DART Green Line creates new wing of growing public art gallery

The December 6 opening of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Rail Green Line means more than just transportation from 15 new locations, it is the addition of 15 new pieces to the transit agency's acclaimed public art collection.

Just as the painter draws
from his palette of colors to paint on the canvas, the local station artist and
the design professionals draw from the palette of a community’s visions to
express those visions not on a canvas, but on a station. As you tour the new
Green Line, you’ll discover the latest installations to DART’s growing public
art collection – inspiring works in mosaic tile, steel, bronze, brick pavers,
glass and mixed-media. Best of all, admission is free.

DART’s Station Art &
Design Program was launched in 1988 to involve the community in the development
of the light rail system that opened its first lines in 1996. Now the Green
Line adds another new wing to the "DART Gallery."

For decades, transit
agencies have been incorporating public art into their facilities as a way of
creating inviting environments and a feeling of neighborhood ownership. But
it’s the depth of community involvement and the extent to which each station
reflects the surrounding neighborhood that sets DART’s program apart from many
others.

DART’s program approaches
each station project in two unique ways. First, neighborhood committees and
design artists start working with planners, architects and engineers at the
earliest stages of the station planning. Second, the neighborhood committees
not only provide input about the history, character and values that shape their
neighborhoods, they decide what themes they want to emerge in the station
designs. Because of this, the program does not merely create art for public
places; it creates the places themselves.

"The stations become
front doors to a community, creating a first impression or a sense of
place," says DART architect Steven Bourn. "That’s why the
neighborhood committees are so integral to the art and design process. We want
to make sure that the station reflects the community in which it exists; that
this is ‘their station.’"

Even the basic station
components – canopies, columns, pavers, windscreens, fencing and landscaping –
become a palette for art and design elements.

Each committee works within
a finite budget that can be used to upgrade standard finishes and materials,
integrate artwork or create site-specific art installations. Frequently columns
are clad in tile, masonry or stucco; platform pavers are used to create
mosaic-like patterns; or the landscaping may become the focus. Some committees
dedicate most of their budgets to signature art commissions.

Occasionally, the station
itself provides an opportunity for art. For example, on the Green Line’s aerial
stations, engineering and design were married in futuristic crescent-shaped
power poles that are as much sculptural as they are functional.

Although each station’s art
and design has many aspects, one element usually stands out as the signature
feature.

From the station artist’s
paintings, Pleasant Grove-based Dal-Tile created six stunning 9-foot diameter
medallions in mosaic tile for the platform of the Lake June Station that
celebrate pioneer-era farming and agricultural symbols. At Bachman Station, a
photographic image of a 1911 picnic at Bachman Lake is displayed on one side of
accordion-folded windscreens. On the opposite side, modern-day members of the
community are posed in the exact composition of the historic photo.

On the concourse level of
the elevated Inwood/Love Field Station, platform pavers create a maze in the
abstracted shape of a brain, representing the path to knowledge. At Hatcher
Station to the southeast, a "community quilt" mural covers a screen
wall with original drawings by neighborhood schoolchildren depicting the area’s
history.

At night, a boldly-colored
spiraling sculpture at the entrance of the North Carrollton/Frankford Station
is illuminated like a beacon, while the columns of the Burbank Station glow as
colored lights shine through perforated metal.