Art According to Cary: Art Everywhere

People throughout the United States have voted for the works of American art they most want to see installed in Art Everywhere US, the initiative that will transform billboards, bus shelters, subway platforms, airport dioramas, movie theaters and more into a free, open-air art gallery across the country. The top three vote-getters are in the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942), Mary Cassatt’s The Child’s Bath (1893) and Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930) took first, second and third. All three are currently on display at the Art Institute.

Fourteen works were chosen from the National Gallery of Art, Washington collection including Thomas Eakins's The Biglin Brothers Racing (1872), Winslow Homer's Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) (1873-76), and Gilbert Stuart's George Washington (1821).

Art Everywhere US is organized through a collaboration among five major museums—the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York—and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and its members, with the cooperation of artists, estates, foundations, and rights agencies.

In April 2014, voting began on the official website www.ArtEverywhereUS.org, where the public was invited to register their preferences among 100 artworks nominated by the five museums. The website has now been converted into an interactive art gallery, where there is more information about the selected works and the story of American art in the United States.

A nationwide celebration of America’s artistic legacy, Art Everywhere US will begin on August 4, 2014, with a launch event in New York’s Times Square, where digital billboards will display all 58 of the selected artworks. For the subsequent four weeks, through August 31, Art Everywhere US will be installed on as many as 50,000 displays, both static and digital, in all 50 states.