MILWAUKEE/WASHINGTON, DC – As the Republican National Convention continues in Milwaukee, People For the American Way is launching a set of mobile billboards, featuring world-renowned art-activists, outside the convention space as part of a multi-platform campaign to drive home its message opposing the Donald Trump and J.D. Vance agenda and to defeat Trump in November. The campaign, which uses its unique connections to artists and the creative community, is also airing a :30 second TV ad this week on CNN and MSNBC, as well as local stations in New York. The full ad can be viewed here. Billboard images can be viewed here. Billboard map can be viewed here.
Artists whose work appears on the mobile billboards include visual artists Shepard Fairey and Victoria Cassinova, who also participated in People For’s Georgia Art Campaign during the 2022 midterm elections, as well as Cleon Peterson, Beverly McIver, Tracie Ching, Michael Dixon, and John Lehr.
The artist-designed billboards are running today (7/17) from 1:30pm – 9:30 pm (central time) and Thursday (7/18) from 4:30 pm – Midnight (central time) starting at N. Water and Pleasant Streets and continue along N. Water Street, East Kilbourn Ave., N. Broadway, E. State Ave., Route 32, Prospect Ave., E. Wisconsin Ave., E. Michigan Street, W. St. Paul Ave, N. Emmber Lane, W. Canal Street, N. Jackson Street, S. 6th Street, W. Florida Street, ending at 1575 N Water St. to tap into voters’ core values and motivate them to vote those values in November.
View the route
Additionally, People For will run a TV ad featuring the late People For the American Way founder Norman Lear. The ad honors the vision of a free country committed to equal justice and opportunity as expressed by Lear, who identified and warned us of authoritarian threats at the inception of People For the American Way. The ad is a reminder of what People For has always stood for over the past four decades and what its members and supporters will continue to fight for.
“People For has a long, proud history of working with distinguished artists to defend freedom and oppose authoritarianism,” said People For the American Way President Svante Myrick. “Reaching all the way back to our founder Norman Lear, we’ve used art to inspire and mobilize activists, and to promote freedom and opportunity for all. In 2024, we’re facing new threats to our democracy. So we’re using every tool we have to urge every eligible voter to make their voices heard and deny Donald Trump another presidency.”
Artwork from the campaign will also appear across People For’s social media in conjunction with other coordinated digital and live efforts to get out the vote during the election cycle. People For is committed to driving voter engagement and preventing Donald Trump’s reelection.
About the artists
Victoria Cassinova. Victoria Cassinova, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a Los Angeles-based visual artist whose work ranges from murals and graphic art to illustration, drawing, and painting.
Shepard Fairey. Shepard Fairey is a contemporary street artist, graphic artist and social activist who emerged from the skateboarding scene and is now part of the Street Art movement.
Beverly McIver. Beverly McIver is widely acknowledged as a significant presence in contemporary American art and has charted a new direction as an artist.
Cleon Peterson. Cleon Peterson is an LA based artist whose chaotic and violent paintings show clashing figures symbolizing a struggle between power and submission in the fluctuating architecture of contemporary society.
Tracie Ching. Tracie Ching is an artist and illustrator working in Washington, DC. Largely self-taught, she became known for her highly graphic cross-hatching style.
Michael Dixon. Michael Dixon is an oil painter born in San Diego, California.
John Lehr. John Lehr creates photographic objects that present the surfaces of the American commercial landscape as an embodiment of the desires and anxieties of the American people.
