Your bus will arrive shortly. Enjoy the art while you wait
Cameron Patricia Downey is outside one of their four bus stops, adorned with their photography of Northsiders. Photo by David Pierini
David Pierini, Editor
Art often originates from the creator's playful whims. However, Cameron Patricia Downey, a multidisciplinary artist from North Minneapolis, does not consider that enough.
For Downey, art is a public service, a value imprinted on them early on by mentors at Juxtaposition Arts.
Downey, 25, is having a full-circle moment. They are a JXTA faculty member, helping youth find and refine their artistic vision. Some of Downey’s art, photographic portraits of Northsiders, now hangs in four Metro Transit bus shelters.
Their inspiration to serve was not without a playful side. While beautifying banal bus shelters, they wanted Northsiders to see themselves in the portraits. The images include a waterfall backdrop and props, from fun hats to a motorcycle. The poses were more organic than the artist's precise arrangements. Downey wanted people to have fun, and they said all who participated seemed to experience joy from playing to the camera.
The North Regional Library provided a room to serve as a studio, and several of her subjects happened to be children from some of the library’s after-school programs. On May 18, the shelter outside the Fremont and Lowry avenues library was a stop on the Art-A-Whirl tour.
Downey received the commission from Metro Transit and the Walker Art Center, where they recently finished a stint as an artist in residence. Four other bus shelters on the north side are graced with colorful symbols and iconography created by students of the JXTA graphics lab.
This photo can be seen at a Metro Transit stop outside the North Regional Library. Photo by Cameron Patricia Downey
“Making a big public art project feels like a milestone in a distinct way,” Downey said. “Because of my time at JXTA as a 13-year-old I feel like I was taught to think of art as a civic duty and a way of making people feel in community. I think art should be for everyone at any given time. I want it to be accessible and always there for us.”
Downey remembers JXTA classes in spray art and creating group murals that brought color and, thus, new life to blank spaces in North Minneapolis.
Even before JXTA, the influence of family members with a DIY spirit inspired Downey to draw and create storybooks.
“My mom taught me how to read, and so I have always loved stories,” they said. “I have a very visceral memory of writing picture books of different things that were happening. I grew up around people who are very apt storytellers. Stories were a kind of currency and connection to the people coming in and out of our house. That’s how I got started in art.”
Downey stayed on a creative path that eventually led them to New York City and Columbia University, where they graduated with dual concentrations in visual art and environmental science.
According to the artist's bio, they move freely between photography, film, and sculpture, which allows them to “mediate the concepts and bounds of world-building and survival artistry through Black, fantastical, and precarious spaces and forms.”
Their recent residency at Walker Art Center allowed them to curate part of its film collection and work with youth. Downey also recently styled and co-directed a music video for Brooklyn hip-hop artist TRANNILISH and had work exhibited at HAIR+NAILS, Minneapolis; Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin (2021); Engage Projects, Chicago (2021–2022); and as part of Midway Contemporary Art’s Off-Site program (2022).
Last year, Downey led JXTA students in a found-object art project exhibited in the gallery in the art school’s new building. Students created sculptures from discarded objects found while walking up and down West Broadway Avenue.
“I wouldn’t say I’m the best teacher; I’m still pretty new, but I love passing on knowledge to students,” Downey said. “It feels really good to see people get excited about art. That’s not something that is necessarily taught in school. So, I feel really proud of this ticket to expand peoples’ education.”