Passport to Patriotism

Museum: Art Museum of the Americas

Exhibition:Passport to Patriotism: 250 Years of Diplomacy

Body of Work:Where the Music Lives

Organized by: American Arts Conservancy

In Partnership With: U.S. Department of State, Office of Art in Embassies

Location: Washington, D.C.

Dates: July 30 – October 18, 2026

Featured Artists: More than 30 contemporary American artists

Project Overview : Passport to Patriotism: 250 Years of Diplomacy is a landmark exhibition presented at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States. Organized by the American Arts Conservancy in partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Office of Art in Embassies, the exhibition explores the symbols, ideals, and creative spirit that define America through the work of more than thirty contemporary artists.

Inspired by the Office of Art in Embassies' mission to foster cross cultural understanding through the universal language of art, the exhibition celebrates the power of visual storytelling to build dialogue, empathy, and connection across borders.

I was honored to contribute photographs from my body of work, Where the Music Lives, a series created across rural and small town America that explores the quiet places where music begins. Rather than documenting performance, these photographs celebrate moments of reflection, craftsmanship, and creativity, revealing the everyday spaces where songs are written, stories are shared, and culture quietly takes shape.

Growing up in Slovakia, I never imagined that one day my work would become part of a museum exhibition in Washington, D.C., celebrating America's 250th anniversary. To have these photographs included in a conversation about cultural identity, diplomacy, and shared human values is both deeply meaningful and profoundly humbling.

Artist Statement :Where the Music Lives

These photographs explore the places where music begins, not on stages or in recording studios, but in porches, living rooms, workshops, pickup trucks, and along quiet roads.

Created across rural and small town American landscapes, the series portrays musicians in moments of reflection, creation, and solitude. A lyric taking shape on paper, a guitar resting in familiar hands, a song emerging from an ordinary afternoon. The subjects are not defined by celebrity or performance, but by a shared impulse to create, tell stories, and connect with the world around them.

The spaces they inhabit are as important as the people themselves. Worn interiors, handmade objects, open horizons, and working vehicles reflect traditions of craftsmanship, independence, and self expression that have long shaped American cultural identity. Together, these images offer a portrait of everyday creativity and the enduring role of music as a common language across communities, generations, and geographies.

As America marks its 250th anniversary, this series celebrates the quiet places where culture is continually made and remade, one song, one story, and one person at a time.