Community art back in elevators at 181st Street and 190th Street A-train stops
For the past several years, four framed art posters have hung at each of the six giant elevators at the 181st Street and 190th Street A-train station stops. However, it was only earlier last year that the MTA finalized an agreement to allow one out of every four posters in each of the elevators to be a community artwork. The story behind that agreement reveals a great deal about both city bureaucracy and community organizing, and what it can take to join those two, often opposing, forces together.
"The Uptown Local" by Theodore Zirnite
Ten years ago, commuters at the 181st Street stop who took a ride on Operator Bruce Renfroe’s elevator weren’t looking at art posters; they were experiencing a moving community collage. Cut-out pictures of jazz artists; puppies and kittens; and family photos contributed by community members livened up the metallic walls of Renfroe’s elevator, who also played jazz music during his shifts.
“He was wonderfully pleasant and just delightful to say ‘hello’ to,” said Caroline L. Brown, a Washington Heights real estate broker who recalled that Renfroe even had a place in the elevator to collect canned food for the homeless.
Renfroe’s idea was so popular it even caught on with other elevator operators at the 181st Street and 190th Street stops. They also transformed their work spaces into kitschy, warm community collage art spaces that gave their passengers something to talk – and smile – about.
“It was a center of communication,” said Brown, who felt that the decorated elevators strengthened community bonds. “As far as I was concerned, everyone loved it.”
But all that disappeared in 2001 after the MTA had the pictures removed, deeming them a fire hazard. Community members became upset.
“Isn’t life in this city impersonal enough?” asked one letter to the MTA. “Why dismantle this little island of humanity, something that the majority of people in this community love and enjoy, because of one Grinch?”
A community group called the “Washington Heights Quality of Life Committee” (WHQLC) was soon formed in response to the pictures’ removal. WHQLC not only collected over 3000 signatures by those who wanted the pictures back, but also held a demonstration to voice their resentment.
According to Rosa Naparstek, one of the committee’s organizers, what could have been another tale of government bureaucrats ignoring the community turned into something quite different when the MTA’s then-president Laurence Reuter agreed to speak with organizers.
“We were all impressed by the willingness of the President and his staff to meet with us,” said Naparstek. “They really took us seriously.”
Meanwhile, Naparstek and other former WHQLC members had formed a nonprofit arts organization called Artists Unite, which was created to provide support for artists in the Washington Heights and Inwood communities.
While the community collages were not allowed back, Artists Unite and the MTA developed an alternate plan: each of the six elevators at the 181st Street and 190th Street subway stops would exhibit four artwork posters. Three of the works would come from a collection owned by Arts for Transit, the MTA’s own program for selecting subway art. One work, however, chosen by Artists Unite, would be created by a community artist.
“We basically responded to the community as a whole and put together a deal that best met their needs,” said MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz.
Stumbling blocks, however, pushed the debut of a community artwork to 2009.
“Delays were on both sides,” said Naparstek, citing not only MTA bureaucracy and procedures, but the need for Artists Unite to incorporate itself and attain nonprofit status in order to facilitate the project.
"Met Curves" by Karen Greene
In 2008, Artists Unite received more than 160 submissions after holding a contest to find suitable community artwork for the elevators. After six works were chosen, a finalized contract was signed between Artists Unite and the MTA and finally, after all the stops and starts, community artwork had returned to the elevators.
Reactions to the art posters have been mixed. Some of the community artists whose work now hangs in the elevators say they are happy about the positive feedback they have received from community members, but they miss the collages.
“The collage photographs were so much more personal than anything we can put in that elevator and unfortunately, that can’t be recreated,” said Anthony Gonzalez, whose “The George Washington Bridge Under A Gibbous Moon” is currently on display.
"The George Washington Bridge Under a Gibbous Moon" by Anthony Gonzalez
However, Naparstek sees the current artwork as a symbol for what can happen when a government organization and the community can work together.
“It’s a new chapter, and we find it exciting.” said Naparstek, who hopes that the MTA will not only extend the one-year pilot program, but that eventually all the artwork on display at the elevators will be community creations. “It’s not ideal for everyone but it works.”
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