Bus travel is just the ticket for art

By hharp

THOUSANDS of bus passengers are to be greeted with artwork on the back of their tickets.

Up to 360,000 tickets have been produced with replies to questions such as 'what catches your eye?' and passengers can reveal them by warming heat-sensitive ink that has been used to print them.

The tickets are the work of artist Claire Barber, who said she was surprised to see how people responded to a question based around what they would wish for.

Mrs Barber, aged 38, who is based in Calshot, Hampshire, said: "Most of the responses were to the notion of wishing for things.

"I expected people to wish for material things such as a bigger house, more money or to go on a really good holiday.

"But what I found was most of them were based around relationships."

The questions were featured on tickets produced by First buses in the Potteries in December and invited passengers to respond by text message.

They generated about 100 responses before Mrs Barber spent time at Hanley bus station interviewing more people.

Posters were then put up at the station showing some of the responses and inviting other people to get involved.

Some of the responses, including 'I wish I could be with the love of my life right now' began appearing on bus tickets yesterday.

Mrs Barber added: "The bus station may be seen as quite an edgy, cold and impersonal place, but I found out from what I received that there is a lot of emotion there.

"It may be that it is not entirely noticed as artwork, but I have tried to bring in a human element there."

The You Are A Journey scheme is part of the £100,000 Place, Space and Identity 2 programme, masterminded by Newcastle-based B arts group.

Other projects this year have included plastering thought-provoking phrases on buildings and buses across the city.

B arts director Susan Clarke said: "The main thing we have concentrated on this year is projecting art in public spaces and into people's hands.

"Claire's idea has been about making art immediately accessible, almost by accident for some people."

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