Flower Power Revamped

Not really, but I'm sure most of you New Yorkers and out-of-towners are wondering what's the deal with some of the yellow cabs painted with flowers, right? By now nearly everyone has seen or glanced at them. It seems as though they’re arising and multiplying throughout the city. Well, guess what? It’s only the beginning! A non-profit charity called Portraits of Hope, brothers Ed and Bernie Massey who founded the charity in 1995 have formed yet another unique project, "Gardens in Transit”.

This may seem mundane at first but, there’s a lot of good in this artful mission. Garden in Transit may be the most ambitious community collaboration and public art project in New York City history. From September 2007 and until the year ends, New York City is being visually transformed, as the NYC taxi - the ubiquitous yellow icon -becomes a mobile artistic canvas, or Garden in Transit. As part of this art, education and creative therapy project, 23,000 children in schools and hospitals - in addition to many adult volunteers - have painted 80,000 flowers on 750,000 square feet of adhesive panels for a four month public art exhibition featured on taxis citywide. 90% of children participated through schools and hospitals across Greater New York City. Children in New Jersey, California, Ohio, Georgia, and Pennsylvania also participated in the project. So far, a little over 2000 cabs have had the makeover. The goal is to get all 23,000 cabs in NYC painted by the first week of October. The exhibit will last through December.

Little ones at work:Example on display:

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