More Than 30 Artists and Designers Are Creating Billboards for Times Square and Beyond to Honor Essential Workers Across the US

Jenny Holzer, Carrie Mae Weems, and Duke Riley are among the 35
artists and designers making works in support of essential workers
that will appear on digital screens across New York, Boston, and
Chicago.

The project, titled “Messages for the City,”
is now in its second phase, and has already included contributions
from designers including Milton Glaser and Maira Kalman.

A collaboration between Times Square Arts, the Poster House museum, Print
magazine, and the For Freedoms collective, the project was first
launched on digital screens throughout the five boroughs
of New York on April 17.

For the next iteration, Weems will create a work that
speaks to the disproportionate impact the coronavirus has had
on black communities, while Riley’s work will pay homage to nurses.
(The artist himself recently recovered from COVID-19.)

“These PSAs are making clear that the distance between the
frontlines and the rest of us is narrow,” said Times Square Arts director Jean
Cooney.

Among the designers contributing image are Mirko Ilić
and John Kudos.

“Designers have historically been the bridge between message and
audience, communicating clearly and memorably often complex ideas
to huge numbers of people,” Poster House director Julia Knight
told Artnet News in an email.

“Their work has inspired us to come together to confront massive
challenges in the past, from wars to public health crises like the
AIDS epidemic, and it was immediately clear that this would be
another such monumental time.”

The artworks not only serve as an acknowledgment of the
important contributions of essential workers; they are also
appearing in once-bustling parts of cities that are now mostly
frequented by transportation employees, sanitation workers,
delivery people, and grocery store clerks, many of whom are
migrants.

A number of companies have donated ad space on their digital
billboards in Times Square for the project. The artworks will also
appear on screens at senior centers, health clinics, and food
pantries thanks to nonprofit advertising organization F.Y.eye.

The easiest way to encounter the work will probably be on the
city’s 1,774 LinkNYC kiosks, which offer free Wi-Fi and
phone-charging stations.

Beyond New York, the artworks will be on view in Boston and
Chicago courtesy of JCDecaux screens.

In addition to the public art, the campaign includes a limited-edition benefit
print by Pedro Reyes. The net proceeds will benefit the New
York Immigration Coalition.

See more images from the project below.

The post More Than 30 Artists and Designers Are Creating
Billboards for Times Square and Beyond to Honor Essential Workers
Across the US appeared first on artnet News.