1% For Streetcars

King County, as is well known, has a “1% for Art” program that funds art in public places. Well, why not fund some “kinetic art” that the public can ride and feel?

In reality, it’s been a sad devolution. A hundred years ago the structures of daily life were artistic, and the railroad cars and streetcars were the most artistic among them. Everything curved, and for a reason, not randomly and drunkenly as a stunt, but to improve drainage, provide clearance, build in strength, and draw things together.

By the middle of the century, the art was something designed to cover the structure. Then, even that degree of artfulness fell away, leaving us with design so bereft of charm that most of it has been replaced long before wearing out. The fine arts arguably got much the better of this period, as the ruling class absent-mindedly chose the cheapest designs for public buildings and then guiltily over-subscribed to art foundations and museums as penance. Ironically, the Seattle Art Museum, which demanded the removal of the carbarn because it demeaned their Sculpture Park, has subsequently displayed ceramicized public waste cans and benches as fine art in that same park.

As art, streetcars have some very interesting properties. For example, they constantly change perspective and focal point for a non-moving observer. They may be seen as a changing element in a scene, or the scene may be seen to change from inside the streetcar. They are disciplined art, with ellipses, circles, and straight lines.

But most of all, they are accessible. People like streetcars so much that counterfeit streetcars are built on bus chassis. And people are entitled to occasionally see simple beauty in the nuts-and-bolts of urbanity that surround them.

Spend some of that “1% for Art” bringing the streetcar back. Make sure there’s a stop at the Sculpture Park for people who are too high-toned to see art in ordinary life.