Bus Stop -- Art Stop

Ever notice how Park City’s free buses have wonderful murals on their sides and no advertising? (Kudos to our arts-supporting city government.) Now we can enjoy an even better treat. Eight bus shelters placed around town will not only keep us warm and dry, but inspire our imaginations with artwork designed by local artists.

The creative bus shelters are the brainchild of the Public Art Advisory Board (PAAB), established by City Council in 2004 and funded with $200,000 for the first two years. “There have been a number of examples of art in public transit, most notably subways in Washington DC and Moscow,” said Peter Roberts, formerly chairman of the PAAB and now chairman of the Park City/Summit County Arts Council. “We wanted artists to surprise us,” he said. They have, indeed.

Wild Star artist Marisa Robbins has created a three-dimensional collage throughout the bus shelter at Silver Lake Village in Deer Valley. You’ll find new cowboy boots, old spurs, belt buckles and mining artifacts all over the walls. “I tried to depict our rugged past and our glorious present,” Robbins said of the glitz and glamour she’s created in this small but fun space.

Ore Rising by Brian Guercio is a fiberglass, silver-colored sculpture that flows through the ceiling of the bus shelter on Gold Dust Lane in Prospector. Its deliberate “bio-morphic” shape has some tongues wagging. “I realize that the form of the sculpture could be construed as some kind of sexual innuendo, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” said Guercio. “The main purpose of the piece is to comment on the transition of Park City’s identity [from ore to people]. I think good art asks more questions than it answers, and that it can mean different things to different people.”

Six more pieces of bus stop artwork are planned, including a copper-clad shelter by Park City artist John Helton. This curvilinear piece will reflect the activities of skiing and skateboarding. Park City’s children will have a chance to paint when artist Bob Commander teams up with the non-profit Arts-Kids program to create a whimsical Park City bus out of metal.

The bus stop at the public library on Park Avenue will have a roof in the shape of an open book. Dreamed up by the artistic team of Willy Littig, Jared Brown, Bernardo Flores-Sahagun and Cordell Taylor, this piece is part of their “little house series.” The series includes a firehouse shelter to remind us of Park City’s Great Fire of 1898; a Chinese house acknowledging Park City’s 19th-century Chinatown and reflecting today’s international flavor; and a doghouse at the bus shelter in front of Albertson’s on Park Avenue, “because Park City is a city of dogs.” The shelter will feature a 3-D, low-relief metal sculpture of dogs on the roof with dog bones at either end serving as gables.

Thanks to these creative flourishes, “waiting for the bus” in Park City may become a new favorite pastime.

Lola Beatlebrox raises art with her husband, metal sculptor Zafod Beatlebrox, on a 40-acre ranch in Browns Canyon.