In New York, where 1000s of artist live and work, the transit system picks only 5 or 6 a year to design interior art car cards. In San Francisco, they had recent contest where, like NYC, only 5 artists chosen. Congratulations, You are joining a select group of artists who exhibit their work on trains in a major US city. Your work will be seen by a lot of people. More views then most artists get by putting art in a gallery or  in a museum. Guess how many people ride the orange line a day?

A little Art History

Los Angeles/New York:  Barbara Kruger
Artist in her 70s now. She was from Newark, NJ, became a top NYC graphic designer for national magazines/advertisers and then took the style of advertising to create her own message that she got put up in public places like bus shelters in NYC/LA in the 1980s. Famous design: “I shop”  – comments on culture – words and images together to make a strong message. Everyone copies her now…

Recently, in LA, she was asked to design art on buses.  “Art Matters,” in attempt to support funding for arts education in the Los Angeles school systems.  She will be creating text for twelve city buses and 85 billboards, along with a number of other media sites. Kruger who is an art professor at UCLA in Los Angeles was quoted, “The place of the arts in the classroom is essential in encouraging invention, ambition, and an understanding of the importance and pleasures of living an examined life,”

“As the center of the creative economy, every LA student should receive the benefits of daily creative learning.  Whether in a college classroom or in the job market, creativity is essential to succeeding in today’s world,” said LAUSD Superintendent, John Deasy.

Poetry in Motion

1992 Poetry Society of America and NYC transit system, the MTA.
National  by Poetry Society of America working with artists and poets in big cities – getting their work into trains, I am posting examples so you can think about how artists combine words and pictures and also make a series.

New York

    

New York also has an independent art car card program. The popular graphic poster program was established in 1991 to celebrate the diverse communities that make up the New York region. The commissioned work by painters, printmakers, and illustrators touches upon transit-related subjects and the places that can be discovered using the mass transit system. Posters are randomly displayed in unused advertising space on subway platforms throughout the 468 subway stations and on subway cars and buses.

    

 St. Louis – Poetry in Motion

http://www.artsintransit.org/metrolines-2/

 

 Los Angeles – Poetry in Motion

https://www.metro.net/about/art/artworks/poetry-motionla/

Muni Art San Francisco

http://sfbeautiful.org/muni-art/

Muni Art is SF Beautiful’s first installment of the Place Art program. Place Art curates public spaces by voting for art in surprising locations. This fall Muni Art fills 50 buses with local art.

 

Virginia – Art on the Bus

http://elizabethgraeber.com/art-on-the-bus-1/image2

 

 Io Palmer/Northside Storie, MN