Five Winning Artists Chosen to Decorate Muni Buses in 2018

Winning artwork by Donavon Brutus.

The votes are in, and the five winning artists have been chosen to have their artwork displayed on 100 Muni buses to brighten commutes in 2018.

Muni Art returns for its third year to transform buses into rolling art galleries starting in January. This year’s theme, “The Art of Poetry in San Francisco,” is a collaboration with San Francisco Beautiful and The Poetry Society of America (sponsors of Poetry in Motion), who pre-selected five local poems that each winning artist will visually interpret.

This year’s five Muni Art winners are Donavon Brutus, Mara Hernandez, Tsungwei Moo, Randi Pace and Janet Rumsey.

Muni Art is designed to support local artists and provide a more beautiful, engaging experience for Muni riders.

The winning artists rose to the top from a public vote among 10 finalists, who were narrowed down from the list of applicants by a committee of local gallery owners and arts institutions.

In addition to each artist having 20 Muni buses to use as a canvas, the winning artist will receive $2,000, and each of the remaining four will be awarded $1,250.

Donavon Brutus, one of the five winners, had this to say about his winning art piece above: “Poetry communicates life lessons. We're often not old enough to want to listen to them yet however. That's what I wanted to show in my piece. A young woman is preoccupied with life. Too much so to hear the lesson. Later in time she's experienced ups and downs and is ready to accept the wisdom with open arms.”

Thank you to our partners and to all of you who voted to make Muni Art 2018 possible. To learn more about the artists and their work, please visit the San Francisco Beautiful website.