When Fort Worth artist Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello thinks about what soccer represents, one word comes to her mind: Unity.
After all, the global sport ties diverse groups of people and almost every culture, she said.
That message of togetherness is what the Mexican-American artist illustrated on her large-scale soccer ball “One Planet, One People, One America” unveiled as one of 31 custom artworks at Sundance Square Plaza on May 23.
The downtown Fort Worth district invited North Texas artists to paint their own ball designs for its “Summer of Soccer” celebration in honor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the nine matches scheduled to take place in Arlington.
“One America” doesn’t just call attention to the United States, Ciardiello explained, but Canada and all Latin American countries that make up the continents.
“I’m hoping the words help eliminate borders in our minds,” she said.
Sundance Square’s art director Sarah Ayala described the soccer balls as joyful, highly visible and deeply local and that each artist brought their own point of view to a form everyone recognizes.
“Together, the installation becomes a celebration of soccer, but also of the artists and creative voices that make Fort Worth such a dynamic cultural city,” she said in a press release.
Her children wanted to add their names to some hands, but the artist decided against it in order for the design to remain applicable to any Sundance visitor who approaches her ball — a decision she said worked out for the best.
During the Saturday unveiling, young children repeatedly put their hands on the prints to pose for photos, Ciardiello said.
“The design did exactly what I hoped it would,” she said.
Austin-based artist Hailey Gearo-Chang, one of a few outside of North Texas invited to participate in the soccer ball project, paid homage to “SpongeBob SquarePants” — a cartoon she watched before every game when she played the sport as a child.
The round surface created some painting challenges, she said, but the end result was a result of the creative freedom Sundance Square gave artists.
The artist-designed soccer balls will remain on view in the plaza through June 7 before they are reinstalled across the 37-block district for the remainder of the summer.
Sundance Square will also broadcast all 104 international soccer matches on giant screens in the plaza as part of its “Summer of Soccer” programming. Daily watch parties will feature food trucks, bars and DJs.
What artists were invited to paint soccer balls?
- Sari Shryack
- Drigo
- Gomez
- Kyle Hanson
- Arely Morales
- Jackdaw
- Freddy Ortega
- Tahnee Flor
- Patrick Flynn
- Mariell Guzman
- Zuzu
- Ella Nilsson
- Letitia Huckaby
- Sam Lao
- Emily Kenney
- Margaret Oliveira
- Katie McKay Jones
- Amy Jenkins
- Adam Fung
- Bernardo Vallarino
- Leah Liz Laird
- Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello
- Ruben Esquivel
- Devin Watlington
- Lauren Fleniken
- Hailey Gearo-Chang
- Claire Fuentes
- Lauren Lewchuk
- Caya Crum
- Jana Renée
- Natalia Augsburger
David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
