Twenty-three artists, including Katherine Bernhardt, Hank Willis Thomas, and Tomokazu Matsuyama, will create soccer-ball sculptures for a public art project tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The sculptures will be displayed across New York City and New Jersey. Artists were nominated by museum leaders from institutions such as MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, El Museo del Barrio, and the Brooklyn Museum. The project is organized by ARTS 14C, a non-profit focused on arts access.
This initiative matters because it merges major international sporting events with contemporary public art, leveraging the global reach of the FIFA World Cup to bring art to diverse audiences. By involving leading museums in the nomination process, the project also highlights the growing collaboration between cultural institutions and large-scale public events, potentially setting a precedent for future art-sports partnerships.