Sappi Ideas that Matter - Book 7

North America
Art in Transit
The Santa Fe Art Institute
Believing that art is not a luxury but a necessity in
society, and appalled by the lack of exposure to
art experienced by lower-income members of the
community, a creative team from Minelli Inc in Boston
developed Art in Transit for the Santa Fe Art Institute.
But why Santa Fe? Noel Cunningham explains
that Santa Fe, recently designated as the first
UNESCO American World Creative City, experiences
a unique paradox.
With astounding cultural diversity, a vibrant artists’
community, a huge art market (the second largest in the
US) and one of the most beautiful natural settings in the
world, it is also a city of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ where a
large proportion of the inhabitants live below the poverty
line and see little of the art that makes Santa Fe so
culturally rich.
Making use of brief informative sentences in both
English and Spanish, placed alongside photographs
of work created by artists-in-residence at the Santa Fe
Art Institute, travellers experience the artwork without
distracting design elements, and as closely as possible
to how it would be viewed in a gallery or museum.
Backed by press releases, media exposure and
postcards featuring the art seen on the buses for riders
to take home with them, the campaign was both highly
visible and highly successful; the unexpectedness of art
covering an entire bus in their everyday landscape has
offered the public a true moment of surprise for those
who use and interact with the transit system.
114
In an attempt to enrich and excite these people with the
possibilities of art, Art in Transit presents artwork in the
simplest way possible, adorning the public transport
that these people use everyday.