See MacArthur Park Lake Filling Up With Giant, Colorful Balls

#SpheresOfMacArthurPark #PortraitsOfHope 1,800 students from surrounding area worked on this project! #PublicArtLA pic.twitter.com/41bnHdu8uh

— LA Cultural Affairs (@Culture_LA) August 22, 2015

A public art project filling MacArthur Park Lake with thousands of big, bold beach balls kicked off this weekend, and it's estimated that 2,500 of these hand-painted, inflatable balls will be bobbing around in the park's waters by tomorrow. Portraits of Hope, an LA-based arts nonprofit got about 10,000 volunteers (many of them kids from local schools) to paint the colorful spheres.

The goal of this Portraits of Hope undertaking is to draw attention to the lake itself, and hopefully to make it a destination again; from all the photos on Instagram already, it seems to be working. The Spheres at MacArthur Park were in the works for about seven years before finally getting approval. The balls, which range from four to six feet in diameter, should remain in the lake for about four weeks.

A photo posted by Portraits of Hope (@portraitsofhopeprojects) on Aug 22, 2015 at 3:01pm PDT

A photo posted by m e o w (@youhadmeatmeows) on Aug 23, 2015 at 11:34pm PDT

A photo posted by Myron (@mymar77) on Aug 23, 2015 at 11:34am PDT

A photo posted by Blissed-Out B (@blissedoutb) on Aug 22, 2015 at 7:16pm PDT

A photo posted by Myron (@mymar77) on Aug 23, 2015 at 11:20am PDT

A photo posted by anjmagee (@anjmagee) on Aug 21, 2015 at 3:13pm PDT

A photo posted by EASTSIDE HANDMADE (@eastsidehandmade) on Aug 24, 2015 at 7:54am PDT

A photo posted by Portraits of Hope (@portraitsofhopeprojects) on Aug 21, 2015 at 5:42pm PDT

A photo posted by CS H. (@dasklassischeskind) on Aug 23, 2015 at 7:16pm PDT

· Portraits of Hope [Official site]
· MacArthur Park Lake Will Be Filled With Thousands of Giant, Colorful Balls This Summer [Curbed LA]

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2230 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90057