One of the most famous American painters and illustrators, Norman Rockwell produced pithy artwork to promote democracy and civic engagement in his time. Now, a museum in Massachusetts dedicated to him asked artists to design "get out the vote" posters for 2020.

​The Unity Project debuted on Tuesday, National Voters Registration Day, on the Norman Rockwell Museum's website. It features six original pieces specially commissioned for the campaign from a diverse group of artists: Mai Ly Degnan, Rudy Gutierrez, Anita Kunz, Tim O'Brien, Whitney Sherman and Yuko Shimizu.

On the same page, voters can register for the 2020 election and share the artwork to promote the cause. Among those who were inspired to share the campaign on their social media profiles is 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who posted about the initiative on Instagram.

"This idea was sparked in conversation with patrons who said, 'Wouldn't it be great if there was an artist who could paint a poster like Rockwell did during World War II that would inspire everybody to vote?' And it led me to think -- we can do that," Norman Rockwell Museum Director Laurie Norton Moffatt told CNN.

​The project came together in a matter of six weeks, Norton Moffatt explained, and it was the first time the museum worked with illustrators to commission and publish artwork in a digital format.

"At a time when many of us feel life has closed in, during this pandemic, we found a way to burst those walls wide open and put the museum's work to good in the world by inspiring everyone to vote," Norton Moffatt said.

The posters will be exhibited online and at the museum until Election Day, and physical copies will enter the museum's permanent collection.

The Ford Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and others are aiding national and regional groups at risk of shuttering because of the pandemic.

​Some of the nation’s most prominent philanthropists and foundations announced plans on Thursday to donate more than $156 million to help arts organizations run by people of color recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The initiative, called America’s Cultural Treasures, includes national and regional components and was conceived by Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, and those who work for the foundation’s Creativity and Free Expression program.

It is meant to bring greater resources and recognition to what the foundation described as “Black, Latinx, Asian and Indigenous” organizations representing the heritage of people who “have been historically marginalized, underfunded and underrepresented in the narrative of American culture.”

News of the initiative was first reported by The Washington Post.

The national component includes $50 million from the Ford Foundation and additional money from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Abrams Foundation, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Barbara and Amos Hostetter, and Tom and Lisa Blumenthal. It will provide $81 million in operational and general support funds to 20 organizations that are “significant national anchors for artistic and cultural diversity in America,” the Ford Foundation said.
 
 National grants will range from $1 million to $6 million each. Recipients include the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage; the Apollo Theater in New York City; the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich.; the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles; and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.