A 12-foot sculpture made from repurposed spray cans and license plates from around the world is headed to Fair Park for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Dallas is one of only 11 cities in the country selected for this honor.
Dallas has been chosen as one of eleven FIFA World Cup 2026 host cities to receive a National Endowment for the Arts grant through the Arts Projects Spotlighting the Spirit of Sports program — and the project it will fund is exactly the kind of bold, unexpected public art that makes a city feel alive.
The $30,000 grant will support the installation of a large-scale public sculpture called The World Is Ours by Dallas-based artist Risk Rock. The piece will be installed at Fair Park on the same platform as the iconic Big Tex — one of the most recognizable landmarks in Texas — and will coincide with Fair Park’s role as a FIFA World Cup 2026 team activity and Fan Fest site this summer.
The Sculpture
The World Is Ours stands eight feet wide and twelve feet high. At its center, a bold bronze hand lifts an immense, gently rotating globe — engineered from repurposed spray cans and embellished with vibrant license plates collected from countries around the world. The result is a work that blends street art, sculpture, engineering, and global identity into something that stops people in their tracks.
The globe rotates. The license plates represent real places and real people. The spray cans — Risk Rock’s signature medium — ground the work in a tradition of public art that has always been about claiming space and speaking loudly to a community. Standing beneath it at Fair Park this summer, surrounded by fans from dozens of countries descending on Dallas for the World Cup, the message lands exactly as intended.
The sculpture is currently on view at Gallery DeFi in West Dallas ahead of its Fair Park installation.
Why This Matters for Dallas
Dallas is one of only 11 cities nationwide selected for this award — a distinction that reflects the city’s cultural standing as it prepares to welcome a global audience this summer. The NEA grant program specifically supports projects that celebrate American creativity and highlight local artistic and cultural traditions in connection with World Cup celebrations. Dallas’s selection puts its arts community on the same national stage as the sporting event itself.
“Dallas is honored to receive this support from the National Endowment for the Arts as we prepare to welcome the world for the FIFA World Cup 2026,” said City of Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert. “Projects like The World is Ours reflect the creativity, culture, and energy that define our city. By bringing together art, community, and a global event of this scale, we are creating an experience that celebrates Dallas while connecting us to an international audience.”
“We are so excited to have Rock’s piece on display for residents and visitors to experience,” said City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture Director Martine Elyse Philippe. “The sculpture and its representation of the world is a clear example of how we can bridge the arts and sports together. Serving as a welcoming beacon for the many international fans we expect to see this summer, The World is Ours truly embodies what makes Dallas an inviting and vibrant place.”
See It Now — Then See It at Fair Park
The World Is Ours is currently on display at Gallery DeFi in West Dallas before its move to Fair Park. If you want to experience it up close before it takes its place alongside Big Tex, now is the time to visit the gallery. Once installed at Fair Park this summer, it will serve as one of the defining visual landmarks of Dallas’s World Cup season — a piece of public art that belongs to every fan, every visitor, and every Dallasite who walks past it.
All NEA Arts Projects Spotlighting the Spirit of Sports grants support projects running between May 1 and December 31, 2026.
Event and Exhibition Details
Sculpture: The World Is Ours by Risk Rock Current location: Gallery DeFi, West Dallas Summer installation: Fair Park, Dallas — platform of Big Tex, coinciding with FIFA World Cup 2026 Fan Fest and team activities Grant: $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts — Arts Projects Spotlighting the Spirit of Sports program FIFA World Cup 2026 Dallas matches: AT&T Stadium, Arlington — June and July 2026
City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture: dallasartsandculture.org National Endowment for the Arts: arts.gov Full list of grant recipients: arts.gov/sites/default/files/ArtsProjectsFIFAlist.pdf
