Alfred University’s Art Force 5 to visit Ravens game for mosaic-painting event

BALTIMORE, MD – Alfred University’s Art Force 5, a program that uses community-based art to inspire discussion on topics of equality and social justice, will be at a Baltimore Ravens football game on Sunday, Nov. 3, as part of the group’s effort to celebrate women’s empowerment.

The event outside Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium is part of an initiative in which representatives of Art Force 5 travel to various NFL cities, joining fans in painting tributes to women’s empowerment icons associated with those communities.

Art Force 5 kicked off the project at Buffalo Bills Training Camp in July. The group engaged fans in painting tiles to create a mosaic of women’s rights icon Susan B. Anthony. An image of the mosaic was embossed on a t-shirt of the blue and red Bills colors, with the number 19 on the back. Plans were made to visit several other NFL cities and invite fans to create mosaics to local women’s rights leaders, with associated t-shirt giveaways.

On Sunday at the Ravens’ game, Art Force 5 will hold an event honoring Maryland’s Harriet Tubman, famous for organizing the Underground Railroad and a proponent of abolition and women’s rights. The Harriet Tubman mosaic will adorn commemorative t-shirts in the Ravens’ purple, black and gold colors.

This will be the fourth NFL-related project for the Art Force 5 program, which uses creativity to address difficult issues of violence, poverty, and equality. In January, the program was featured on an NFL360 program as they paid tribute to Atlanta’s earliest African-American police officers. In July, the program was invited to pay tribute to Susan B. Anthony at the Bill’s training camp in Rochester, NY, and in September in Pittsburgh, the group held a mosaic-painting tribute to Nellie Bly alongside Steelers fans. The program plans to honor Shirley Chisolm, in New York City, and Dorothy Dandridge, in Cleveland, later in the season.

The series of mosaic portraits – designed in the host team’s colors -- aims to raise awareness women’s empowerment as the country prepares to pay tribute to the centennial of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote. The first five mosaics will be on exhibit at The Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, NY, in January 2020 for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Dan Napolitano, Assistant Dean of Art and Design at Alfred University and program founder, stressed that this is a grassroots effort and not endorsed by the National Football League.

“It is important that this comes from the students and shared directly with the fans,” Napolitano explained. “Similar to the women we honor, they were outside of a system of power trying to be heard and respected. This tribute is a bit scrappy in finding places to set up a pop-up art-build and convince tailgating fans of the merits of paying tribute to these icons.”

The football jerseys are designed by Alfred University alumna Jillian Mullen ‘’17 (B.F.A.) and produced by Logo Print Services of Hornell, NY. Each has the number 19 on the back and the name of the icon above a portrait on the front.

“Our society is totally comfortable with women wearing sports jerseys with men’s names on them,” Napolitano said. “This is an opportunity for women and men to own and wear a jersey showing they’re a fan of women and equality.”

For those interested in painting a tile at the Ravens’ game Sunday, the Art Force 5 team will look to set up within a parking lot from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and use their #artforce5 social media to report locations. The event is free but due to game day parking, no parking will be available specific to this event. Questions may be directed to artforce5@alfred.edu with more information posted at www.artforce5.com.