What would you call your bus line that leads your city to the future?
In celebration of Columbus’ 200th birthday, COTA has partnered with FINDING TIME: Columbus Public Art 2012 to install “The Bus to the Future” public art project.
The two project artists, Henrik Mayer and Martin Keil with REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT in Germany, visited Columbus in March and met with several community members and leaders posing the question “What would you call your bus line that leads your city to the future?”
Their engagement included extensive bus travel throughout central Ohio, half-day workshop with COTA employees and Columbus residents, one-on-one interviews with community members and more. Results of the multi-faceted study will be posted as special signs at bus stops in and around the downtown area, posters in various downtown passenger shelters and placards on 80 buses circulating through COTA’s transit system. The community has an opportunity to contribute to the public art project by submitting suggestions for names of bus lines “to the future” on the Finding Time Facebook page. The artwork will be on display from the end of May until September 2012 in support of 200Columbus’ year-long celebration of Columbus’ bicentennial.
REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT (RG), whose meaning in German ranges from “Cleaning Service” to “Purification Society”, works between art and social reality. RG initiates projects that generate new relationships between diverse individuals, businesses and community groups.
The 13 Columbus art projects of FINDING TIME will be located in public spaces such as plazas, parks and streets in a 360-acre area surrounding the Ohio Statehouse and along the riverfront—transforming the downtown area and the city “on wheels” into an open-air gallery. The innovative and surprising public art, accessible to all, will create memorable experiences for Downtown workers, residents and visitors.
Consider joining the artists for a special bike tour examining their work on Saturday, May 26. They will be meeting participants at 10 a.m. at Café Brioso, 14 E. Gay St., Columbus, Ohio 43215.
FINDING TIME project partners commissioned the temporary site-responsive public artworks by international, national and local artists to reflect the broad range of contemporary public art in multiple forms and media. More than 50 artists will create the works over the course of Columbus’ bicentennial year. The artists are creating pieces with the goal of inspiring the community to think about their city in relationship to time, chronology of life and the notion of temporary and permanent.
Visit www.ColumbusPublicArt.com or www.cota.com for more information.
