Public art or public relations?

Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs is looking for an artist to enhance a two-mile streetcar line from the International District, First Hill and Capitol Hill, slated to begin construction next year.
Here’s the pitch:

The artist’s artwork and design enhancements will be incorporated during construction of the streetcar line. The design should include reproducible or repeating elements and components that contribute to the overall identity of the streetcar. (more)

Sounds like a branding opportunity, more ad than art. There are artists who can make something substantial from these dim prospects, but why are they so dim? Must public art be yes-man to public projects? The problem is, no one is dreaming of baboons and periwinkles.

Wallace Stevens

Disillusionment of Ten  O’Clock

The houses are haunted

By white night-gowns.

None are green,

Or purple with green rings,

Or green with yellow rings,

Or yellow with blue rings.

None of them are strange,

With socks of lace

And beaded ceintures.

People are not going

To dream of baboons and periwinkles.

Only, here and there, an old sailor,

Drunk and asleep in his boots,

Catches Tigers
In red weather.