Cultural Community Pens Letter to MBTA

MBTA photo by Alex Lau

While the future of the entire embattled Green Line Extension seems uncertain, a coalition of artists, cultural leaders, and municipal and political supporters are calling on the MBTA to address stalled funding for its entire public art program.

While the agency has reportedly backtracked on a decision to cancel eight public art commissions for the Green Line Extension, the local cultural community is now asking the MBTA to restore funding to art projects for the Chelsea Silver Line, Blue Hill Avenue, and Wollaston Stations, which are on hold.

Earlier this week, the group sent a letter to the MBTA’s interim general manager Frank DePaola and secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack.

“Art in MBTA stations is a powerful conduit to the communities that these stations represent and serve,” says the letter. “Moreover, it is genuinely integral both to the experiences of traveling through our cities and to the human interaction that the MBTA’s customers share each day.”

Signers include 17 artists, as well as Boston’s chief of arts and culture Julie Burros, Boston Children’s Museum president Carole Charnow, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum director Anne Hawley, Somerville Arts Council executive director Gregory Jenkins, Institute of Contemporary Art director Jill Medvedow, and many others.

The full letter can be read at mass-creative.org/mbtaletter. An accompanying petition can be seen and signed at mass-creative.org/mbtapetititon.