The Art of the Game: ARTS 14C, El Museo del Barrio

Created in partnership with the New York New Jersey 2026 FIFA World Cup Host Committee, The Art of the Game brings twenty-three internationally acclaimed artists together to reimagine soccer’s most iconic object – the ball – as monumental public sculpture, installed across New York and New Jersey. Museum directors, curators, and cultural leaders helped shape the program and select its artists.

Art and sport share something rare: both cross borders, speak without translation, and pull strangers into the same moment. The Art of the Game puts that connection on full display, placing ambitious contemporary work in parks, plazas, transit hubs, and at museums – where millions of people encounter it simply by living their lives.

The program is designed to outlast the tournament, a legacy of the 2026 FIFA World Cup™. Many sculptures will stay on permanently in the neighborhoods that host them; others will join public and private collections. Through this work – supporting artists, funding arts education, sustaining nonprofit cultural programming – The Art of the Game shows what a global sporting event can leave behind when art is part of the plan.