Smart Growth America and the Washington State Department of Transportation founded a new artist-in-residence program—the first of its kind in the country to be housed within a state agency—to bring a creative approach to advancing the agency’s goals, including improving safety, reducing congestion, promoting economic vitality, supporting multimodal transportation systems, and creating healthier communities.

As the chosen artists-in-residence, Kelly Gregory and Mary Welcome spent a year in deep conversational research across all six designated regions of the state, each of which are as diverse, complicated, and tremendous as this state’s vast geography. This research was synthesized into a series of projects that embody civic service, human nature, and the maintenance of our public infrastructure. We are continuing to work with WSDOT to develop cross-geographical relationships, engage in creative transportation research, and produce work that integrates the community of the traveling public with the people-powered public servants that keep us moving.