The Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) converted the plaza of its downtown Intermodal Transportation Center into a gigantic canvas for a student sidewalk art celebration on Oct. 20 that was enjoyed by bus and train commuters, parents and community officials.
Forty students from grades K through high school were selected to represent Fort Worth Independent School District for the Lights On! Afterschool Sidewalk Art Celebration. Lights On! is a national celebration to call attention to the importance of after school programs for America's children, families and communities.
The event also kicked off The T's 2011- 2012 Expressions That Move You Art Contest for students who participate in the Fort Worth After School program.
The T's contest calls for artwork depicting a theme on what The T, public transportation, the city of Fort Worth, or the environment means to the entrant. The artwork of 10 winners will be showcased on the exterior of The T's buses next summer.
"I've seen some really wonderful art on our plaza here today," said T President Dick Ruddell in announcing The T's contest. "Use your talents to draw what you imagine when you think of public transportation, and you could become one of The T's winners with a giant blow up of your art on one of our buses traveling all over the city for everyone to see," said Ruddell.
The event also included student entertainers, proclamations from the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, and remarks from community leaders and officials, including Texas State Representative Marc Veasey who personally visited with students as they turned after-school drawings into sidewalk chalk creations.
The T's Expressions That Move You art contest won Special Event first place and Grand Prize among transit agencies with 5 to 9 million passenger trips in the 2011 AdWheel awards of the American Public Transportation Association.
