Sunnyside business owners and community members have renewed efforts to secure funding to revive the famous Sunnyside mural on the corner of 40th Street and 47th Avenue.
Nora Dantchev, who owns the building at 39-47 47th Ave. where the mural was formerly located, is aiming to raise $9,500 to cover the cost of materials and compensate Victor Ving, the artist behind the original mural who has agreed to fly in from LA for the project. The online fundraiser has raised just shy of $6,300 at the time of writing.
The fundraising campaign will also cover the cost of flying Ving over and back from LA to revive the mural.
Since creating the original mural in 2010, Ving has gone on to create a nationwide series of postcard murals in towns and cities across the US alongside his wife Lisa Beggs.
Dantchev said the mural is now almost 65% funded and called on members of the local community to give whatever they can to the campaign.
“We’d love to get the mural to the finish line. We have about $3,500 to go and any amount helps,” Dantchev said in a statement. “We were hoping to have it up before the end of the summer to take advantage of the warmer weather and to restore it to its original glory.”
Dantchev described efforts to revive the mural as a “grassroots” effort, stating that other projects are generally “privately or corporately funded.” She added that other artists have reached out to offer their services for the project but said it is crucial that Ving oversees the project.
“We think that the community would be upset if the mural didn’t maintain its original postcard aesthetic that everyone loved and got used to for 14+ years,” Dantchev said.
Ving’s original mural paid homage to many of the most iconic elements of Sunnyside, including the Sunnyside Arch, the 7 train, Sunnyside Gardens and the neighborhood’s many Irish bars.
However, the mural was removed earlier this year because the wall it was located on began to crumble, leaving Dantchev with no choice but to re-stucco the wall and the entire side of the building, removing the mural in the process.
Dirk McCall de Palomá, executive director of the Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District (BID), said the BID strongly supports the revival of the Sunnyside mural, describing it as an important asset for the local community.
“Sunnyside Shines BID is very eager to see this mural restored and honored to be supporting the work by Nora Dantchev and her family to have the original artist recreate it,” McCall de Palomá said in a statement. “It is a treasured part of Sunnyside history and iconic. We hope to see the GoFundMe fully funded soon.”
In a previous interview with QNS, he noted that the mural inspired the logo for the NBC sitcom “Sunnyside,” which aired in 2019 before being canceled after one season.
