(Credit for Photo: Photo Courtesy of Visit Pittsburgh)
Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News
(Pittsburgh, PA) The NFL recently announced its artist partnerships and creative activations that spotlight Pittsburgh’s vibrant art, design and
sports culture for the 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light on April 23rd-25th. The league will collaborate with two Pittsburgh artists, Kim Fox and Burton Morris, who
will each create pieces that honor all 32 clubs; design a stunning projection show on the centrally located Wyndham Hotel; and visually welcome fans in NFL Draft creative throughout the region. Kim Fox is a Pittsburgh-based mixed-metal artist. She will create a special art installation for the Player Walkway, which is the path that each prospect will take as they get drafted to their new team and walk onto the Main Stage. Burton Morris, a Pittsburgh native and pop artist, is creating 32 separate pieces that will be displayed as one large installation in the Prospect Green Room built by Lowe’s. Fox’s installation will feature handcrafted mixed-metal interpretations of all 32 NFL team marks, with each piece made from tin and mixed-metals which are in a quiltlike pattern. Over the past few months, she has spent hours creating unique pieces of artwork to bring each of the logos of the clubs to life. In the process, Fox combines reclaimed wood, vintage maps, collected tins and other found materials to manufacture each piece of art. She overlays these materials and patches the pieces together to highlight the uniqueness of each city. Fox is also including hidden symbolism pertinent to each city within her pieces. All 32 of Morris’ 20×20” pieces are customized with his signature “energy lines” to highlight unique team colors for each team, and they are built on a steel frame to honor Pittsburgh’s history. Authentic team helmets are also seamlessly attached to each piece to create dynamic, 3D mixed-media work celebrating all 32 clubs. The NFL is also partnering with The Andy Warhol Museum and its Youth Workforce Program to bring a live Pop Art studio to the NFL Draft Red Carpet presented by Toyota to celebrating pop art’s origins in Pittsburgh and to highlight the league’s larger commitment to art-driven storytelling. NFL prospects will co-create silkscreen self-portraits on the red carpet, printing them on hand-painted backgrounds to transform their images into custom works of art. The final portraits will accompany players down the carpet for photos and interviews to give media and fans a firsthand look at Warhol’s iconic silkscreen process in action. The pieces will also be available for prospects to take with them as they enter their journey into the NFL.