Arts in Transit

UrbanArts held a state-wide competition that solicited works of either poetry or prose that would eventually be permanently inscribed on granite in each of the nine stations.

[8] Along the El (sometimes also The Artist’s Lens: A Focus on Relocation) was a documentary photography project completed between 1985 and 1987, proposed to UrbanArts by Linda Swartz.

The project paired five professional photographers with seven high school students from Hubert H. Humphrey Occupational Resource Center in Roxbury to document the architecture, the people, and the general feeling of the “El” before it was demolished.

The five photographers were Linda Swartz, project director, David Akiba, Lou Jones, Jack Lueders-Booth, and Melissa Shook.

Working together with Roxbury Community College, UrbanArts let current students and Southwest Corridor residents learn how to collect oral histories.

The following is a list of the ten artworks created for Arts in Transit, all installed in stations along the Southwest Corridor of the Orange Line.