — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:12:02 +0000

Oh wow, this was totally one of my favorite things about 1085!! It was a miracle shelf: I could leave anything on it in the morning — books, magazines, shoes, sweaters, kitchen utensils — and by the time I came home that night it would all, or almost all, be gone. Recycling at its best!

I still have Christmas ornaments, a pair of quilted pot holders, and a slightly chipped antique platter festooned with roses that I picked up there. Though many things I picked up eventually made their way back to the giving shelf…!

Great name for it, Hrag. Ah, memories…

By: Kim Holleman

Kim Holleman — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:08:38 +0000

Jeff Pryne who is a recent addition to Willoughby Ave, has started a photo project on your “giving shelf”, what a great title…he was moved by similar reasons you listed in your post, and he is a professional photographer, so it was a no-brainer when he started to talk about how cool he thought it was that the shelf began spontaneously.

I guess in about one year, he’ll have a hilarious and bizarre series of photos…the things I’ve seen and put on that shelf in 8 years…believe me.