2021 Draft 2 will be New York themed!

New York - After a successful inaugural 2020 Women’s Empowerment Draft, we are proud to continue the tradition with a second annual draft. While the first mirrored NFL cities, each year’s new draft will have a different theme. 2021 will partner with colleges affiliated with the State University of New York (SUNY) system, so each icon honored will have a connection to our homestate. Icons may have been born in NYS, attended college in NYS, or just made an impact in the state during their impressive career.

The plan is to attract 32 partners in January, design mosaics and jerseys in February, and then engage students on all 32 campuses in early March before gathering (on-line) on March 11th - Internation Women’s Day - for the second annual sports-style draft.

For those unfamiliar with the intent of this program, the Art Force 5 creatively mirrors pro-sports style college drafts with our own unique spin. Professional sports league drafts usually feature established executives recruiting young male college athletes. The W.E. Draft features female college students reframing the festivities as they choose to honor both historic trailblazers and living legends as if they were modern day superstars.

“We are accostumed to seeing men and women wearing male athletes names on the back of sports jerseys,” sahred Rachel Fogg, a senior at Alfred University and a member of the Art Force 5 program, “but what if we were equally enthusiastic and cheered on female icons in the same way?”

The five-year goal is to annually build the educational draft by partnering with college athletic departments, then professional sports leagues, until we eventually see professional athletes - both female and male - modeling the highest level of respect and admiration for women’s empowerment and these icons.

Of the 32 icons being considered for 2021, 10 are living legends and will be notified of thier selection in January. With the program being framed under an educational class project, with collaboration with 31 other college programs, the effort strives to be completely artistic and educational without any sales of jerseys and thus avoid copyright concerns.

The 3-minute NFL Network footage from last year’s draft can be found here.