WESTPORT — An arts-driven initiative to fight gun violence is taking flight, with help from a local activist supporting the nationwide effort.

“Wings4Peace” is the initiative launched by Artists4Peace, a grassroots coalition of artists for gun safety formed in response to the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre, and Westporter Darcy Hicks is helping to promote the project.

The idea, according to Hicks, is “to keep gun violence on the top of America’s conscience with our paintbrushes, hammers, nails and creative ideas.

“We are not going away. We will be seen. We will be heard. We will join hands and inspire change,” she said.

A butterfly-themed installation by Hicks is now displayed in front of the Westport Museum for History and Culture on Avery Place.

The national effort is being facilitated by David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and an organizer of the March for Our Lives gun-safety campaign.

Lorie Lewis, an arts manager/marketer from Milford, had contacted Hogg after the May mass shooting that claimed 21 lives at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and he put her in contact with Gracie Lee Pekrul of Artists 4 Peace.

Their collaboration has produced Wings4Peace, which officially launched Sunday. Lewis is serving as the initiative’s director.

Lewis said in a statement, “This initiative is just the beginning. It’s how we plan to pull together the nation’s creativity, stir up emotion, spark action, and enhance community well-being.”

Hicks said that she was drawn to the project because in the aftermath of the Uvalde shootings, “I just didn’t have it in me for another protest about this issue. My anger needed a new path, and Wings4Peace allows all of us — adults, children, artists and non-artists — to participate in a national movement that lands in the sight-line of people across the country.”

She plans to collaborate with local artist Miggs Burroughs on a Westport community Wings4Peace project on Oct. 24.