Transit Arts is a citywide youth arts program based at Central Community House. The program works in partnership with the Columbus Federation of Settlements and the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education to engage young people, ages 12–21, in intensive, free, interdisciplinary programs of coaching/mentoring by outstanding professionals from the creative industries.

Transit Arts participated in the Finding Time program by extending the reach and impact of Janet Zweig’s “Columbus never…” project. As the generative sentence developed on the wall behind Key Bank, program participants from Transit Arts came to the site twice a month to record live responses to the existing text. On each occasion, they set up a small stand directly in line with the center of the wall and positioned a video camera to capture speakers from the same vantage point. Outfitted in custom Transit Arts/Finding Time T-shirts, the youth coaxed passersby into “participating in a public art project on YouTube.” Although many passersby declined, others engaged with the young people. Those who accepted the invitation to participate were asked to speak the words written on the wall at that time and then continue the sentence with whatever came to their minds. Comments ranged from one-word additions to paragraph-long musings on the state of the city. When business was slow, the youth offered their own conclusions to the generative sentence and, on occasion, gave the dynamic dance performances for which they are known.

The multiple sessions of We Want Your Voice have been edited into a time-lapse recording of how Columbus saw itself in 2012. In the process, mundane aspects of life—changes in the seasons, vernacular speech, typical clothing and hairstyles, the shapes and colors of cars in the parking lot—have been captured for posterity. You can view the recording in the VIDEO section below.