Research Triangle Park, NC (July 12, 2021) – A bus stop that both GoTriangle and Chapel Hill Transit riders use has joined the crop of community art that Chapel Hill Community Arts and Culture sponsors to inspire creativity and celebrate community in Chapel Hill and Carrboro
GoTriangle Board President Michael Parker, who also is mayor pro tem of Chapel Hill, shared the work of the group’s Art + Transit initiative with GoTriangle President and CEO Charles Lattuca. The initiative incorporates art into bus stops in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and the two decided they should seek to add art to a GoTriangle bus stop, too.
“When we can put art in our public spaces, it just adds so much to our collective community experience,” Parker says. “Being on the GoTriangle board as well as on the Chapel Hill council, I wanted to expand our integration of the arts into folks’ daily lives as widely as possible, while creating additional opportunities to support our local artists.”
Through a selection process, Victoria Primicias was chosen as the artist to create the design for the GoTriangle stop on East Franklin Street at Eastgate Shopping Center Drive in Chapel Hill. She included birds sitting on wires in her design.
“I was looking for a way to show inclusion, community, acceptance and diversity without being too literal,” Primicias says. “I became aware that there was such a thing as state flowers and birds. While giving the North Carolina state bird – the cardinal – more prominence, I let it chill with other birds local to this area, a twist on ‘birds of a feather flock together.’ A dogwood tree peeks out from the lower left side to provide context and perspective.”
Over the past three years, Community Arts and Culture’s Art + Transit arm has installed art at more than 17 bus stops.
“Public art on bus exteriors and bus shelters brings art into the everyday lives and commutes of transit customers and the broader community, enlivening infrastructure and the daily routine,” says Steve Wright, public art coordinator for the Town of Chapel Hill. “These ubiquitous structures and vehicles are prominent pieces of the community's visual landscape and so are excellent venues for the display of local artists' work.”
Selected artists are paid $500 to $600 to create designs to be printed on adhesive vinyl, which the town installs on bus shelter glass. The artwork is displayed on the bus shelters for about 12 months. GoTriangle paid for the design from Primicias.
“We are so glad that we had the chance to participate in this community project, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the design of our bus stop art,” Lattuca says. “GoTriangle will definitely be looking for more opportunities to offer this visual treat to our riders and broader community.”
Primicias’ design is a winner on many fronts, Wright says.
“Victoria's piece has a bold, graphic look that well suits the shelter environment,” he says. “I enjoy the parallels of various brightly colored birds sitting and waiting on telephone wires to people waiting at bus stops. And the design with its diagonal lines crossing all the panels is dynamic and provides a sense of motion.”
Primicias is a 25-year graphic design veteran whose work has been recognized in various publications including Communication Arts, American Institute of Graphic Arts, Print and many more. She holds a BA in Fine Art History from the University of Toronto and has lived in Chicago and Manila. She moved to the Triangle in 2009.