A prayer flag made for Lower Macungie artist Jane Noel public art project. The flags are being hung across the Lehigh Valley for Inauguration Day to symbolize wishes for the new year and the new president. (Jane Noel, Allentown Morning Call / January 20, 2009)
Here and there across the Lehigh Valley, you may be noticing flocks of colorful flags fluttering in the breeze. Unlike the strings of plastic pennants strung up to draw attention to the businesses below them, these new fabric flags were raised to send best wishes for today's presidential inauguration.

Hung outdoors and indoors at about a dozen locations, the flags are a public art project organized by artist Jane Noel of Lower Macungie Township. Beginning last summer, she provided materials at various places and events and asked people to make flags as symbols of their hopes for the new year and the new president.

Wishes for peace, love and nature topped the list of common themes.

In all, Noel organized about 30 workshops and collected about 1,000 prayer flags. They'll stay up for about one month.
WHERE TO SEE THE FLAGS

What: Flag project by artist Jane Noel of Lower Macungie Township; 1,000 flags created by volunteers to be hung across the Lehigh Valley by Inauguration Day to symbolize wishes for the new year and the new administration.

See them indoors at American Hairlines and Northampton Community College Fowler Family Southside Center, both in Bethlehem, and Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market. They're outdoors at the Banana Factory, Bethlehem; Wellspring Spiritual Center and Penn State Lehigh Valley, both in Fogelsville; Amber Connection, Cedar Crest College, and Noel's studio, 2050 S. 12th St., all in Allentown; downtown Emmaus, and Easton Centre Square.

On the Web: http://www.statesofgrace.us

joanna.poncavage@mcall.com

610-820-6754