Metro's Art-filled Stations Enliven the Transportation Experience
Richard Wyatt ’78 (B.A. Art) and May Sun ’76 (B.A. Art)
KCET features artists working with L.A. Metro, including two alumni who created a public art installation together for Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles.
"At the Hollywood/Vine Station on the Metro Red Line, art pops out of the tile walls. Late artist Gilbert "Magu" Lujan's "Hooray for Hollywood" (1999) presents colorful, whimsical images of the neighborhood that immediately catch the eye when riding escalators up to the street level. At the Reseda Boulevard Orange Line stop, Jody Zellen's "Now and Then" (2005) includes a text-centric piece that's installed on the ground. If you're running to catch your bus, you'll miss it. If you're sitting around waiting for the next ride, you might try to figure out the message in the art.
For decades, Los Angeles' Metro has essentially been building a museum that runs along the rails and busways connecting the county. It's a collection spread out from Azusa to East L.A., Norwalk to Hawthorne, downtown to Long Beach, North Hollywood to Chatsworth. As Metro expands, so will the works of public art it houses. One-half of a percent of station construction costs go towards the art that's built into them. They are community-centric pieces. Artists are selected by a panel of locals and, sometimes, the artists incorporate elements of the neighborhood's history into their project.
"One of the things that I think is most exciting about our program is that there is such a diversity of artists," says Maya Emsden, who heads the Creative Services group at Metro, "and part of that is because each panel is a different panel, so they bring a different perspective and then artists are working in so many wild ways.""— Liz Ohanesian, August 17, 2016
Read the full article at the KCET website.