ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Arts in Transit Board of Directors have elected new officers. Arts in Transit is a nonprofit subsidiary of Bi-State Development that facilitates public transit art programs in eastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois region.
The Board of Directors is responsible for the oversight of AIT and its overall strategic direction. The Board is also responsible for determining its major fiscal, personnel, organizational and programmatic policies.
The new slate of officers, elected this fall, assumed their positions immediately. The officers and their positions are as follows:
· Chair: Tim Boyle, President of City Property Company
· Vice Chair: Amanda Colón-Smith, Program Director for Dutchtown South Community Corporation
· Secretary: Thad Duhigg, Professor of Art at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
· Treasurer: Peter Tao, Principal at TAO + LEE Associates, Inc.
Members selected to the Arts in Transit Board of Directors have to include individuals from the visual arts and/or design, education and business communities. All board members appointed to serve without compensation and are eligible to serve two consecutive two-year terms.
One member of the Bi-State Development Board of Commissioners must serve as an ex officio member. Commissioner Aliah Holman currently serves in this capacity.
Metro Transit established the Arts in Transit program in 1986 in order to connect the community and public through art and education. Since its establishment, Arts in Transit has commissioned more than 150 temporary and permanent public art installations throughout the St. Louis region, enhancing the community experience for Metro Transit riders and add vitality and vibrancy to the neighborhoods served by the Metro system.
Arts in Transit also provides innovative programming, engaging the community with public art and provide unique opportunities for local artists. The programs include MetroScapes, a public art program where the work of local artists is annually selected for the reproduction and displayed at more than 200 MetroBus shelters and locations throughout the region; MetroLines, an annual transit-focused poetry contest where the selected original work of local poets is displayed on MetroLink trains and MetroBus vehicles to enrich the public transit experience for riders; and Art in Motion, an art-bus program conducted in partnership with local nonprofit organizations and businesses where specially designed murals are painted on the exterior of MetroBus vehicles and the buses travel throughout the region in regular service for one year.
More information about Arts and Transit as well as its programs can be found here.