Join us for a week-long community art project on the front lawn of the MFA. Participants can channel their inner artist, and side-by-side we will create signs reflecting our personal views on the impact walls and barriers have in our everyday lives. Your sign will then be displayed on the MFA lawn for all to see and enjoy.

Over the course of this week, museum visitors and downtown pedestrians will contemplate the themes of this profound work: hope, isolation, identity, and navigation.

To receive and create your free sign, please visit our sign station inside the museum.

Please note: Due to the uncertainties related to COVID-19, this event is subject to change.

About Hughie Lee-Smith

Hughie Lee-Smith was born in Eustis, Florida, and spent his early years in Atlanta with his grandmother. He later moved to Cleveland with his mother, and took children’s classes through the Cleveland Museum of Art, earning a scholarship to the Cleveland Art Institute.  He served in the Navy, then graduated with a BA from Wayne State University in Detroit on the GI Bill. He later moved to New York City and taught at the Art Students League for 15 years. In 1967 Lee-Smith became the second African American to receive full membership to the National Academy of Design. His work is widely collected and is in the public collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the National Gallery of Art, DC, among many others.

This program is generously sponsored by the Art Bridges Foundation

Image credits: Hughie Lee-Smith, The Walls, 1954, Oil on board, 24 x 36 in., Art Bridges. © 2021 Estate of Hughie Lee-Smith / Licensed by VAGA at ARS, NY