1/2/2015

[New York's 'Underground Museum' Pleases Passersby] - [VOA - Voice of America English News]

01/28/2015

New York's 'Underground Museum' Pleases

Passersby
Millions of New Yorkers and visitors ride the citys subway and other trains each day. The public transportation
system offers more than just a trip, however. It also has one of the most extensive public art collections in the
world, with much of it under city streets.
Some people call it New Yorks underground art museum. It includes more than 250 works of art. They are
meant to brighten everyone's ride around the city.
There is the huge painting of the night sky on the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. New Yorkers have been
looking up at that artwork for 100 years.
In the nearby Grand Central Market, you can find a large, crystal light fixture. The ice-like stones hang on the
chandeliers many branches, making the piece look like an upside-down olive tree. Sculptor Donald Lipski
completed the work in 1988.
Other artists include new ones and the long-famous: Roy Lichtensteins pop art porcelain enamel mural is found
at Times Square. Sol Lewitts intensely colored Whirls and Twirls is at Columbus Circle.
Sandra Bloodworth directs the Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys arts program, which began in 1985.
But actually, it really began much earlier. When the subway was founded in 1904, a percentage, if you will, of
money was set aside to create a special ornamentation within the system, in order to make the place this very
special place that people would want to use.
For the past 30 years, artists have been asked to make works that relate to city life or to the neighborhood
around a train station. There are coastal scenes at stations near the Atlantic Ocean. Native plants and flowers
can be found in a garden scene in Brooklyn.
Wildlife mosaics greet visitors arriving at the subway station next to the American Museum of Natural History.
Sculptor Tom Otterness created the small, rounded, metal creatures that populate another station.
At Times Square, Jane Dicksons mosaics of The Revelers, suggest New Years Eve celebrants. Rider Tonya
Pierre praises the underground art.
When Im stressed, I look at the subway art. I love the colors. Where I live, they have a mosaic of a man and a
woman, like, floating across the water, and its beautiful. Its just beautiful to have art everywhere.
Nearby is Alejandra Acosta, a visitor from Colombia. She stopped to take a picture of a colorful glass mosaic
mural by the former artist Jacob Lawrence.
I think its nice when you see these kinds of things that catch your eye when youre walking in spaces like the
subway stations that seem a little bit dull. They don't have a lot of decoration.
The new Fulton Center train station connects nine major subway lines. A massive work by James Carpenter sits
atop the center. Sandra Bloodworth calls it the Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys crowning piece of art.
Together theyve created this work of art that brings light into the station. As Jamie Carpenter says, the sky is
folded onto the sky reflector and down onto the people as they travel through the station.
Even on cloudy winter days, the piece brings life into the dark passages. The same could be said, in fact, about
all the works in New Yorks underground art museum.
Im Caty Weaver.
This report was based on a story from VOAs Carolyn Weaver. Caty Weaver wrote it for VOA Learning English.
George Grow was the editor.
http://learningenglish.voanews.com/articleprintview/2615915.html

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1/2/2015

[New York's 'Underground Museum' Pleases Passersby] - [VOA - Voice of America English News]

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Words in This Story

subway n. a system of underground trains in a city
ceiling n. the inside surface at the top of a room
chandelier n. a large, decorated light that hangs from a ceiling and has branches for holding many light bulbs
or candles
mural n. a usually large painting that is done directly on the surface of a wall
scene n. a view or sight that looks like a picture
mosaic n. a decoration on a surface made by pressing small pieces of colored glass or stone into a soft
material that then hardens to make pictures or patterns
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section below.

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