This Interactive Map Helps You Explore All Of NYC’s Colorful Subway Art
If there’s one thing we love it’s an interactive tool–anything to make our lives easier, right? But this new tool does way more than define NYC’s neighborhood borders once and for all or show what New York would look like if it was underwater (which is, by the way, quite unsettling). This one helps you explore all of NYC’s best subway art! The subway system is, after all, an art gallery in and of itself.
Alright, we won’t keep you hanging for much longer. The new award-winning tool comes in the form of an interactive platform that documents all of the art installations across the subway’s many stations on an easy to maneuver map of the system. Dubbed Art Off the Rails, it was designed by New York-based designer and developer Stephanie Dang.
The best part: you don’t even have to travel to each subway station and fork over $2.90 (or even more come 2025) to enjoy the art; you can view it right in the comfort of your own home! Yes, that means you don’t have to breathe in that dirty subway air, and what is it that’s constantly dripping on our heads from the subway ceiling anyways?!
A description of the tool writes:
Within this dance that millions of New Yorkers two step in everyday, there are hidden moments of…art that twirls around us….We pass by so much art every day without even realizing it. How many of these have you encountered on your commutes before?
Like did you know these NYC subway air ducts are actually music-making speakers?!
Those interested in exploring the vary artworks need simply click on an image to read its description page and easily learn more about it. You can navigate your way around the system by individual station, or choose to explore the art from all the system’s stations combined.
Art Off the Rails came about as a result of the MTA’s first of its kind Open Data Program Challenge. The challenge “encouraged members of the public to transform its vast volumes of open data into web apps, maps, data visualizations, written reports, or art works that shed light on how New York moves.”
Dang’s interactive map was just one of more than one hundred creative projects competing to shine a light on MTA data. Acting Director of MTA Arts & Design Juliette Michaelson stated:
Art Off the Rails makes it easy and fun to learn about any one of the hundreds of beautiful pieces of public art in the MTA system – New York City’s underground museum. What a creative way to make use of the MTA’s extensive Open Data.
Some other contenders included “Subway Stories,” a “series of vignettes that analyze open data on ridership to understand how New Yorkers work, enjoy themselves, and stay connected” and “If you Give a Rat a MetroCard,” an “ode to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, this project follows the journey of a rat with a MetroCard and how they are likely to travel based on trends in the modeled Subway Origin-Destination Ridership data.”
Dang stated:
Working on Art Off the Rails was such a fun and rewarding challenge. Before starting on this project, I hadn’t realized how many iconic parts of my commute were actually pieces of art. Diving into the MTA’s permanent art catalog made me realize how much creativity surrounds us even in the most routine parts of our day.
Some of our other favorite interactive NYC maps include this one that shows every open bathroom in NYC (or this one that looks at Central Park specifically), this one that shows you exactly where Mister Softee is in the city during the warmer months, or this one that shows NYC streets honoring local icons.
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