'Contemporary Art Underground invites us to see extraordinary beauty in the mundane.' - New York Times Book Review

A celebration of more than 100 major public art commissions throughout the New York transit system

Contemporary Art Underground presents more than 100 permanent projects completed between 2015 and 2023 by MTA Arts & Design. This ground-breaking program of site-specific projects by a broad spectrum of well-known and emerging contemporary artists has helped to create a sense of character and place at subway and commuter rail stations throughout the MTA system. Among the featured artists are Yayoi Kusama, Kiki Smith, Nick Cave, Ann Hamilton, Xenobia Bailey, Jim Hodges, Alex Katz, Sarah Sze, and Vik Muniz.

Of special interest is the discussion of fabricating and transposing the artist's rendering or model into mosaic, glass, or metal, the materials that can survive in the transit environment. This is the definitive survey of the latest works of the internationally acclaimed MTA Arts & Design collection. On view 24 hours a day, the collection is seen by more than four million subway riders and commuters daily and has been hailed as 'New York's Underground Art Museum.' The collection enlivens stations in all boroughs, with a myriad works by major contemporary artists executed in mosaic, glass, metal, and ceramic.

Expanded edition of Along the Way, the highly successful volume published in 2006, updated with nearly 100 new works, including pieces by James Carpenter, Doug and Mike Starn, Sol LeWitt, Odili Donald Odita, and Shinique Smith.

Initiated in 1985, the MTA Arts & Design collection of public art now encompasses more than 250 projects, creating a dynamic underground museum of contemporary art that spans the entire city and its immediate environs.

Since the program was founded, a diverse group of artists - including Elizabeth Murray, Faith Ringgold, Eric Fischl, Romare Bearden, Acconci Studio, and many others - has created works in mosaic, terra-cotta, bronze, and glass for the stations of the New York City Subways and Buses, Metro-North Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, and Bridges and Tunnels.

An update of the classic Along the Way, this expanded edition features nearly 100 new works installed in stations since 2006, including Sol LeWitt's Whirls and twirls (MTA) at Columbus Circle, Doug and Mike Starn's See it split, see it change at South Ferry, and the James Carpenter / Grimshaw / Arup Sky Reflector-Net at Fulton Center. The book illustrates how the program has taken to heart its original mandate: that the subways be designed, constructed, and maintained with a view to the beauty of their appearance, as well as to their efficiency. MTA Arts & Design is committed to preserving and restoring the original ornament of the system and to commissioning new works that exemplify the principles of vibrant public art, relating directly to the places where they are located and to the community around them.

The definitive guide to works commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, a reference for riders who have wondered about an artist or the meaning behind the art they've seen, as well as a memento for visitors, New York's Underground Art Museum provides 300 color illustrations and insightful descriptions sure to infuse any future trip or viewing with a fresh appreciation and understanding of this historic enterprise.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 thrilled millions around the world and showed that socialism was possible.

Sandra Bloodworth brings to life the struggle of the workers, soldiers and peasants against their oppressors. She shows how the vast masses of working people learnt, through the experience of fighting for their demands, that if they did not definitively defeat the capitalist class, the only alternative would be counter-revolution and military dictatorship. They learnt that they could run society themselves, through the revolutionary soviets, and that they would have to do so in order to end the world war, to win bread for starving families and to liberate the enslaved peasantry.

This book is an essential introduction to one of the greatest moments in human history. Bloodworth dispels the persistent myths propagated by the revolution's opponents - that it was a bloody coup, or that Stalin's dictatorship was the only possible outcome. She instead reveals the revolution as an inspiring experiment in human liberation, full of lessons for anyone fighting for a better world today.

Here are stories that challenge the conventional views of working class women and their struggles. Strikes and demonstrations throughout the 20th century shatter traditional images of women as passive victims. From the women of Broken Hill, who fought strike-breakers with axes and broom handles in the early part of the century through the 1930s Depression and World War II through to the postwar period, women played an important role in strikes and unemployed movements.

Rebel Women also challenges those accounts which see the enemy as 'patriarchy' rather than capitalism, or which deny the relevance of the class altogether. These women fought their oppression alongside working men, as participants in - and leaders of - the class struggle. Frequently they had to confront opposition from middle class or upper class women. Many were sustained by a socialist vision.

First published in 1999, this new enhanced edition makes these inspiring stories available to new generations.