National Exhibition Will Fill US Billboards with Art

Five American art museums and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) will mount a nationwide public art exhibition this summer. Art Everywhere will bring reproductions of some 50 artworks from the museums’ collections — chosen how else but through an online public vote — to billboards, subway platforms, train stations, and more, filling space usually reserved for advertising with art.

Billed as “the largest outdoor art show ever conceived,” Art Everywhere began last year in the UK, cofounded by businessman Richard Reed and his wife, Melinda, and funded by the Art Fund, Tate, and the UK out of home advertising industry. Inspired by the success of the program there, the OAAA “first reached out to the UK for insights,” Communications Director Nicole Hayes told Hyperallergic. “OAAA then contacted the five museum partners, who helped flesh out the 100 list of great American works of art.”