Art and Poetry Enhance Fargo Transit

Collaboration between the Fargo-Moorhead's Metropolitan Area Transit and North Dakota State University is bringing art and poetry to transit riders.

The Art in Transit project put reproductions of student artwork in 44 bus shelters around the city. A similar effort, called Poetry on Wheels, put student-written poetry into transit buses.

The ideas struck Tom Riley, dean and professor of arts, humanities and social sciences, as he was riding a MAT bus to the dedication of NDSU's downtown campus last fall.

"We thought it would sure be great to involve the art students in transit," Mike Simonson, transit planner for the city of Fargo, recalls. "The idea went to the NDSU Student Art Society and they ran with it."

Student art for the bus shelters had to meet guidelines for bus and bench advertising and guidelines spelled out in the Americans with Disabilities Act. A panel from NDSU judged the pieces. Simonson says the student-created art may return to bus shelters this fall and winter.

Poetry on Wheels featured poetry by Tri-College University creative writing students and faculty, including David Martinson, lecturer in English; Cindy Nichols, senior lecturer in English; and NDSU creative writing students.

"This is a way to get poetry out of the classroom and into the community," Nichols says. "This is a form of publication for faculty and students. It's a specific audience to write for and it's a lesson in paying attention to your audience."

Because of limited space and concerns over visibility, most of the poems on display were known as "short-short" poems, which are very brief and condensed but lyrical and vary in content and form. They were featured in the two MAT buses that serve the NDSU main campus and the downtown campus and in one NDSU circulator bus.

Simonson says the effort has four main benefits.

• It strengthens the bond between NDSU and the city.
• It creates more public art.
• Students get exposure for their art.
• It brings positive public attention for transit in the city.

"This can't help but be a win-win situation all the way around," he says. For more information about the programs, contact Simonson at msimonson@matbus.com .