50 SF Muni Buses Receive Art Makeovers

Fall is generally known as a time for change – the leaves, pumpkin coffee, sweaters…and did you see the new buses!? Across the city, 50 Muni buses have been transformed into moving art galleries. All the interior panels of these buses have had their advertising temporarily removed and replaced with artwork from locally selected artists.

Thanks to a partnership between non-profit San Francisco Beautiful and the Municipal Transportation Agency, these new buses have become a reality.

Muni Art is SF Beautiful’s first installment of the Place Art program, which curates public spaces through a voting selection process. The goals of the program are to promote local artists, engage the public, and enhance the daily commute for those 700,000 daily riders who live and do business in San Francisco.

The five-month long contest began back in May and received more than 130 submissions from talented Bay Area artists. They were given the purposely broad direction that the artwork should “capture the spirit of San Francisco.” All artwork was reviewed by a committee of seven members from the arts community, then narrowed down to 10 finalists. From there public voting began, resulting in the five selected winners for this project.

See below for the winning submission and two of our favorite examples from the top five selected. Visit the website to see all the winners.

1st Place - Ariel Dunitz-Johnson

1st Place – Ariel Dunitz-Johnson

4th Place - Andria Lo

4th Place – Andria Lo

5th Place - Todd Berman

5th Place – Todd Berman

Written by Carlos Olin Montalvo

Follow me @carlosolin