Would seeing some sculpture ease your morning commute? New Yorkers may soon find out as the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) it due to adorn 31 subway stations in all five boroughs with new works of art as part of a five-year, $27bn improvement project. Although no artists or projects have yet been announced, MTA Arts and Design, which is overseeing the art projects, put out an open call for submissions for five stations on the N and Q lines in Queens. The artists awarded with a commission will be given around $150,000 to realise the work and will be paid a fee of 20% of the final cost of the project. Twenty-four of the stations are outside Manhattan and some, like those on the G line in Brooklyn, cut through neighbourhoods whose populations have swelled in recent years. Overall subway ridership is at its highest levels since 1948: nearly 1.8bn trips were taken on the subway last year. So the NYC subway system could soon become the world’s most visited gallery.
