The Unity Project debuted on Tuesday, National Voters Registration Day, on the Norman Rockwell Museum's website. It features six original pieces specially commissioned for the campaign from a diverse group of artists: Mai Ly Degnan, Rudy Gutierrez, Anita Kunz, Tim O'Brien, Whitney Sherman and Yuko Shimizu.
On the same page, voters can register for the 2020 election and share the artwork to promote the cause. Among those who were inspired to share the campaign on their social media profiles is 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who posted about the initiative on Instagram.
"This idea was sparked in conversation with patrons who said, 'Wouldn't it be great if there was an artist who could paint a poster like Rockwell did during World War II that would inspire everybody to vote?' And it led me to think -- we can do that," Rockwell Museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt told CNN.
The project came together in a matter of six weeks, Norton Moffatt explained, and it was the first time the museum worked with illustrators to commission and publish artwork in a digital format.
"At a time when many of us feel life has closed in, during this pandemic, we found a way to burst those walls wide open and put the museum's work to good in the world by inspiring everyone to vote," Norton Moffatt said.
The posters will be exhibited online and at the museum until Election Day, and physical copies will enter the museum's permanent collection.
One message, many perspectives
Each poster paints a picture of diversity to illustrate the need for people to engage in the democratic process in 2020.
Women are prominently featured by the artists. "That was an interesting cultural moment, I think, in this 100th anniversary of women earning the right to vote which was being commemorated in August, when we first put the commission out," Norton Moffatt noted.
In Mai Ly Degnan's artwork, a diverse group of women wearing masks that say "vote" are casting their ballot. One of them wears a T-shirt that reads "Defend Democracy," which is the title of the piece.
"Using colorful masks, I wanted to illustrate women 'defending democracy,' highlighting and acknowledging the fact that we are in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic. The word VOTE on the individual masks is there to symbolize this is not the time to be silent or sit this one out," Degnan said in a statement.
In "Sacred Scream / Humanity, Not Politics," artist Rudy Gutierrez chose to show an Black woman raising her fist and shouting, her skin ornate with messages like "We The People," the image of a barbed wire fence superimposed on her a reference to the detention of migrants at the US southern border.
"I feel a deep sense of responsibility as a person of color, specifically of Puerto Rican heritage to tell our stories particularly from our point of view," Gutierrez told CNN. With his piece, Gutierrez said, "my aim is to voice the idea that 'We the People' have the power."
In her piece titled "Defend Democracy (Lady Liberty)," artist Yuko Shimizu reimagined the Statue
