Bus Shelter Mural Program

Mural by Mauricio Robalino and North City Elementary students
Located at 15th Ave. N & N 180th St. in Shoreline

"Murals are about people having an effect on their cities, taking responsibility for their visual and physical environment, leaving records of their lives and concerns, and in the process transforming neighborhoods, reducing vandalism and graffiti and creating new artists out of the youth of our communities."

-Glenna Boltuch Avila, Former Director, City Wide Mural Project, Los Angeles

What is the Bus Shelter Mural Program?

In 1989, Metro started a unique program to involve youth and other members of the community in designing and painting bus shelter murals. Metro contributes panels and paint, and members of the community donate their artistic talent to create murals for Metro bus shelters.

Since that time, over 700 murals have been installed in Metro bus shelters. Murals have been created by volunteers of all ages: students, scout troops, senior citizens, community groups and individual artists. Their paintings have become a source of community pride, all the while helping to deter graffiti and improving the appearance of the bus shelters. Today the Metro Bus Shelter Mural Program is one of the largest, ongoing community-based public art programs of its kind. It is truly a unique folk art collection with a wide variety of styles and themes.

While volunteers create the majority of the murals, Metro does fund a few artist commissions each year for bus shelter artworks. Announcements about these opportunities are published by the King County Public Art Program. For more information on artist opportunities refer to the Cultural Development Authority of King County web site.

To see some examples of bus shelter murals, take a tour through our on-line gallery or 5-minute 2002 Highlights slide show [PowerPoint].

Metro Transit commissioned a youth art group to paint a transit related mural.

• Watch this video clip (Windows Media) Length: 1:00 [September 2003]
• Watch this video clip (Real Media) Length: 1:00 [September 2003]

For more information

If you or your group would like to volunteer to paint a mural, visit our other web pages for more information about the Bus Shelter Mural Project. If you have questions regarding the Bus Shelter Mural Program or commissioned artworks for bus shelters, please call Dale Cummings, Program Manager and Commissioned Artwork Coordinator at 206-684-1524. Questions or comments can also be sent via e-mail to BusStop.Murals@kingcounty.gov