Public art has a special way of stopping us in our everyday tracks. One moment we are walking through a park, crossing a bridge, passing through a station, or turning a city corner, and the next moment we are face-to-face with color, memory, movement, history, or a bold creative question we did not expect to meet that day.
That is the spirit behind 250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S., a new nationwide virtual exhibition from NOT REAL ART, presented in partnership with CODAworx and sponsored by Arterial. Created in honor of America’s 250th anniversary, the exhibition brings together one public artwork from each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, creating a sweeping digital journey through the creativity living in public spaces across the country.
The exhibition will launch as part of NOT REAL ART’s First Fridays virtual exhibition series and will remain open and archived indefinitely on NotRealArt.com, giving audiences ongoing access to a coast-to-coast celebration of art beyond museum walls.
Curated by Virginia-based arts writer Kirsten Bengtson-Lykoudis, 250 invites viewers to explore public art in parks, deserts, city streets, civic spaces, public interiors, and unexpected corners of American life. The featured works include sculptures, murals, bridges, archways, site-specific installations, and multimedia experiences. Together, they remind us that art is not only something to observe from a quiet gallery floor. It can be walked around, gathered under, passed through, photographed, debated, remembered, and shared.
The exhibition also highlights the artists, fabricators, designers, architects, agencies, and creative teams who make public art possible. Featured participants include artists and organizations from every state, including Denver Arts & Venues in Colorado, Creative Machines in Arizona, Marcus Brown in Louisiana, MARC FORNES/THEVERYMANY in North Carolina, Blessing Hancock in Tennessee, Metalab in Texas, WMATA Art in Transit Program in Virginia, Pseudo Mero in Puerto Rico, and many more.
CODAworx, based in Madison, Wisconsin, brings deep public art industry expertise to the project. Since 2014, CODAworx has connected artists, designers, architects, fabricators, and other creative professionals while championing large-scale public art around the world. Its database includes thousands of projects with a collective budget of more than $13 billion, reflecting just how powerful public art has become in shaping shared spaces and community identity.
For NOT REAL ART, 250 fits beautifully into its mission of helping people discover today’s contemporary artists. The platform, owned and operated by Crewest Studio LLC, has built a home for artist storytelling through exhibitions, podcasts, grants, and editorial coverage. Its First Fridays series has showcased 766 artists and 1,045 artworks across 39 exhibitions since launching in 2023.
Arterial, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit sponsoring the exhibition, adds another layer of purpose. Dedicated to democratizing and amplifying art in public spaces, Arterial supports arts media projects across film, television, podcasts, and digital platforms. Its work reflects the same core idea running through 250: art belongs in the world, where people live, move, gather, and imagine.
As the country looks toward its 250th anniversary, this exhibition offers a meaningful reminder that American stories are not told in one voice, one style, or one location. They rise from desert installations, neighborhood murals, memorial works, civic plazas, transit stations, waterfronts, and green spaces. They speak through steel, glass, paint, stone, light, sound, and community memory.
250: A Celebration of Public Art in the U.S. is more than an online exhibition. It is a digital road trip through the imagination of a nation, one public artwork at a time.