The Freedom 250 City Art Poster Project features 28 city posters and includes work tied to Raleigh students.
The National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Conference of Mayors are showcasing a collection of city posters created for the nation’s 250th anniversary during the mayors’ 94th Annual Meeting in Long Beach, California.
The Freedom 250 City Art Poster Project includes 28 city posters, according to the NEA. The works are being displayed during the meeting, which runs June 4-7 at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. Communities may continue submitting posters through Nov. 6.
The project asked mayors and communities across the country to respond to the 250th anniversary through local artists and civic identity. According to the NEA, the artists represented in the collection include kindergarten through sixth-grade students in a Raleigh afterschool program, a ninth grader from Fresno, California, an artist-educator from Columbia, Missouri, a craftswoman from Portland, a novelist-poet from central New York and a painter from New Jersey.
The NEA said the submitted posters highlight themes including local identity, history and hope, youth voice, civic pride, multiculturalism, immigration, healing, resilience and community strength.
“The Freedom 250 City Art Poster Project represents the very best of public art made by communities, for communities,” U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran said in the announcement.
NEA Chairman Mary Anne Carter said the submissions reflect “the unique qualities of each city” and offer a way to mark the anniversary through community-based artwork.
The project is part of the broader Freedom 250 Network and was developed through a longstanding NEA and U.S. Conference of Mayors leadership initiative. Posters selected through future submissions may be included in a display during the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 95th Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., in January 2027.
Editor’s note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the Art News editorial team before publication.