{"id":267156,"date":"2026-06-15T10:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/267156\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T10:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:13:11","slug":"nyc-students-use-iconic-metrocards-as-canvases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/267156\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC students use ‘iconic’ MetroCards as canvases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young members of the last generation of New Yorkers to use MetroCards<\/a> have given the now-defunct transit payment cards new life by recycling them into quirky art at Grand Central Terminal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to honor the MetroCard and how it was such an important part of New York City,\u201d said Amayra Talwar, a 15-year-old NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies sophomore who cut up dozens of MetroCards<\/a> to piece together the iconic Plaza Hotel logo for the project.<\/p>\n

Students across the Big Apple transform MetroCard \u201crelics\u201d into art. Katherine Donlevy\/NY Post<\/p>\n

The teen\u2019s Manhattan school was one of five picked for the Transit Museum and MTA Arts and Design program, which encouraged students to recycle old MetroCards into art.<\/p>\n

Their creations were on display at a pop-up gallery at Grand Central.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sad to see it go,\u201d Amayra said of the MetroCard. \u201cIt represented New York City in a way because the subway is the main way of transportation for all New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that although the process \u2014 which involved cutting the cards up into tiny pieces \u2014 was tedious, it was extremely satisfying and a great homage to a staple of her childhood.<\/p>\n

Amayra Talwar uses old MetroCards to create The Plaza Hotel\u2019s logo. Katherine Donlevy\/NY Post<\/p>\n

De\u2019Anthony Bibbs says he incorporated sneakers into one of his tiny paintings because \u201cpeople here care about their shoes!\u201d Katherine Donlevy\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Jack Costas creates the city\u2019s famed Pizza Rat.
Katherine Donlevy\/NY Post<\/p>\n

More seasoned MetroCard artists such as Thomas McKean and Nina Boesch \u2014 who have been using the cards as a medium for decades<\/a> \u2014 imparted their wisdom on the kids for the program while also sharing history about the iconic plastic payment cards.<\/p>\n

De\u2019Anthony Bibbs, 17, and his Bronx River High School classmates used the MetroCards like canvases \u2014 sanding them down and then painting their choice of Big Apple iconography on them<\/p>\n

Many of the kids looked to represent their borough by painting images of Yankee Stadium, subway cars and bagels.<\/p>\n

The program encourages students to recycle the MetroCards into art. Katherine Donlevy\/NY Post<\/p>\n

De\u2019Anthony used The Bronx as his inspiration when he painted music notes hovering over a trio of sneakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to draw a music note on a line, and to make it more Bronx, New York, I added the shoes. Most people here care about their shoes!\u201d the high-school junior said.<\/p>\n

Jack Costas opted to depict the city\u2019s famous Pizza Rat \u2014 the critter who sprang to subway stardom when a video of him carrying a slice of \u2018za went viral in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a piece of lore, a piece of history that unites New York as a group,\u201d said Jack, 16. \u201cIt\u2019s a very known thing, but mainly in the New York community, and I believe it\u2019s a very inspirational piece of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teens are among the last generation to use the plastic swiping system, which Jack described as \u201cretro\u201d despite its death just six months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an era that\u2019s over. The MetroCard is an iconic part of our community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young members of the last generation of New Yorkers to use MetroCards have given the now-defunct transit payment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,30986,2576,9,197,56,63,65,64,2585,142,58],"class_list":["post-267156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-metro","tag-metrocards","tag-museums","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-students","tag-transit","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}