SEATTLE, WA.- The nonprofit art lab Amplifier and The Vaccine Confidence Project & Team Halo, a coalition of scientists and public health officials, announce a new Global Open Call for Art, “#Vaccinated,” in support of the urgent and rapidly developing COVID-19 vaccination efforts happening around the world. With guidance from top public health officials, the organizations will select artworks to be part of a widespread public art campaign, launching on March 16, 2021, that harnesses the power of visual art and science-based storytelling to encourage vaccination, educate the general public, and combat the common misconceptions around the COVID-19 vaccines.

“V for Vaccinated” is a global call to arms, ensuring that critical COVID-19 vaccine information reaches populations across the world as quickly as possible, empowering people to feel confident in their decisions to get vaccinated.

Over the course of five weeks, Amplifier and partners will reveal new artworks on an ongoing basis. In addition to curated artwork selections by public health officials, the public can vote for their favorite artworks on Amplifier’s community website here, allowing everyone to make their voices heard in this important global campaign. Amplifier will offer $100,000 in awards to winning artists to help build this campaign.

"The world faces tremendous hurdles in the spread of both purposeful disinformation as well as unknowing misinformation about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines,” said Amplifier Executive Director Cleo Barnett. “Our partnership with Team HALO will guide how artists communicate the facts to communities who have developed a distrust of the vaccinations."

Campaign artworks will be distributed widely through the Team Halo network of hospitals, health centers, scientists, and health care workers and also by Facebook, which is supporting this effort by promoting the campaign’s creative globally.

“Different messages resonate with people in very personal ways. Our collaboration with the Vaccine Confidence Project, Team Halo and Ad Council have helped us jointly reach more people with COVID-19 vaccine information, build vaccine acceptance to ultimately help more people get the vaccine as it becomes available. #Vaccinated is a perfect example of innovating how to connect people with COVID-19 information and drive towards a positive public health outcome for all,” said KX Jin, FB’s Head of Health.

Campaign creative will also be distributed as outdoor, print, and digital PSAs through the Ad Council’s vast network of U.S. partners to run in donated media space. To help spread awareness about the vaccines, the Ad Council PSA content will drive audiences to GetVaccineAnswers.org for trusted and vetted answers to the top questions about the COVID-19 vaccines.

“In a moment like this, when conveying accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccines is of critical importance, the power of art to move hearts can also help save hundreds of thousands of lives,” said Michelle Hillman, Chief Campaign Development Officer at the Ad Council. “We’re honored to partner again with Amplifier and their incredible network of artists to bring creativity and cause together in an effort to turn the tide of the pandemic.”

This open call builds on the momentum of the last Global Open Call for Art that Amplifier launched in spring of 2020 to promote public health and safety, well-being, and social change during the uncertain early days of the pandemic. Over the course of five weeks, Amplifier received more than 10,500 submissions from over 90 countries. Artworks depicting messages of hope and perseverance gave comfort and inspired tens of millions of viewers in over 20 languages. As a commitment of solidarity with Amplifier’s global community of artists and with the support of partners, the organization raised over $100,000 to distribute as rapid response grants for the selected open call artists on every continent.

Now, almost a year later, several vaccines have proven highly effective against the virus and the end of the pandemic could be approaching. However, health experts agree that to end the pandemic, we need to collectively immunize a large percentage of our global population as soon as possible. In short, final victory against the pandemic is only possible with vaccination.

This next chapter of Amplifier’s open call - building a movement that is more powerful than the vaccine disinformation that has spread widely, while acknowledging that many communities have understandable distrust of the vaccinations due to historical inequities in healthcare systems - will hopefully be the last in this ongoing COVID-19 campaign.