NEW YORK—At ArtInfo, we see a lot of art collections, and we meet a lot of collectors, some of which are happy to show off their collections, while others prefer to collect in privacy.

But then there is the sort of collection that is deliberately public, such as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Arts for Transit collection, available to anyone traveling around New York City by subway (or by the Long Island Rail Road or Metro North).

There are sculptures, mosaics, stained-glass windows, ceramic plaques, furniture, canopies and staircases in the collection. And there are other assortments, as well, that you could say “defy categorization,” such as Mary Miss’ wonderfully intriguing red enamel steel pieces that spread throughout the 14th Street-Union Square station and draw attention to its structure and history.

Behind the Installations

The MTA collection was initiated in 1985 and is paid for on a percent-for-art basis (1 percent of all station renovation funds go toward the commissioning of artwork).

It comprises more than 160 completed pieces, with another 50 or so in the works, and was recently celebrated in the lovely Monacelli Press book, Along the Way, by William Ayres of the Long Island Museum, and Sandra Bloodworth, the director of the collection.

I recently spoke to Bloodworth and it quickly became obvious that she is quite the reverse of the bureaucrat that one might expect in such a job. She loves the art that she oversees and declares, “I am one of the most fortunate people on this earth to have the privilege to do this job.”

There is no greater enthusiast for the Arts for Transit collection than Bloodworth. She first came to New York City in 1980 and remembers the very different subway system that existed then: dark, dirty, decrepit and scrawled everywhere with graffiti.

“I can remember walking into the stations and thinking, ‘How can people not care about this place?’” she said.

Now, she is delighted to be involved in a collection that can genuinely lift the mood of the people who encounter it, not least because straphangers recognize that MTA capital funds are being spent on improving the circumstances in which they travel.

“People realize that this work is for them. That’s really important. It affects your self-esteem. It affects the quality of your day.”

Decision-Making Process

Does that mean that she gets to choose all of the work herself? No, and nor would she want to. But she has evolved a method of selecting new pieces—all of which are commissioned as new site-specific works—that she describes as “a really beautiful process. It really does work well.”

For each new commission Bloodworth either goes through artists’ registers and selects 50 or so artists to express interest or she puts out a call for artists, which may produce even more submissions, every one of which will be considered.

Then a selection panel narrows down the list to four artists, who submit detailed proposals, and eventually one is chosen for the commission.

The selection panel has five voting members: Bloodworth, representing the commissioning agency; two arts professionals from the local community; the chief architect for the transit system or the architect designing the station refurbishment; and an artist (usually one who has previously been commissioned for the collection).

These voting members are then supported by an advisory group drawn from the neighborhood—community board nominees, for example, and representatives of locally elected politicians—that is encouraged to participate fully in the selection.

While it might sound like a bureaucratic nightmare, Bloodworth points out that in the majority of cases there is a broad consensus on the committee before the decision even comes to a vote.

“The voting panel is charged to vote 100 percent for what they think is the best art for the location, but it’s all about process. There is a very real philosophy behind it that’s consistent. It’s about the place and about the audience,” Bloodworth said. “That’s the thing about public art. It’s about the customers, about the people experiencing it. Whereas in another venue it might be about the art and the artist, what’s so great about this work is that it’s about the people. It’s for the people.”