In just 53 days, what could be the most consequential US election in history, is taking place—and the art world wants you, yes you, to plan ahead to cast your ballot. For a new nonpartisan initiative, aptly called Plan Your Vote, artists created images that encourage voters to turn up at the polls, send in absentee ballots, and lift up their communities to do the same.
Partnering with Vote.org, the visual campaign aims to motivate voters through downloadable and free images designed by artists including Sanford Biggers, Julie Mehretu, Sally Mann, Wangechi Mutu, Robert Longo, Christine Sun Kim, and Patti Smith. The Planyourvote.org website links voters to real-time, location-specific information for voting requirements and polling locations, as well as resources to apply for mail-in and absentee ballots.
The brainchild of veteran New York gallerist Christine Messineo, Plan Your Vote is, at its core, a prompt for “citizens [who] need to take action now.” In an email to Artnet News, Messineo described the project as a tool to harness the artists and artworks that “propel and activate our society.”
Screenshot of Plan Your Vote’s art database. Courtesy of Plan Your Vote.
Messineo teamed up with Kristen Becker, an art strategist, to form a national alliance of artists and institutions that would help make the Vote.org database, which includes information on polling places and voter registration, more visible on social media. To spread the Plan Your Vote message, museums will post the images to their channels and add “stickers” to their websites.
Participating institutions include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, the Underground Museum in California, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Michigan State University Broad Museum, the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, the Portland Art Museum, Ballroom Marfa, the ICA Philadelphia, MoMA PS1, the Brooklyn Art Museum, and many others.
See some of the artists’ work below:
Robert Longo, courtesy of PlanYourVote.org
Calida Rawles, courtesy of PlanYourVote.org
Wangechi Mutu, courtesy of PlanYourVote.org
Christine Sun Kim, courtesy of Plan Your Vote.
Caitlin Keogh, courtesy of Plan Your Vote.
Sanford Biggers, courtesy of Plan Your Vote.