The MTA has teamed with a nonprofit serving people with autism, Down syndrome and other special needs to display their work inside one-time newsstands.
Jun 18 5:06pm EDT
What many New Yorkers see as an architectural eyesore is, to Christopher Chronopoulos, artistic inspiration.
The 37-year-old Manhattan man, who lives across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, can now see his colorful drawing of the notorious transit hub in a new subway art installation highlighting the works of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“I see it outside my window and I always admire it,” said Chronopoulos, who has a learning disability. “So to put this in art form is important for me to show it off.”
As part of the MTA’s efforts to find new uses for former retail spaces in the subway, the agency teamed with YAI — a nonprofit providing services and housing to people with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities — to display murals inside one-time newsstands at the Jay Street-MetroTech station in Downtown Brooklyn.
Featuring familiar city scenes that include the Brooklyn Bridge, a yellow taxi and subway platforms, the pieces are designed to brighten one-time subway storefronts that have fallen out of use due to the shrinking newsstand business.
“There used to be hundreds of newsstands, old-time newsstands, in the subway,” said David Florio, the MTA’s chief real estate transactions and operations officer. “With the passage of time and the advent of technology, not so much.”
The transit agency announced plans in 2023 to make 30 former subway retail spaces available, rent-free, to artists and nonprofit organizations. Of the 203 retail spaces in the subway, 63 are currently leased, according to the MTA, with another 26 under construction.
YAI — which offers services to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in New York, New Jersey and California — in December pitched a proposal to showcase the works from its YAI Arts studio.
“The arts program is a small part of the organization, but YAI Arts is a beautiful part of the organization,” said Mallory Perry, who oversees the studio.
Perry said the collaboration with the MTA took shape over several months.
“It’s incredible to see the artists’ work in the subway,” she added. “All the artists are lifelong New Yorkers, they’re the people that take that transportation every single day and to be able to have their artwork in these spaces is so beautiful and important.
“It’s kind of like an ode to their city.”
Lauren McArthur, who has autism, contributed a drawing of her dog, Rosie, for a mural titled “City Critters.”
“They said she was going to be a 6-lb. Chihuahua, but she’s a 20-lb dachshund mix,” she said of the pooch, who is wearing a multicolored harness and a dog tag with her name. “We think.”
Rosie appears alongside dogs, cats and even a pigeon in a mural featuring the artists’ pets.
McArthur drew another color-pencil image for the subway display that shows the New York Liberty celebrating their 2024 WNBA championship as forward Jonquel Jones hoists the Finals MVP trophy.
“It’s really great and really special,” said McArthur, who wore a Liberty T-shirt to the unveiling of the murals.
Jimmy Tucker, 33, used markers and colored pencils to create a cityscape featuring different types of city architecture and a woman holding a flower.
“It is supposed to represent how the city can be chaotic sometimes,” he said. “But there’s always beauty in it, because New York City is beautiful.”
MTA officials said similar art installations are planned for other former retail spaces throughout the subway system, with more set to open this summer. Among those already in use are a one-time newsstand at the Grand Army Plaza station in Brooklyn that now houses the whimsical Rex’s Dino Store, billed as a “bodega for dinosaurs.”
Currently available units are on the southbound platform of the 23rd Street stop along the Lexington Avenue line, at the Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike station in Queens, at the Sterling Street stop in Brooklyn and in a corridor at the 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Mira Atherton, a senior manager of strategic partnerships and sustainability at the MTA, said the collaboration with YAI made sense on multiple levels.
“They have a fantastic mission,” she said. “They wanted to display many artists’ works, they were super on top of it.”
McArthur, an artist with two pieces in the display, said she’s especially eager to show off the piece starring her dog.
“She’s going to love to see herself on the walls,” she said.
The above article is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Original article can be found at: Art Goes Underground at Former Subway Storefronts in Murals From New Yorkers With Disabilities