Because Everyone Else Is Doing It

neighborhoodr-upperwestside:

Q: Why are there little red question marks incorporated into many of the animal mosaics at the 81st St. subway station?

A: That is the stop for the American Museum of Natural History, and those question marks teach an important lesson, explained Sandra Bloodworth, director of the Arts for Transit program of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The small red marks can be seen on the tail of a diving humpback whale, on a leopard’s paw and on the shell of a giant Galápagos tortoise, among other animals.

”The question marks mean that at the time when it was installed, about 2000, the species was endangered,” she said. Shadowy pictures in light blue tile behind the living species represent extinct species: a dodo, a saber-toothed tiger, a stegosaurus, a mammoth and others.

The museum contributed $500,000 for the art. ”The museum wanted you to feel you arrived at the museum once you get there,” she said of the stop. Riders’ questions invite further exploration inside the museum.

For all you fellow Upper West Side people who ever wondered about the red question marks in the mosaics.