Danny Simmons MTA Project: Permanent Artwork Installation at the Jamaica Bus Depot

  • buses parked in the Jamaica bus depot in New York City

    Jamaica Bus Depot prior to expansion, 2023

    In 2023, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Arts & Design had a call for artists to propose their work for a glass art project to be installed in a new bus depot in Jamaica, Queens. MTA Arts & Design has incorporated artists’ artwork into over 400 permanent public art projects throughout all five boroughs of New York City. The media used in the artwork range from mosaics and tiles, to bronze, steel and glass. Each public art project requires years of planning in consideration of the positive impact on the public. Once the projects are executed and installed, they also require management over time. Maintenance of the public artworks includes attention to lighting, vulnerability, architecture, engineering, logistics and more. It is an incredible accomplishment to incorporate the asset of public art throughout the subways, bus and rail systems in our massive city. Public art becomes an integral part of the cityscape, creating artistic landmarks within the cosmopolitan environment.

  • Detail of a neo-African abstract expressionist painting by Danny Simmons

    Detail of Canvas #5 of Danny Simmons, Full Circle (2023)

    Danny Simmons’ creative process as an artist, writer, and poet was driven by intuition. For his MTA proposal, he approached the theme by reflecting on the past and present of the neighborhood. Growing up in Hollis, Queens, only a few miles from the Jamaica Bus Depot, Simmons was familiar with the site. The Q bus line operated throughout Queens and allowed residents to get to work and home, visit friends, and attend local events. There was also a vital bus route to visit the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows and the destination of JFK airport in Jamaica. For this project, Simmons contemplated travel, movement, people, his own memories in the area, and he created eleven canvas paintings with collaged elements of fabric, textiles and patterns. The materials bear designs and motifs representing people, trade, cultures, nations and the immigrants who came to Queens to start lives in America. From the Lenape Nation to later Dutch colonists and the first free Black enclaves in the mid-1800s, Queens has an integrated history of people and culture. Later arrivals of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Italy, Greece, Eastern European, East Asia, South Asia, Africa, Jamaica and other Caribbean island nations, transformed Queens into a mosaic of languages, traditions, and cuisines.


    Simmons' eleven paintings include collaged cloth representing everyday clothing, felt circles in childlike patterns, dotting used in tribal languages, florals, waves, intricate weaving, delicate lace, and cosmic universal symbolism.

  • Westwood Gallery NYC co-founder Margarite Almeida took on the role of Project Manager for Simmons' studio. "When Danny was awarded the Jamaica Bus Depot artwork commission for the building’s window into the bus maintenance area, it was a moment of catharsis. We knew we had to get to work right away to ensure each step was managed effectively."

  • close up of hands painting details of lace onto glass

    Photo by Glasmalerei Peters. Courtesy Glasmalerei Peters and MTA Arts & Design

    The process of transforming Simmons' artwork into IGU glass panels, each measuring 12 feet high and 6 feet across, and collectively spanning 190 feet was an extraordinary feat. A highly respected glass fabricator, Glasmalerei Peters, located in Paderborn, Germany, took on this amazing project. Glasmalerei Peters is a multi-generational family company working with artists and the art of glass since the early 1900s. This project required a preliminary process of understanding Simmons' artwork, as well as how it could be interpreted onto the glass specs required for the newly constructed building. Dedicated artisans from Peters worked for months — studying and translating Simmons's artwork by meticulously replicating his paintings, even interpreting lace fabric, felt and other material textures through many iterations of experimental methods. Each color painted onto these large-scale glass panels was fired in a kiln, a laborious and skilled process, that required many firings to achieve a final result that reflects the artistry of Simmons' work.

  • black and white photo of artist Danny Simmons

    Once the glass panels were completed, packaged, and crated, they were loaded on a ship to New York. The installation and unveiling of the glass panels at the Jamaica Bus Depot were planned for fall 2026, coinciding with Danny Simmons’ solo exhibition at Westwood Gallery NYC. Tragically, Simmons passed away unexpectedly in June 2026, before he could see his work become a permanent part of the neighborhood he called home.

  • glass panels of Danny Simmons' artwork in a window at night

    Photo by Glasmalerei Peters. Courtesy Glasmalerei Peters and MTA Arts & Design

    Although Simmons had previously created public art murals in New York City and Philadelphia, he regarded the MTA commission as a particularly meaningful, “full circle” project. He was honored to have been selected and deeply valued the opportunity for his work to become part of the daily environment of the depot’s maintenance team and staff.

     

    Simmons hoped the installation would bring moments of joy to those who worked inside the building each day. Designed to subtly transform with the shifting sunlight and passing clouds, and to illuminate at night, the glass panels would offer an ever-changing encounter with his work, woven into the rhythms of the community around it.