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Hundreds Crowd BART Platforms for “BART Basel” Guerilla Art Show

The roving crowd took over BART for pop-up art galleries set up on the platforms
By - posted 12/6/2022 No Comment

The quirky BART Basel returned touting itself as “the leading train platform connecting collectors, gallerists, and artists.” Hundreds turned up at San Francisco BART stations for the second annual guerilla art show, held Saturday, December 3, 2022.

Organizer Danielle Baskin described the event on Twitter for the first annual event back in 2021, “BART Basel. We ride the train as a large group dressed as fancy art collectors, hopping off platforms to look at the art. We take turns playing gallery rep. We bring stanchions, champagne glasses, and have an arbitrary VIP section sponsored by a fake luxury architecture firm.”

Attendees were encouraged to wear fancy and eclectic attire. Think: eccentric art collector going to a super fancy art show. A brightly colored suit. Gold shoes. A long sequin dress.

Attendees met at Embarcadero Station and were given special “full access” BART Basel lanyards and wristbands. The BART platform was turned into a pop-up art gallery, complete with a step-and-repeat banner decked in the BART logo, where the audience listened to short presentations regarding specific works brought in for the showcase. After 8 minutes, the entire crowd hopped on the train and proceeded to the next station for another pop-up gallery performance. The roving crowd, respectfully, took over 6 stations and ended at SFO.

SF BART BASEL GALLERY SCHEDULE 2022

We will travel together to each station.

  • 4:00 – 4:28pm — Embarcadero
  • 4:31 – 4:43pm — Powell
  • 4:47 – 4:59pm — 16th St. Mission
  • 5:04 – 5:20pm — Glen Park
  • 5:30 – 5:48 — Colma
  • 5:59 – 6:15pm — San Francisco Int’l Airport

The crowd was double the size of last year’s, but thankfully, BART was cool with it. BART even tweeted out videos from the event.