MTA Underground Art Gallery

Understanding How Transit Infrastructure and Time Shape Public Art Across the MTA

Trusting Bunny
Amanda Huang, Jinglin Xu, Karam Hejazin

2026-03-05

The Data

The Dataset

• 381 Artworks across the NY MTA system
• Joined mta_art + station_lines
• Source: NY State Open Data Portal

Key Questions

1. Does line complexity → artist diversity?
2. How have materials shifted since 1980?

Scope

• 4 Agencies: NYCT, LIRR, Metro-North, SIR
• Timeline: 1980 – 2023

Question 1 - Complexity vs. Diversity

Does the complexity of a station (number of lines) drive higher artist diversity?

Q1.1

• Complexity Boosts Variety: Stations with more lines show slightly higher diversity
• Scale Imbalance: The system is dominated by 1–2 line stations

Q1.2

• Agency Gap: Commuter lines → low complexity, flat diversity
• Subway Centric: This relationship is exclusive to NYCT
• Urban vs. Suburban: Urban hubs diverse; suburban lines uniform

Question 2 - Materials vs Time

Are certain art materials correlated with time periods?

Q2.1

• Glass/Mosaic dominates, especially from the 1990s–2010s, peaking around 2010
• Metal and Ceramics appears consistently across decades but at much lower counts
• Other materials are rare, with only occasional installations in earlier decades

Q2.2

• NYCT dominates most artwork categories, especially glass/mosaic, ceramic, and metal across decades.
• Artwork production peaks around the 1990s–2000s, with noticeable declines in later decades.
• Other agencies contribute fewer artworks, showing smaller and more stable trends over time.

Thanks!