Art In Transit
February 28, 2018
If you ride the Broad Street Line, it’s safe to say you’re familiar with the Spring Garden Station on the Broad Street Line. But it’s easy to pass through a place each day (or a few times a month) and not appreciate all of the details, and even, artwork.
The Spring Garden Station on the Broad Street Line is part of SEPTA’s Art in Transit program. The Federal Transit Administration explains the Art in Transit program as the following:
Left to their own devices or habits, engineers tend to design rather sterile structures to satisfy the functional needs of the project. Safety and cost considerations control the designers in satisfying a performance specification… In recent years there has been increased interest in adding art work to existing transit systems; e.g., displays on tunnel walls. This application is known as Arts-in-Transit.
While you may have noticed that the Spring Garden Station as bustling (it’s the seventh busiest station on the Broad Street Line, with 10,000 riders a day), you may know that it is an express station with four tracks and two island platforms, but have you slowed down to take in the art?
Because the Spring Garden Station on the Broad Street Line is home to Walking on Sunshine, a 2011 installation by mixed media artist Margery Amdur.
These abstract visual landscapes utilize a wide range of painting styles, imagery, and materials to stimulate the imagination and expand the viewers' understanding of their individual location in time and place. Next time you’re there, passing through, or waiting for other passengers to board the train so you can continue your journey north or south, take notice of the sunflowers, appreciate the daffodils, muse over the pictorial floor painting.
Art is subjective, and its meanings are different to for each person. What does Walking on Sunshine mean to you?
