What can art do for your BART stations?
For the first time in 40 years, BART is planning an overhaul of its stations, which includes funding for art and design (you might recall those glass canopies we showed you a few weeks go). To make sure that 2 percent of the funding is dedicated to art in your BART station, SubArt, an organization that promotes large-scale art projects in Bay Area transit stations, is asking people to sign a petition to show their support.
We’ve found that lots of artists around the world love to re-imagine their transit stations in whimsical, inspiring ways, like this Swedish artist’s rendering of a fantastical subway station above. The Swedes also win in our minds with this hair-blowing subway ad. Less realistic but so much more fun, here’s how one designer in Holland imagines being able to slide down into the station.
The BART board votes on the budget on June 25. You can find SubArt’s petition here.
Photo by Alexander Dragunov
That’s no rendering, that’s a photo of the T-Centralen station in Stockholm.
Many of the Stockholm stations are showcases for public art:
http://www.visualnews.com/2011/02/12/the-stockholm-subway-takes-art-underground/
SubArt is just trying to weasel its way into the planning process — unnecessarily. They are a sketchy organization, led by a conniving president. BART can do better without them.