FAIRHOPE — Students, families and artists alike gathered at the Eastern Shore Art Center last Wednesday to partake in a nationwide project called Portraits of Hope, tied to the celebrations of America’s 250th year.

The Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope was one of many places selected to host its rendition of the project, a live-painting collaboration involving cities from all 50 states. For the next six months, more than 20,000 youth and artists from across the nation will participate in a hands-on experience by painting approximately 3,000 interrelated floating artworks that will honor America's youth for a four-week exhibition later this fall.

Once completed, the finished result will be put on display at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on The National Mall in a visual extravaganza. Each artwork will have its own individual light, illuminating every evening as a representation of America’s future leaders.

Bernie Massey, co-founder of Portraits of Hope, said the cube-shaped artworks are meant to resemble foundational blocks and columns, echoing structures like the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. It symbolizes the people who laid the foundation for the country and the youth and people today who are helping solidify that foundation. Massey said we all have a responsibility in creating the strongest possible future for generations to come.

“It’s basically an opportunity to include many communities, both large and small, who oftentimes would never have an opportunity to be included in a big civic initiative, and this is a project to show how we’re all interconnected,” Massey said. “Whether you come from a rural community, suburban or an urban community. People who you perhaps haven’t seen, but we all share the same country.”

Massey founded the project with his brother, Ed, which has engaged thousands of children and adults in huge civic collaborations, both in the U.S. and abroad, involving more than 1,000 hospitals, schools and social service programs in their work.