Ebenezer Akakpo’s bus stop installation Hope and Friendship, at 519 Congress Street in Portland, has been selected as Best Bus Stop in the USA by Streetsblog USA
Ebenezer Akakpo’s bus stop installation Hope and Friendship, at 519 Congress Street in Portland, has been selected as Best Bus Stop in the USA by Streetsblog USA. Akakpo is an immigrant from Ghana and used the Adinkra symbols of hope and friendship from his native land to create intricate pattern designs casting shadows of community and hope on people walking by or waiting for the bus.The contest was national in scope. Akakpo’s shelter is one of four artistic bus stops installed throughout Portland in 2020-2021 as part of Creative Portland’s creative bus shelter initiative, a pilot program that provides public art opportunities for local artists, spearheaded by Creative Portland, the city’s art agency, in collaboration with partners Greater Portland Metro (METRO) and Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG). The additional creative bus shelters installed in 2020/21 include The Mainer Project (325 St. John St off Congress St) by Pigeon, aka Orson Horchler; Glacial Retreat (88 Bedford St at University of Southern Maine) by Justin Levesque; and Seaweed Shelter (Portland Transportation Center at 100 Thompson Point Rd) by David Wilson. The ongoing arts-based community initiative is currently seeking corporate sponsors and private donors to meet the grant match for four more artistic shelters that will be installed in the summer of 2022. A reception to congratulate Mr. Akakpo will be held this Friday, April 22 from 5 -7 p.m. at his pop-up store in the Indigo Arts Alliance Artist Showroom at 132 Washington Ave in Portland.
