A New Years Reveller – Transfer Corridor, Times Square Subway Station, New York, New York

It’s been said that if you stand long enough in Times Square, you will meet everyone you’ve ever known. Long known as the crossroads of the world, Times Square is famous for many things, but mostly for its crowds, particularly the spirited celebration each New Year’s Eve when hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors-joined by television viewers around the world, gather to watch the ball drop to usher in the New Year. Sharing hopes for the future, the huge crowds are televised against a neon background.

Artist and educator Jane Dickson was born in Chicago, educated in Paris, Boston and Cambridge, and now lives and works in New York City. In Revelers, Dickson celebrates this age-old impulse to gather. Her mosaic artwork consists of approximately 70 expressive life-size figures. Each is in motion, walking, gesturing, linking arms, or dancing; all enjoying themselves and each other’s company. Some wear funny hats, blow toy horns and wield noise makers; some seem to be stumbling from apparent intoxication. The central frieze of figures are presaged by a scattering of figures in groups of two or three walking in both directions along the corridors that lead to the central open space of the station complex, near the stairs to the 1, 2, 3 lines. These smaller groups share the space with commuters traveling through the passageways that connect the subway stations at Seventh and Eighth Avenues.