November 1st 2001 set a major precedent in the art calendar as the opening day of the first ever public exhibition on a London Underground tube train. It featured 42 artists from the UK and around the globe.

ART-TUBE 01 was shown within all six carriages of one Piccadilly Line tube train and ran throughout the month of November. Every
carriage featured seven artists exhibiting two art panels each. The exhibition was installed in the advertising spaces inside the train.

Artists, poets, painters, filmmakers, sculptors, photographers and fashion designers are all represented in ART-TUBE01, as is the ethnic
diversity of Britain and the rest of the planet. ART-TUBE 01 was instigated by London based Canadian artist Gordon McHarg. The idea for
ART -TUBE 01 was simple...fill a tube train with art and let everyone get on-board. This developed from an exhibition of purpose built
panels (of his childhood drawings), shown on a Vancouver local bus. Gordon is currently working on future Art-tube projects and he plans to take it onto other
Underground systems around the world.


Sponsored by Bloomberg
Produced by Smash Corporation
Supported by London Underground

ART-TUBE01 : in for service
Exhibition at London's Transport Museum in Camden
27 March - 2 May 2002

Disappointed Londoners who missed ART-TUBE 01 now have another chance to catch it at London's Transport Museum.

ART-TUBE 01 ran for one month on a Piccadilly line tube train 1.11.01 - 1.12.01.
120 advertising spaces were filled with specially commissioned panels by forty-two leading contemporary artists. These can now be viewed in the Pick Gallery at London's Transport Museum.

Art-Tube 01 was instigated and curated by Canadian artist Gordon McHarg who commented "The idea of taking over a whole tube train and turning it into London's first rolling art gallery has proved to be a great success. Bringing art to the people, ARt-Tube 01 is just the beginning. Art has found a new venue. Underground."

Sponsored by Bloomberg, London Underground originally brought this project to the Piccadilly line as part of their Platform for Art series of art exhibitions. ART-TUBE 02 is already in the pipeline.

--- from London's Transport Museum Press Release