Buses World News

In brief: Worldwide montly news & informations about Buses, Busmakers, Passengers' and the Transport Industry

26.3.11

The Freedom Buses, with student designs, ready to roll

Berkeley,CAL,USA -The Berkeleyside, by Tracey Taylor -March 21, 2011: -- An AC Transit bus wrapped in artwork commemorating the civil rights movement, created by Berkeley High School Arts and Humanities Academy students, will go on display on March 25 to the public... The bus is part of the Freedom Bus Project, a joint effort by the Alameda County Office of Education and AC Transit, in conjunction with West Contra Costa Unified School District and Art IS Education. The project honors the 55th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ historic bus ride in Montgomery, Alabama... Elementary, middle and high school students in the AC Transit service district, which spans Alameda County and West Contra Costa County, submitted social justice-themed artwork which was considered for the Freedom Bus Project’s mobile art exhibit. Starting in April, four of the winning entries will be displayed in over 200 buses in the AC Transit fleet through the end of the month...

The Freedom Bus Project’s Art Exhibit and Community Celebration will be held at 6pm on March 25, 2011 at the Oakland School for the Arts...

Labels: art on buses

23.10.10

"The Ride" * USA - Fasten Your Seat Belts and Embrace the City

New York experience called “The Ride": Who’s onstage? Who isn’t? ...

(Photo by Emily Berl/The New York Times - “The Ride”: Passengers on this new theatrical bus tour wave to the Midtown throng, which waves back)

New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, by EDWARD ROTHSTEIN -October 14, 2010: ... The new bus ride/city tour/improv show/New York experience called “The Ride”: One business-suited passerby on 42nd Street was so intoxicated by the Broadway melodies being broadcast by our passing bus that he dropped his briefcase and leapt into a vaudeville tap-dance routine right out of a 1930s musical, a woman flashed us the other night on West 57th Street by lifting up her shirt, and a late-night deliveryman on East 43rd Street was so caught up by the passing tour’s blaring hip-hop soundtrack that he spun and flipped into a virtuosic break-dance routine... She broke into laughter after her feat, watching the transparent-sided bus, with its three rows of stadium seats mounted sideways like a portable theater, filled with shrieking passengers... In this, it turns out, she played right into the tour’s hands. So did we all. Because by the end of this 75-minute, 4.2-mile “Ride,” which is making its debut this week, the guides who had led us from West 42nd Street up to Columbus Circle and back had the bus singing a karaoke version of Kander and Ebb’s “New York, New York” ...

(Photo by Emily Berl/The New York Times: Joe Cummings and Amanda Johns recreate Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1945 sailor-and-nurse photograph for passengers on "The Ride")

You don’t really know what to make of “The Ride” at first... Each night a crew of more than 60 technical people, street performers and tour-guide actors with improv-comedy experience tries to combine these diverse styles into an atypical tourist bus ride that costs $59 or $65, depending on the departure time. Plans are to run 364 days a year, with up to 156 rides each week... And this happened in the tour’s final moments, as “The Ride” featured a transparent busload of passengers waving and singing “New York, New York,” as listeners in the streets stared, watched, ran along or even, eventually, joined in. The street is quite a ride...

Labels: art on buses, rare buses

19.10.10

SHOW in BUSES * New Zealand - Otago Festival of the Arts... Tickets please!

"We've never had anything like this on one of our buses before"...

Otago,South Island,New Zealand -The Otago Daily Times, by Nigel Benson -12 Oct 2010: ... Dunedin Passenger Transport operations manager Colin Abbis mused... Back of the Bus is a dance and theatre performance by Wellington-based Java Dance Company, which takes place in a moving bus... The performances, part of the 2010 Otago Festival of the Arts, will feature University of Otago student Xzenia Kutia (25), who edged out eight other local dancers after auditions last week... Ms Kutia is "bursting" for the show to start today: "It's going to be an awesome experience"... Back of the Bus will be staged from today until Saturday from outside the Regent Theatre... (Photo by Stephen Jaquiery: Dunedin Passenger Transport driver Neil Griffin watches over Back of the Bus performers (from left) Natalie Hona, Sacha Copland and Rosie Christie)

Labels: art on buses

11.4.10

BUS & ARTS * USA - City buses feature photos of local food and farmers

Transit’s ‘art buses’ make their debut in Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville,NC,USA -Mountain Xpress/City Farmer News, by Michael Levenston -27 March 2010: -- Three Asheville area artists have won the city’s first “Art on Transit” competition, the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department announced recently. Each artist will be awarded a $750 honorarium, and their design will grace both sides of a single bus. The winners were: Ray Noland’s “Jeweled Forest,” a color-splashed, whimsical forest; Naomi Johnson’s photos of local food and farmers; and Nina Ruffini’s “Message,” featuring bunnies adrift in boats... A five-member jury, which included a bus driver, met and considered more than 60 submissions. The jury picked six finalists and suggested the three winners, which were unanimously confirmed by Asheville’s Public Art Board... The work will remain on display for at least four months, according to Diane Ruggerio, the city’s superintendent of cultural arts. Ruggerio said she hopes “Art on Transit” will become an annual project... (Naomi Johnson’s photos of local food and farmers)

Labels: art on buses

14.3.09

ART DESIGN on BUSES * USA - Red-hot designs connect with Syracuse University's corridor buses

Specially designed buses for the Connective Corridor will go into use starting Thursday

Syracuse,NY,USA -The Syracuse Post -11 March 2009: -- ... The eye-catching design came from a student team that won a competition as part of a class at Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. The team included Jessica Alpert and Ana Mihai, the team leader... The Connective Corridor is an emerging effort to help connect University Hill to downtown Syracuse and also to highlight downtown's cultural and civic institutions. The idea behind the specially designed buses, the university says, is to draw attention to the corridor, and also to help people find their way along the route: If you see one of the buses, you know you're in the right place... (Photo by Li-Hua Lan / The Post-Standard - Jessica Alpert (left) and Ana Mihai, both Syracuse University juniors, watch as the bus wrap they helped design is applied by professional installer James Morgan, of Port Jervis, with the help of his fiancee Susan Messenger (right). The wrap was being placed on a Connective Corridor Centro bus Friday at the Centro garage in Syracuse)

Labels: art on buses