NORWICH.- The city's downtown agency got a financial boost Monday night to help bring a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian to Norwich next February. The City Council approved spending $7,000 to cover costs associated with the "Robert Rauschenberg, Artist-Citizen" traveling poster exhibit, which will make its only stop in New England in Norwich, reported the Norwich Bulletin

Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) has long been recognized as one of the most influential and innovative artists of the 20th century. Since the 1960s, Rauschenberg has been applying his collage style to contemporary social and political concerns through a variety of media, including lithography and other printmaking techniques.

Incorporating images from popular culture and current events, these early works addressed social and political issues—the war in Vietnam, the era’s tragic assassinations, and the fate of the environment, among them—and set the stage for a life of activism. In later decades, Rauschenberg depicted international concerns such as apartheid, nuclear disarmament, economic development, population control, and artists’ rights.

Robert Rauschenberg, Artist-Citizen presents 17 framed prints produced between 1970 and 1996 that reverberate with Rauschenberg’s commitment to making the world a better place .

The exhibition includes posters created for and often donated to such organizations as the United Nations, UNESCO, and the AFL-CIO as well as work from the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), an evolving multi-media traveling exhibition of the artist’s paintings, sculpture, prints, and objects. All of the posters in the exhibition, which was developed by the University Art Gallery, California State University, Hayward, have been lent by the artist.