Muni Art Program
In partnership with San Francisco Beautiful, we're supporting local artists and enhancing the transit experience for San Francisco's 700,000+ daily riders through our Muni Art program. 100 Muni buses are converted into rolling art galleries, reigniting a successful relationship between local art and local transit.
2020 Muni Art
The 2020 theme, “Hidden Gems of San Francisco” is a collaboration with The Poetry Society of America (sponsors of Poetry in Motion ®). The non-profit organization was involved in the selection of the five poems from local poets which in turn were creatively interpreted by each Muni artist resulting in key artwork pieces from each artist for public display.
The 2020 Muni artists are:
The five 2020 Muni poets and poems are:
Iris Jamahl Dunkle “Listening to the Caryatids on the Palace of Fine Arts”
Randall Mann “The Long View”
Melissa Stein “Baker Beach”
Tess Taylor “Train Through Colma”
Mathew Zapruder “The Antidote to Fascism is Poetry”
2019 Muni Art
Joining San Francisco Beautiful and the Poetry Society of America, the SFMTA announced the five winners of the 2019 Muni Art project, celebrating the theme "Connecting Our Community.”
The five winning artists will have their newly created work presented along with five poems selected by the Poetry Society of America, all by local poets, displayed on 100 Muni buses that will be transformed into rolling art galleries beginning in January 2019.
The 2019 Muni artists are:
Bhavna Misra- Alameda
Crystal Vielula - San Francisco
Arthur Koch - San Francisco
Nick Cook - High School Student, Marin
Christine Weibel - San Francisco
The theme this year, “Connecting Our Community” is a collaboration with The Poetry Society of America (sponsors of Poetry in Motion ®) who selected the five poems that each Muni artist will creatively interpret.
The five poets and poems are:
Francisco X. Alarcon - “One Big Family”, “Una Gran Familia”
Brenda Hillman - from “Time Problem”
Jane Hirshfield - “Optimism”
Cedar Sigo - from “Our Lives”
C. Dale Young - from “The Bridge”
2018 Muni Art
The 2018 Muni Art season kicked off the first collaboration with the Poetry Society of America's Poetry in Motion® for the theme “The Art of Poetry in San Francisco.” The five winning local artists and poets will have their original work displayed on 100 Muni buses beginning January and running through April, 2018.
The 2018 Muni artists are
Donavon Brutus
Mara Hernandez
Tsungwei Moo
Randi Pace
Janet Rumsey
2017 Muni Art
For the second annual Muni Art project, Muni buses are showcasing the art creations of five winning artists, including:
- Monica Tiulescu (with her proposal, Teens of San Francisco) *
- Lillian Shanahan (Bit by Bit)
- Luis Pinto (Las Historias de San Francisco)
- Counterpoint Studio (City Walks)
- Todd Kurnat (Sight Seeing: San Francisco Edition)
Biography and examples of the top art is available at the San Francisco Beautiful Muni Art page.
* Monica Tiulescu garnered the most votes for the first place winning spot.
Contestants had between May 2 and June 17, 2016 to submit applications that reflected their artistic concept of “San Francisco Neighborhoods.” Of the over 85 applications received, ten were chosen by a jury comprised of seven members of the arts community, which included a member of the San Francisco Arts Commission, a local art gallery owner, a working artist, community arts programmer and a curator at a public art cultural center. Decisions were based upon quality of concept, expression of theme, diversity and the likelihood that the artist would be able to deliver the completed eight panels of original work by the deadline.
From the ten chosen, the public was then invited to vote in an online poll for their favorite artist to determine the top five winning artists.
In addition to getting the unique opportunity for public exposure, the winning artist was awarded $2,000 and each of the remaining four winners were given $1,250.
The Muni Art Project is funded by the generous support of members of San Francisco Beautiful, the SFMTA, the City and County of San Francisco’s Community Challenge Grant Program and sponsors Boston Properties, Flax Art and Design, DiveIn, and LikeMinded.