MIT Students Restore T Stop Music Sculpture

An MIT student group has organized to restore a once-popular music sculpture at the MBTA Kendall Station stop.  The group called the MIT Kendall Band Preservation Society is chartered to restore the Paul Matisse music sculpture.  Students started the restoration process April 1, removing three of the 6 handle mechanisms from the outbound platform.  MBTA GM Richard A. Davey, left, greeted the students at the station and thanked them for the inspired effort.  Photo is courtesy Justin Knight.

The entire sculpture will be refurbished during the coming months.  The Preservation Society is under the direction of MIT instructor in Materials Science and Engineering Mike Tarkanian with the approval and guidance of the artist Paul Matisse and the MBTA.

The sculpture was commissioned by the MBTA in 1981 and installed in 1987 but has been in disrepair for years.  When the student work is complete, Pythagoras, Kepler, and Galileo, the Kendall Band, will once again be operating soon.

A new annual composition competition at MIT will produce musical works for Kendall Band to be performed on April 26 to mark the sculpture's anniversary.  

Check out the Globe story and video.