Client: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Location: Cambridge, MA, United States
Completion date: 1985
Project Team
Other
Moira Sina
Art Consultant
Cambridge Arts Council
Overview
End of the Red Line is located at Alewife (MBTA station), in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Approximately 800 red neon tubes are suspended from a 320 feet (98 m) long section of the station ceiling, directly above the outbound train tracks. The tubes sway gently as the trains enter and dispatch.
Goals
A key criteria of this installation was to incorporate the color red as reference to this particular MBTA line. That was the easy part. More difficult was to enhance the sense of place and motion while providing a piece that could endure the conditions in the station. We accomplished this through unique connectors and our single electrode approach, allowing the tubes to be mounted securely yet sway gently in response to the trains.
Process
As a highly visible public art project, this required acceptance by many people and groups. The process involved the Cambridge Arts Council, MBTA representatives, community development representatives, members of local historical societies, local residents and business representatives and an arts administrator.
Additional Information
Arts on the Line was a program devised to bring art into the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)'s subway stations. It was the first program of its kind in the United States and became the model for similar drives for art across the country.