Art in Transit

New York City is a land of galleries, museums and music venues all showcasing the various forms that art
can take.  It’s all there for the taking; you just have to seek it out.  Or do you?   Beyond the confines of
a traditional exhibition, public art is another realm of exposure highly utilized in this city.  The fact the so many
people travel on foot, on a daily basis, seems to create the perfect environment for presenting art to the masses.    

People who ordinarily wouldn’t think to check out the Guggenheim or a Chelsea gallery opening are exposed
to work without all the pretention sometimes associated with those particular outlets.   Public art takes on
many forms – large scale sculpture in the medians of Broadway and throughout Central Park, murals on
building walls, waterfall installations in the river!   Probably the most widely reached and accessible public
art venue is the NYC transit system.  Yep! The subway.   

The subway system was home to public art, in a less official sense, in the late 70’s to early 80’s with graffiti
artists tagging trains, stations, bridges and tunnels.   Around that same time two things happened – NYC
mayor Ed Koch began an anti-graffiti campaign, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority developed a branch
of their organization called MTA Arts for Transit.  At the time, Arts for Transit was part of the subway
rehabilitation initiative.  The guiding principal behind this branch is encouraging “the use of public transit by
presenting visual and performing arts projects in subway and commuter rail stations.”¹   

READ THE REST on Melanie's La Luciole Magazine page: HERE





Oculus  2      by Melanie Dorsey, all rights reserved






Losing My Marbles  2                  by Melanie Dorsey, all rights reserved