“Transit Equity Day, a celebration of Rosa Parks’ birthday on Feb. 4th, is recognized annually by the Duluth Transit Authority in partnership with Zeitgeist Center for Arts and Community. This year Zeitgeist worked with two local artists to create bus wraps which illustrate the community and their visions to achieve transit equity in the Twin Ports. Thanks to the DTA, these images are featured on the side of a couple of their buses for all to see.”

It’s the beginning of a new trend at the DTA to create something special for their buses. The two artists featured on the Transit Equity Day piece, Tiffany Fenner and Moira Villiard.

Tiffany says when she got the approval request for them to use her artwork, she was shocked. “A co-worker came in and was like, ‘hey check your email I need you to approve some artwork,’ and I was like ‘sure when I get a chance.’ And I look at it and was like, ‘oh my gosh.’ It was a great feeling,” she says.

And having local artwork on the bus also helps out the DTA create a warmer environment onboard. Director of marketing Dave Clark says, “It’s really inspiring and fun to see art on the bus, because it really gives you ideas of how we continue to build that out and partner with the community. To bring some vibrancy and culture and also important messaging to the broader audience.”

“It encourages conversation, so I really think that people are really going to be inspired by the art, they are going to be inspired to communicate and really connect with the people that they are riding the bus with,” says Tiffany.