THE CHANGING FACE OF SOHO

1988
ARTMAKERS COLLECTIVE, KRISTIN REED, project director

Broadway-Lafayette subway station, Manhattan, NY
with Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Creative Stations (Arts for Transit) program

The Changing Face of Soho – a multi-media subway station installation – addressed the developing nature of this downtown Manhattan neighborhood. Nineteen professional artists worked on the project.

MURAL
8’ x 32’, acrylic on plywood
Photos © Eva Cockcroft

The painted mural chronicles the people, activities and architecture of downtown Manhattan – Soho, Little Italy, and Lower Broadway. 

Artists: Janet Braun-Reinitz (architecture), Eva Cockcroft (designer/lead artist, homeless man, bicycle rider, woman searching through clothing), Catharina Cosin (street furniture, storekeepers, sweat shop), Camille Perrottet (school boys, messenger), Francesco Santinelli (café, playground, Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral)

CERAMIC MURAL
9’ x 11’, ceramic on concrete
Photo © Thérèse Bimka

The ceramic mural wittily describes the plight of an artist who again and again loses her living and working quarters in Soho to commercial expansion.

Artists: Thérèse Bimka (designer/lead artist), Diana Bursztyn, Karin Batten, Myra Melamed, Camille Perrottet, Nina Talbot

NICHE PIECES
9 panels, 4’ x 8’, mixed media
Photos © individual artists

A jury representative of local arts and ethnic groups chose the nine artists who created the panels for the station’s nine niches. The artists worked in their chosen disciplines: painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, and computer design.

Artists: Rachael Romero, Nina Kuo, Elizabeth Grajeles, Pamela Shoemaker, Suellen Johnson, Edward Herman, Ginger Legato, Mimi Smith, Amir Bey

Rachael Romero, Richard and His Father, painting, (Niche 1)

Nina Kuo, Politeness in Poverty, photo mural (Niche 3)

Pamela Shoemaker, title unknown, low relief (Niche 4)

Suellen Johnson, title unknown, photograph (Niche 5)

Edward Herman, Underground Culture, fiberglass relief (Niche 6)

Ginger Legato, collaged terra cotta clay slabs (Niche 7)

Mimi Smith, Error Messages, hand painted acrylic on photostats of 3 drawings 27” x 36” (Niche 8)

Proposed (left) and final versions of Amir Bey, Good for One Fare, plaster-filled molds of friends’ and colleagues’ faces (Niche 9)