Egyptian, First Nations, Greek and Chinese columns in one subway stop
TTC Subway Art
Toronto's subway runs an unusually ambitious public art program — none more striking than Museum Station's 2008 renovation, which turned structural support columns into a tour through world civilizations.
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Our transit guide covers how the subway works. This page is about something easy to miss while rushing for a train: a genuinely ambitious public art program running through several of its stations.
Museum Station's columns (2008 renovation)
Museum station, sitting directly under Queen's Park between the Royal Ontario Museum and the Gardiner Museum, opened in 1963 but was completely reimagined in a 2008 renovation by Diamond and Schmitt Architects — the same year the ROM's Crystal addition opened next door. Its structural support columns were sculpted to represent different world civilizations along the platform: a reproduction of the Egyptian god Osiris, a Wuikinuxv First Nations house post, a Toltec warrior figure, and Greek and Chinese-styled columns, turning a routine subway wait into a walk through several continents' worth of art history.
Other stations, other art
Museum isn't alone — Eglinton West station features Gerald Zeldin's Summertime Streetcar mural, depicting a classic PCC streetcar rolling past, and other stations across the network carry their own dedicated commissioned pieces.
A real selection process
Concepts for new station art go through a dedicated jury process, including local community representation for each station, with public feedback folded in before the TTC board gives final approval — a level of process that's helped the network build what's now considered a public art collection of genuine international significance, hiding in plain sight under a city most visitors never think to look at as a gallery.
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Sources
- TTC — Public Art Program
- Nile Scribes — Going Underground: Visiting Toronto's Egyptianising Museum Station
- Destination Toronto — The Best Subway Art in Toronto