Major artists including Nevermade, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya and Thomas Wimberly are collaborating with MoveOn, a leading national progressive advocacy organization, and Amplifier, a design lab that builds art to amplify the voices of grassroots movements, to launch “Your Vote Is Power.”
The new initiative will use art and culture to drive voter registration and turn out young voters this November. Through billboards, posters, stickers, GIFS, memes, and more, the Your Vote Is Power campaign will seek to provoke young people with a vision of how to change the direction of our country and our politics with our votes.
“If our votes held no power, no one would try to silence us. Our aim is to connect people to this message through the power of art,” said Michael Crawford, Cultural Director at MoveOn. “Art and visual symbols from the ‘Obama Hope’ poster to Trump’s MAGA hat have played vitally important roles in past elections and have the ability to shape the way people see candidates, electoral politics and their personal ability to make change. We started ‘Your Vote Is Power’ because we want to connect voters with unique and artistic images that inspire them to vote and continue fighting for their right to do so.”
New artwork will be promoted weekly including on digital billboards in states like Georgia, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, where people had to wait in hours-long lines to vote in primaries this spring. In addition to the attached artwork, which will be distributed as stickers, postcards, and posters, as part of the Your Vote Is Power effort, MoveOn will also work with GIF and meme creators to boost voter turnout by countering disinformation narratives that tell young people that their participation does not matter.
“We, the people, hold immense power, yet so much of our society tells us otherwise,” said Cleo Barnett, Executive Director at Amplifier. “Our goal is to reclaim our visual landscape with messages of empowerment, with images reminding us that we are stronger when we act together and that our democracy depends on us all taking to the polls this November.”
The Your Vote Is Power initiative follows MoveOn’s #MyAmericanFlag project, produced in collabortion with celebrity writers, actors, musicians and performers including Billy Porter, Roxanne Gay, Alfre Woodward and Ashley Judd, who shared images of uniquely designed American flags that reflected their own multinational heritages and encouraged people to register to vote.
“American identities span across a variety of age groups, locations, occupations and political affiliations, and a powerful image that resonates with people exemplifies art’s ability to unify others. We hope these images will do just that in the weeks and months ahead leading up to November,” added Crawford.
Both #MyAmericanFlag and Your Vote Is Power are part of a larger effort from MoveOn dedicated to engaging people of all ages, races and ethnicities who share progressive values with help from celebrities, artists, writers, and influencers.
© Art
Thomas Wimberly, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, and Nevermade