Special Art Design Features Six Historic Individuals on RTA Bus Shelters

Cleveland, OH – The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) along with the Union Miles Development Corporation (UMDC) collaborated on a project to feature six local and national historic individuals on bus shelter locations within the GCRTA Union-Miles service area.

UMDC led a community-wide project to identify the famous leaders to place on the bus shelters, and the artwork of those six historical individuals can be seen at the following bus shelter locations:

• Stephanie Tubbs-Jones:  MLK Drive at Avon Avenue Northbound shelter 
• Carl & Louis Stokes:  E.131 St. at Glendale Avenue Northbound shelter 
• Fred Hampton: Miles Avenue at E.131 St. Westbound shelter
• Harriet Tubman: E.131 St. at Harvard Avenue Northbound shelter 
• Malcolm X:  E.131 St. at Harvard Avenue Southbound shelter 
• Barack Obama: E.131 St. at Miles Avenue Southbound shelter

The genesis of this project came from what was discussed during a series of community forums held by the UMDC. “Many of the people who attended depend on public transportation, and they stated how they would like to see something aesthetically pleasing while waiting at their bus stop,” said UMDC Executive Director, Roshawn Sample. “Taking their feedback into consideration, we reached out to GCRTA to see how we could get artwork/wraps on a few bus stops within our neighborhood.”

“Being able to accommodate this request from UMDC was something we could handle through GCRTA’s Community Partner Investment Program,” said Mandy Metcalf, GCRTA Senior Planner, Programming & Planning.  “GCRTA can apply custom art to shelter glass with an adhesive vinyl wrap that creates a visually enhanced transit waiting environment for riders.”

“The shelter artwork wraps were installed during the week of June 12th and can be seen by riders on GCRTA’s #15 Union-Harvard, #19 Broadway, and #48 East 131st bus lines,” said Maribeth Feke, GCRTA Director of Programming & Planning. “The art for each of the bus shelter wraps was created by well-known artist, Mr. Soul.” Both the GCRTA and UMDC are extremely excited and pleased with the artwork provided by Mr. Soul.

“A project of this kind helps to build social capital and community investment while creating a branding opportunity for community members to feel pride in their neighborhood, and improve the quality of life,” said Director Sample. “We will be adding more artwork to bus stops throughout the neighborhood.”