NEW YORK CITY – In September 2022, Amtrak unveiled its second series of installations at New York Penn Station for “Art at Amtrak,” a year-round public art initiative that brings a variety of visual works to New York Penn Station and provides a creative platform for New York and New Jersey artists. Building upon the highly successful public art program at neighboring Moynihan Train Hall, the rotating temporary installations commissioned for Art at Amtrak further enliven the hub that serves as the front door to New York City.
Multidisciplinary artist and educator Dennis RedMoon Darkeem created Patchwork Travelers, which draws colors, patterns and icons such as totems, earth mounds and the medicine wheel from his dual heritage as an Indigenous and African American into an expansive, visually rich work.
Ghost of a Dream (Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom) installed Aligned by the Sun (Connections), a site-specific new work in their Aligned by the Sun project, for which they asked artists around the world to capture and submit short videos of the sun. Exhibited in the concourse, a location from which one can travel anywhere, Aligned by the Sun (Connections) takes stills from these 223 videos and connects the images via the horizon line to create a continuous landscape that surrounds the departure hall and places viewers metaphorically in the center of the planet.
“Art at Amtrak continues to advance our commitment to ensuring all travelers have a modern, inspiring, safe and accessible experience to the cultural capital of the world,” said Sharon Tepper, Amtrak director, planning and development, New York Penn Station. “In its first few months, this initiative has made Penn Station a site for contemporary art that engages visitors from around the world, and we look forward to seeing the station retransformed.”
Posted October 10, 2022.
Amtrak established the Great American Stations Project in 2006 to educate communities on the benefits of redeveloping train stations, offer tools to community leaders to preserve their stations, and provide the appropriate Amtrak resources.
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