Mediaboss Marketing

A photograph shows two young women sitting on the steps of an ornate building, columns and marble steps peek out behind them. One is braiding the hair of the other. Go off sis! the picture says.

Each element of the photo holds meaning: the hair-braiding is a nod to black women and how they build relationships with each other. Having the girls sit on the stairs of the Cleveland Museum of Art, one of the biggest art institutions in the country, as if it is their stoop at home plays with the idea of who is welcomed at such prestigious art institutions.

In a second photograph, a young black man shrouded in blue and red light looks into a mirror. The words The fourth amendment run across the photograph, reminding people of their constitutional rights against searches of their homes without a warrant. A third image shows two girls in a park where redlining historically segregated communities.

The images are being displayed to thousands of people around Cleveland this month on several billboards in the city created by For Freedoms, a national art-as-activism platform supporting artists that sparks civic engagement, in partnership with Guardian US and Guardian Cities.

The public art has been created as part of a new Guardian series, City Champions, which launched on Monday this week, and which seeks to highlight 25 inspirational people and organizations in the city who are all tackling various social justice issues at a grassroots level, seeking to make Cleveland a better place to live.

We always want the billboards to be a question mark, to ask questions, to encourage people to think critically about what kind of information is being put out to the public, said Eric Gottesman, co-founder of For Freedoms.

For Freedoms is no stranger to this kind of messaging in US cities.

In 2018, ahead of the 2018 midterms, the organization launched its 50 State Initiative, a campaign to bring 52 unique billboards to 50 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico to encourage non-partisan civic engagement and discourse about equality through art.

All the photographs in the project were taken by Cleveland-based artist Amanda D King in collaboration with other local artists based in Cleveland, including Noelle Richard and Matt Chasney. King is one of the Guardians City Champion honorees for her not-for-profit, Shooting Without Bullets, a production company that promotes young black and brown artists, like Bonner and Jordan.

While King says that she hopes Clevelanders will look at the billboard and feel proud of their city and the champions fighting for its issues, she hopes that it will encourage people to see the possibility Cleveland has to be a model city for others in the US.

If we can address issues in Cleveland, then we can find a pathway for equity, specifically racial equity, across the country, King said. If we pay more attention to Cleveland Clevelands government, Clevelands population we might be able to become a better country.

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion using #citychampions, catch up on our best stories or sign up for our weekly newsletter

Here is the original post:
The billboards trying to make you think not buy a product - The Guardian