For months, people across Metro Detroit have been helping turn conversations about voting rights, democracy, representation, and whose voices are heard into art.

Now, hundreds of those individual expressions are coming together for ArtPrize 2026 in Grand Rapids.

Voting Access For All Coalition (VAAC) and Indivisible Metro Detroit’s Community Voting Rights Art Installation has been selected for ArtPrize and will be exhibited at Fountain Street Church as part of Art at the Fountain Inspiring Social Justice.

How we got here

Throughout the summer, VAAC and Indivisible Metro Detroit brought art-making pop-ups into community spaces across Southeast Michigan.

At each stop, people were invited to create small pieces exploring voting rights, democracy, civic participation, representation, access, and what it means to have a voice in the decisions that affect our lives and communities.

No art experience was needed. Participants used words, images, found materials, and a variety of art supplies to create something that reflected their own ideas and experiences.

The project grew one piece and one conversation at a time.

We held pop-ups at Urbanrest in Ferndale, events in Southgate and Hamtramck, QueerSeed Collective in Detroit, Affirmations in Ferndale, and other community spaces. Along the way, people of different ages and backgrounds added their own perspectives to what would eventually become one collective installation.

Each piece is unique. Together, they create a larger statement about voting rights and whose voices are heard in our democracy.

The Community Voting Rights Art Installation at ArtPrize

The finished installation brings those individual works together for visitors to experience as one collective piece.

Words are paired with artwork reflecting each participant’s voice, creative expression, and personal perspective. Visitors are invited to take their time moving through the installation and examining the many individual contributions that make up the whole.

The project will be exhibited at:

Fountain Street Church
24 Fountain Street NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

ArtPrize Entry: Community Voting Rights Art Installation
Artist: IMD/VAAC Collaboration
Vote ID: 26487

Preview Week: September 12–17, 2026
ArtPrize: September 18–October 3, 2026

ArtPrize is an international art competition and cultural festival that transforms venues throughout Grand Rapids into exhibition spaces for artists from Michigan and around the world.

Join us at Fountain Street Church on September 20

VAAC will also be part of special programming at Fountain Street Church on Sunday, September 20.

9:30–10:30 AM: Chapel Time / ArtPrize Artist Talk
VAAC has a speaking slot during this hour. Mary McGeehan, the art teacher who has been leading the creative production of the project, and Angela Davenport, VAAC Executive Director, are expected to speak.

12:00–2:00 PM: Friends and Family Event at the Fountain

ArtPrize voting begins September 18

Public voting for ArtPrize begins Friday, September 18.

When voting opens, look for the Community Voting Rights Art Installation, Vote ID 26487.

To cast your first ArtPrize vote, you must be physically within the ArtPrize boundaries in Grand Rapids. Once you have cast that first valid vote, you can vote from anywhere.

ArtPrize allows voters to vote once per entry each day, and you can vote for the same entry again after 24 hours.

You can vote by scanning the QR code on the artist label or by searching the ArtPrize voting site for the entry title or Vote ID 26487.

If you do not have a mobile device, ArtPrize also offers physical voting options through its ClubHouse and information kiosks.

For now, save the dates, share the project with your networks, and if you will be in Grand Rapids during ArtPrize, make plans to visit the installation at Fountain Street Church.

ArtPrize is not the end of the project

Taking this work to ArtPrize is an exciting milestone, but the goal has always been bigger than a single exhibition.

After ArtPrize, VAAC and Indivisible Metro Detroit hope to bring the installation into libraries, community centers, cultural spaces, schools, and other gathering places throughout Metro Detroit.

The art can then continue doing what the pop-ups were created to do: open doors for conversation and civic learning about democracy, voting access, representation, and whose voices are heard.

What started with people sitting down at community events and creating one piece at a time has become a collective work that will soon be seen by visitors from across Michigan and beyond.

After Grand Rapids, we look forward to bringing it home to the Detroit area.