SHEILA CUELLAR-SHAFFER

In 2020, I was awarded funds from the Heinz Endowments Just Arts program as Lead Artist of the Billboard Art Project. Make Our Differences Our Strengths, a collaboration with the Westmoreland Diversity Coalition and The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is a billboard art campaign and traveling exhibition that happened during the fall of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

Starting October 2020, billboards appeared alongside major roadways in Westmoreland County, featuring art- work from the campaign’s 10 selected artists. –Alejandro Fiez, Alisha Wormsley, Amun Ray, Dorion Barill, Edith Abeyta, Fran Flaherty, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Susanne Slavick, Shane Pilster, and Tina Williams Brewer.

Despite the pandemic, the project stayed on schedule to bring a positive message about diversity and inclusion to a county that had a less than 5% minority population in 2020.

This project has been featured in Forbes.com, Bloomberg CityLab, The Brooklyn Rail, Presente Pittsburgh and The Tribune Review.

The Billboard Art Project. An initiative of the Westmoreland Diversity Coalition and The Westmoreland Museum of American Art funded by the Just Arts Project Grant from The Heinz Endowments, this project will spark conversations about diversity in my home county. If you’d like to know more, I am here to answer any questions you may have. My email is sheila@cuellarshaffer.com. You can apply by CLICKING HERE.

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Two information sessions were held for this project, one at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art and another at GPAC’s Big Room in downtown Pittsburgh. If you missed those sessions, and need further information, feel free to contact me at sheila@cuellarshaffer.com