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The goal of the project was to design and create an artwork that will enhance the Portland public art landscape, bring attention to bus shelters and provide impactful messaging under the banner of discovering and celebrating our cultural, and environmental diversity. This Creative Portland bus shelter project was made possible in part by support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The bus shelter is located at 519 Congress Street, Portland, Maine.

The panels of the bus shelter are stamped with outlines of traditional Ghanaian Adinkra symbols for hope and friendship. Ghanaian artist Ebenezer Akakpo presents a unique collection of ideas and creations with the visual Language symbols or Adinkra symbols from Ghana.

Creative Portland, the city’s designated arts agency, has begun installing its first three public art pieces in Portland bus shelters this month. The art is meant to celebrate Portland’s diverse communities, including the immigrant and refugee populations. Two out of the three shelters are designed by immigrant artists.The installation is funded in part by a $25,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts awarded as part of the NEA’s Our Town program. The grant supports the first phase of the project, which Dinah Minot, Creative Portland’s executive director, said includes the implementation of three to four shelter designs....

Ebenezer Akakpo’s glasses are silkscreened with intricate designs inspired by Adinkra symbols of his native Ghana. Each symbolizes a concept, such as hope, unity, bravery, or endurance. Ebenezer Akakpo’s drinking glasses tell a story. They are silkscreened with intricate designs inspired by Adinkra symbols of his native Ghana. Each symbolizes a concept, such as hope, unity, bravery, or endurance. Akakpo, an award-winning designer, lives in Portland, Maine, and studied jewelry making in Florence, at the Maine College of Art, and later earned a master’s in industrial design at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  He’s chosen patterns he uses for earrings...