MTA Arts & Design, formerly known as Arts for Transit and Urban Design, is a commissioned art program directed by the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

for the transportation systems serving

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and the surrounding region. Since 1985, the program has installed art in more than 260 transit stations. The art is intended to be site-specific and to improve the journey for New Yorkers and visitors alike. MTA Arts & Design has works commissioned by over 300 artists, with entries in graphic art, photography installations, digital art,

Music Under New York Music Under New York (MUNY) is a part of the Arts & Design program by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that schedules musical performances in transportation hubs across its rapid transit, ferry, and commuter rail systems. MTA gr ...

, Poetry in Motion, and special events.

History

When the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

opened in 1904, its founders declared that the railway was a "great public work" where every design element should show respect for customers and improve the experience of travel through beauty and efficiency. MTA Arts & Design was created in 1985 when the MTA began to reverse years of decline by rehabilitating and renewing the transit system. The commissioning of original artwork was intended to show riders that the system values their comfort and experience within stations. Works use durable materials like ceramic tile and

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

and

light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...

. MTA Arts & Design also plays an important role in design elements and architecture within passenger stations as well as industrial design elements and subway car design.

Process

The Percent for Art projects link people to places with art that echoes the architectural or cultural history,

urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban de ...

and community context of stations. The identity of

and its subway system is connected to the permanent artwork in the stations. The collection of work serves as the city's underground art museum and represents its vitality, energy and diversity. Most of the art is site-specific. Artists are chosen through a competitive process with selection panels composed of visual-arts professionals. They review artists’ previous work, choose finalists who produce site-specific proposals, and then reconvene to select artist proposals for the given project(s). Community representatives are invited to attend the meetings and provide input. Artist opportunities are posted on the A&D website and announced through

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

and local arts organizations.

Notable artists and work

Notable artists commissioned through the program include

Xenobia Bailey Xenobia Bailey (born 1955) is an American fine artist, designer, Supernaturalist, cultural activist and fiber artist best known for her eclectic crochet African-inspired hats and her large scale crochet pieces and mandalas. She has said that her ...

Romare Bearden Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City a ...

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an influential American performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His foundational p ...

, Priscila De Carvalho,

Jacob Lawrence Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...

, Ellen Harvey,

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...

Jack Beal Walter Henry "Jack" Beal Jr. (June 25, 1931 – August 29, 2013) was an American realist painter. Biography Jack Beal was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1931. He studied at the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary and then at th ...

, Elizabeth Murray,

Faith Ringgold Faith Ringgold (born October 8, 1930 in Harlem, New York City) is an American painter, writer, mixed media sculptor, and performance artist, best known for her narrative quilts. Early life Faith Ringgold was born the youngest of three children ...

Duke Riley Duke Riley is an American artist. Riley earned a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a MFA in Sculpture from the Pratt Institute. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is noted for a body of work incorporating the seafarer ...

Shinique Smith Shinique Smith (born January 9, 1971) is an American visual artist, known for her colorful installation art and paintings that incorporate found textiles and collage materials. She is based in Brooklyn, New York. Early life and education Born in ...

Nancy Spero Nancy Spero (August 24, 1926 – October 18, 2009) was an American visual artist. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Spero lived for much of her life in New York City. She married and collaborated with artist Leon Golub. As both artist and activist, Nanc ...

Doug and Mike Starn Doug and Mike Starn are American artists, identical twins, born 1961. Biography The Starn brothers gained international attention at the 1987 Whitney Biennial. The Starns have been primarily working conceptually with photography for the past tw ...

and

Tom Otterness Tom Otterness (born 1952) is an American sculptor best known as one of America's most prolific public artists. Otterness's works adorn parks, plazas, subway stations, libraries, courthouses and museums around the world, notably in New York City's ...

' ''

Life Underground ''Life Underground'' (2001) is a permanent public artwork created by American sculptor Tom Otterness for the New York City Subway's 14th Street/Eighth Avenue station, which serves the . It was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Aut ...

''. The January 1, 2017, opening of the

Second Avenue Subway The Second Avenue Subway (internally referred to as the IND Second Avenue Line by the MTA and abbreviated to SAS) is a New York City Subway line that runs under Second Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan. The first phase of this new line, ...

Phase 1 stations ( 72nd Street, 86th Street, and 96th Street as well as new renovation of Lexington Avenue–63rd Street) added permanent installations by

Vik Muniz Vik Muniz (; born 1961) is a Brazilian artist and photographer. Initially a sculptor, Muniz grew interested with the photographic representations of his work, eventually focusing completely on photography. Primarily working with unconventional ma ...

Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...

Sarah Sze Sarah Sze (; born 1969) is an American artist widely recognized for challenging the boundaries of painting, installation, and architecture. Sze's sculptural practice ranges from slight gestures discovered in hidden spaces to expansive installati ...

, and

Jean Shin Jean Shin (born 1971) is an American artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She is known for creating elaborate sculptures and site-specific installations using accumulated cast-off materials. Personal life Shin was born in Seoul, South Korea and moved ...

to the Arts & Design collection. Stations renovated as part of the Enhanced Station Initiative in 2017–2019 also received new or expanded artwork during their renovations. As of 2015, more than 100 projects were underway, including Ann Hamilton's artwork for the new Cortlandt Street station. Another notable work, ''Sky Reflector-Net'', was installed in 2014 in the then-new Fulton Center headhouse. It uses hundreds of aluminum mirrors to provide natural sunlight from a 53-foot

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History Open ...

to an underground area as much as four stories deep. This is the first intentional skylight in the New York City Subway system since the 1945 closure of the original City Hall station.See: * * File:Scarborough Train Station (2).jpg, ''Untitled with Sky'' at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

File:72 Street art vc.jpg, ''Perfect Strangers'' at 72nd Street File:GCTaasb1.jpg, ''As Above, So Below'' at

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

File:Atlantic barclays LINE.jpg, ''Hook, Line and Sinker'' at

Atlantic Avenue Atlantic Avenue may refer to: Highways * Atlantic Avenue (Boston) in Massachusetts * Atlantic Avenue (New York City) in Brooklyn and Queens, New York * Florida State Road 806 in Palm Beach County, locally known as Atlantic Avenue * Atlantic Avenue ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:MTA Arts and Design Metropolitan Transportation Authority 1985 establishments in New York (state) Art in New York City