Arts on the Line

Arts on the Line was a program devised to bring art into the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)'s subway stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arts on the Line was the first program of its kind in the United States and became the model for similar drives for art across the country. The first twenty artworks were completed in 1985 with a total cost of US$695,000, or one half of one percent of the total construction cost of the Red Line Northwest Extension, of which they were a part.

After the first 20 artworks were installed, Arts on the Line continued facilitating the installation of artwork in or around at least 12 more stations on the MBTA as well as undertaking a temporary art program for stations under renovation, known as Artstops.

In 1964, the MBTA was created as the successor to the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The purpose of the MBTA was to consolidate transit systems in greater Boston.

Before Arts on the Line was implemented, the MBTA did not have a comprehensive or formal arts program. The process for choosing station art was closed, with no public announcement or solicitation to local artists, creating a sort of resentment within the arts community. Artists that were chosen to install works in stations often had issues with contracts and contractors, and often had severe issues with just getting paid by the MBTA. Arts on the Line began with the planning of the Red Line Northwest Extension. four stations, Harvard, Porter, Davis, and Alewife, were created or remodeled as a part of this mass transit project. In 1977, The MBTA received a USD$45,000 grant from the Federal Government's Urban Mass Transportation Administration to create a program to install artworks into the new stations, and in 1978 the MBTA and the Cambridge Arts Council (CAC) joined in a partnership to reach this goal.

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