Written by Naomi E. Crocker
Northside residents may have recently noticed new, vibrant imagery adorning bus shelters along the D Line route between 44th Ave and 7th St. N. The mix of images were created by artist Cameron Patricia Downey, as well as apprentices in Juxtaposition Arts’ celebrated Graphics Lab – led by Kimberly Rashad and Ethan Nevalainen – and represent the latest works in Metro Transit’s ongoing public art program. The images were installed in mid-May as part of a new “Art Line” and were unveiled via public celebrations hosted on May 18 at both the North Regional Library and Juxtaposition Arts’ Skate Plaza. Metro Transit provided complimentary bus rides during the May 18 celebrations so that community members could experience the entirety of the Art Line free of charge.
Downey’s works in particular – which are installed at the 42nd Ave N & Fremont, Emerson & Lowry, Fremont & Lowry, and Plymouth & Fremont D Line bus stops – were supported by both Metro Transit and the Walker Art Center, a contemporary art museum and center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood. To create the images, Downey hosted an open photography session at North Regional Library in April, where community members were invited to pose and interact with a custom backdrop and installation, constructed primarily from found objects (including a full-size motorcycle!). Downey noted that some of the individuals who participated in the photo shoot were friends and family, while many were other library goers who happened to be at the library that day and were intrigued by the invitation. This ultimately impacted Downey’s decision to refrain from manipulating the digital photos when printing the final images, “I didn’t want to doctor the photos, though they became slightly blurred when printed at the scale of the bus shelter panels. I actually liked the blurring because it kept the subject’s essence, but also felt respectful considering that the images would be public and very large. Overall though, this process was sort of about letting people be celebrities in their own neighborhood.”
Although the bus shelter works themselves are new, artist Cameron Patricia Downey is known by many Minneapolis residents. Downey (born 1998) describes herself as “an anti-disciplinary artist born and raised in North Minneapolis, Minnesota” who works frequently across multiple mediums, including photography, film, body, sculpture, curation and others. In particular, Downey is interested in examples of “the incidental, the precarious, and the misremembered.” Downey’s extensive work includes a 2022-2023 artist residency with the Walker Art Center’s Moving Image department, representation from HAIR + NAILS gallery in South Minneapolis, and leading Juxtaposition Arts’ Contemporary Lab for the last year, and has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA), Engage Projects Gallery (Chicago IL), 25 East Gallery (Manhattan, NY), M+B Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), and internationally at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg (Berlin, Germany) and the Elam School of Art (Auckland, New Zealand).
Despite having exhibited and performed extensively in Minneapolis and beyond, the Metro Transit bus shelter project represents one of Downey’s first personal experiments with “public art.”
Public art is specifically art that exists in (usually outdoor) public places, as opposed to a private home, gallery, theater or museum. Most often, it is art that is created for the public through a public process. It can be temporary or permanent and can take many forms and sizes. Public art is usually also site-specific, meaning it is created in response to the place and community in which it resides. Though it can be a tremendous asset to the community, the development and management of public art can also be a complex process.
The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, which welcomes over half a million visitors every year and is managed jointly by Minneapolis Parks and the Walker Art Center, is one instance of a Twin Cities public art space, but there are many examples besides sculptures, statues or monuments. Murals, such as those created by Melodee Strong at Camden’s North Market, the metal panels by Peyton Scott Russell that embellish and adorn the entrance to The Get Down Coffee Co., and Webber Park Library’s ongoing Art at the Library series (hclib.org/about/art), are a few of the local works that are now in company with Downey’s bus stop creations. “I love knowing that there will be more public art works in the neighborhood,” said Downey, “to me, part of the power of public art is that it works to remind people of their own stake in their communities and neighborhoods, so that’s what I was striving to accomplish through this process and these images.”
In addition to public art’s ability to humanize, invigorate and beautify our built environment, as well as its capacity to bring artists and their creative vision into civic decision-making processes, one of its strongest qualities lies in the fact that it is freely accessible. Downey highlighted how these notions, in combination with current events, impacted the design of the new bus shelter works. In particular, Downey had been struck by the rollout of proposed budget cuts meant to address a $110 million budget shortfall at Minneapolis Public Schools, which was covered in April 2024 by Sahan Journal, MPR and other local news outlets. “Schools – when well-funded – allow individuals to engage in fantasy, to engage in creative work,” Downey noted, “and in thinking about the budget cuts, my hope was that the bus shelter images could be even one small piece in maintaining space for that creativity. It’s all connected.”
Neighborhoods and cities do, and should, aspire to be places where people want to live and visit. In addition to access to healthy food, safety and spaces in which to learn and gather, Downey emphasized the importance of pleasure and leisure in ensuring healthy communities, as well as public art’s potential to provide both. “The Webber Library, natural swimming pool, and local bike paths are great examples, but in general, the Northside needs opportunities for more pleasure and more leisure. Like what about a roller rink?!” Downey offered. “In creating the bus shelters, I thought about how nothing I could make would be better than the people who live here and who ride the bus seeing themselves reflected in the work, seeing themselves being joyous, creative and free in their own neighborhood.”
The bus shelter works will be installed for at least the next 12 months along the D Line route between 44th Ave and 7th St. N. Find info on the Art in Transit program at metrotransit.org/public-art-in-transit. There will also be the opportunity to experience new iterations of Downey’s work later in 2024 through an upcoming exhibition at Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis). Info cameronpdowney.com/.