Millions of New Yorkers and visitors ride the city's subway and other trains each day. The public transportation system offers more than just a trip, however. It also has one of the most extensive public art collection in the world, with much of it under city streets.
Some people call it New York's "underground art museum". It includes more than 250 works of art. They are meant to brighten everyone's ride around the city. There is a huge painting of the night sky on the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. New Yorkers have been looking up at that artwork for 100 years.
Sandra Bloodworth has directed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's arts program since it began in 1985. "But actually, it really began much earlier. When the subway was founded in 1904, a percentage of money was set aside to create a special ornamentation (装饰) within the system, in order to make the place a very special place that people would want to use. "he says. For the past 30 years, artists have been asked to make works that relate to city life or to the neighborhood around a train station. There are coastal scenes at stations near the Atlantic Ocean.
Rider Tonya Pierre praises the underground art. "When I'm stressed, I look at the subway art. I love the colors. Where I live, they have a mosaic (镶嵌画) of a man and a woman, like floating across the water, and it's beautiful. It's just beautiful to have art everywhere. "Nearby is Alejandra Acosta，a visitor from Colombia. "I think it's nice when you see these kinds of things that catch your eye when you're walking in spaces like the subway stations that seem a little bit dull. They don't have a lot of decoration. "
