Public Commissions
Lesson of Encouragement
Scrollathon: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
2016
Commissioned by: The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation for the Art Collection at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Medium: Papier-mâché, paint, varnish, metal, wood
Dimensions: 8 × 35 feet × 6 inches
Photograph: Courtesy of Savannah College of Art and Design for the Art Collection at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Created in: Atlanta, Georgia, and Brooklyn, New York
Artists’ Registration Numbers: 2016.032.001–2016.032.084
Exhibition History: Permanent installation, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia, 2017–present
Participants engaged in a multi-layered process: learning about the Ladds’ practice of repurposing materials, creating individual artworks to keep, hand-painting beads for the collective installation, and sitting for portraits that were compiled into a Souvenir Publication. Together, these acts of making formed the foundation of an artwork that reflects both personal expression and collective achievement.
Commission Overview
Commissioned by The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Lesson of Encouragement is a large-scale collaborative installation permanently installed in the main concourse of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Created through an expansive Scrollathon program, the work brought together more than 900 participants from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, positioning young voices and shared creativity at the heart of one of the city’s most visible civic spaces.
Artistic Approach
The installation is composed of more than 10,000 handmade, hand-painted beads arranged into a sweeping, rhythmic composition that extends 35 feet across the concourse wall. Each bead—formed through layers of papier-mâché and paint—carries the trace of an individual hand, while the overall structure transforms these gestures into a unified visual field.
This reflection became the conceptual anchor for the piece. The composition translates encouragement into form—demonstrating how guidance, care, and shared effort can accumulate into something enduring and expansive.
The title Lesson of Encouragement emerged directly from the Scrollathon process. One participant named their personal artwork with that phrase, explaining:
“Steven and William gave me guidelines to follow to achieve my goal as well as being a living testament.”
Engagement and Impact
Throughout the Atlanta Scrollathon sessions, participants of diverse ages and backgrounds worked side by side, contributing their creativity to a work that would ultimately be encountered by millions of visitors each year. For many young participants, Lesson of Encouragement marked their first experience seeing their labor embedded within a monumental public artwork.
The project exemplifies Scrollathon’s core ethos: that artmaking can function as both empowerment and recognition. By situating the finished work within a major civic and athletic venue, the project affirms the presence, value, and potential of Atlanta’s youth within the city’s broader cultural narrative.
Context and Legacy
Lesson of Encouragement represents a pivotal expansion of the Scrollathon model into large-scale civic and sports-related commissions. Installed at a nationally prominent venue, the work bridges community engagement, contemporary craft, and public architecture at an unprecedented scale for the artists at that time.
The installation stands as both a visual landmark and a living record—of encouragement given and received, of thousands of individual contributions unified into a shared statement, and of art’s capacity to honor collective effort within spaces dedicated to excellence, teamwork, and public gathering.
Community Partners
Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta: A. Worley Brown, Brookhaven–Jesse Draper, John H. Harland, Centers of Hope at Adamsville, Joseph B. Whitehead, Samuel L. Jones, and Warren Clubs
Special Thanks
Anne Trouillet Rogers; Arthur M. Blank; The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation; Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta; Catherine Sippin; Chris Holdsworth; Daniel Sanchez; Erin O’Leary; HHRM; John Paul Rowan; Laurie Ann Farrell; Lucien Zayan and The Invisible Dog Art Center; Mike Egan; Penny McPhee; Rebecca Des Marais; Savannah College of Art and Design; and the team at Steven and William Ladd
Acknowledgments
Gratitude to Cristina Grajales Gallery; the Scrollathon Team, Interns and Fellows; Charles and Barbara Ladd; Matt Ladd
