Underground art
"The New York Subway can be described as many things, but 'a work of art' probably wouldn't be one of them. But that didn't stop a group of pranksters confusing the commuters of Manhattan by staging an impromptu 'gallery opening' on the platform of a subway station - turning the advertising posters and rubbish bins into artworks in the process.
The event was the work of Improv Everywhere (the same group who staged the world- wide 'no pants' subway ride a few months ago). They took over the platform of the 23rd Street subway station, setting up a cloakroom and a bar, and inviting their fifty 'guests' to browse the collection of art while being serenaded by a cellist.Those artworks included such masterpieces as ' Locked Box #2', 'Drain' and ' Black Metal Slam Gate with Panic Bar #367' - all of which had very serious labels attached to them explaining the 'artistic intent' behind the work.
One of the most popular pieces was one entitled 'Woman sitting on bench', which came as something of a surprise to the woman who was in fact sitting on the bench."

I found this article in the Metro Paper on Friday 20th March.

I went onto the Improve Everywhere website to find out more. This is some information I found on their website:- "Mission Idea By: Agents Eppink and SmallDigital Video: Agents Adams, EMartin, Goldman, GrossDigital Photography: Agents Nicholson, Sokoler.

"Agents Eppink and Small approached me with the idea of holding a gallery opening on a subway platform, and I was immediately excited to make it happen. There has been tons of really cool unauthorized art happening in the subway system lately, including PosterBoy’s fantastic advertisement modifications. The MTA actually has some great authorized art installations in certain stations as well (the American Museum of Natural History station comes to mind.) Despite these wonderful authorized and unauthorized works, the majority of the stations are pretty boring and display nothing but ads. Well, at least at first glance. We were able to turn the components of the 23rd Street C/E station into works of art simply by adding placards containing art-speak descriptions.

Agent Eppink created a sign for our gallery that looked identical to the existing “service changes” signs. You had to look twice to notice it wasn’t an official MTA sign. We chose to hold the mission at the 23rd Street C/E station because it’s located in Chelsea, just a few blocks from the art gallery district. The mission took place on a Thursday evening, which is the night gallery openings happen in the real galleries nearby. Ideally, some people getting on and off the train at the station would be coming to or from a real gallery opening.
The 23rd Street station has no authorized art, but its advertisements are frequently improved upon by anonymous artists. The station also has tons of quirky things about it, including locked up men’s and women’s restrooms that haven’t been in use for years. It was the perfect spot for our gallery.
We tried to include all of the normal elements you might encounter at a posh art gallery opening. Agent Harms and Agent Good dressed in tuxedos and managed the coat rack and bar, respectively. We even had a ticket system for the coat rack, ensuring our patrons would get their garments back correctly. We had around 50 agents participate. They trickled in to the gallery in small groups, acting like the didn’t know each other. Everyone was instructed to dress nice, like you would at an actual opening.Agents Small, Eppink and I quickly placed our placards underneath the “works of art.” There were 27 in total. Agent Small wrote up hilarious deadpan descriptions for each piece.

Agent Eppink:
I was especially interested in how we convinced ourselves and those around us to play the game and to believe, for a couple hours, that these everyday objects were actually art. Agent Small did a fantastic job of setting the tone with the wall text, but everyone who attended the opening was complicit and added tremendously to the collective fiction. Together we were inventing new meanings and alternate histories, all of which could have been entirely plausible explanations for the objects we were examining.
This may seem like a silly exercise, but I think it can be pretty useful! It puts you in a position to re-examine the mundane, imagine others’ intentions, and create new contexts for the objects and ideas you encounter every day. Usually we would just call that “acting”, but in this case, so much of the pretending is internal that maybe it’s not exactly theater? I’m sure there’s an argument for both sides. Regardless, I found the gallery opening to be an exhilarating, tremendously creative experience, and the hundreds of people who passed through, even if they didn’t join, at least encountered a fun, unexpected, disorienting moment."

http://improveverywhere.com/2009/03/18/subway-art-gallery-opening/

I thought that the idea of making an art gallery in a subway is an interesting concept, especially with the current economic downfall it opens art up to a wide variety of people and allows a range of audience to view artwork. Although this was only a "mission" taken on by Improv Everywhere it would actually be quite a good idea for an art gallery. It reminded me of what Louisa and Gary were saying about an art gallery could be anywhere! This group show that there are no boundaries to where art can be shown!