Pretty much everything the SFO Museum displays in the terminals from its own collection or from a collection on loan is top-notch. But there are plenty of objects that never, or rarely, go on display. And lots of objects you might miss if you’re just passing through.
That’s why we’re delighted that for 2023, the SFO Museum is highlighting one “notable, unusual, interesting, or just plain fun” item from the collection each week.
Here’s what’s shown up so far.
This year, we’re going to highlight #52objects from our collection that we find notable, unusual, interesting, or just plain fun! Follow along using the hashtag #52objects! pic.twitter.com/4vPk2YZ2AB
Before people carried around cell phones in their pockets that automatically updated to the current time zone, airlines gave out convenient time converters to passengers on international flights. Have you been to any locations on this card?#52Objects#Timezones#TWA#AvGeekpic.twitter.com/wLliL46UVP
For the next 4 years, 90,000+ people signed up for a space trip and received these First Moon Flights Club cards. The card's back read, "Pan Am makes the going great: first in Latin America, first on the Atlantic, first on the Pacific, first round the world." #52Objects#PanAmpic.twitter.com/CjBLPFpq4R
There are more than a few inexplicable objects in our museum collection but this tabletop model featuring an aircraft on top of a walrus is one of the more peculiar ones. From the late 1930s, would this novelty item look at home on your desk today?#52Objectspic.twitter.com/yDCKIkZ1u6
An iconic airline livery collaboration between beloved Japanese brand Sanrio and EVA Air featured many themed amenities such as this Hello Kitty printed roll of toilet paper. #52objectspic.twitter.com/D4C5dy431S
San Franciscan Lincoln Beachey (1887–1915) performs in his biplane over the Panama-Pacific Intl Expo grounds in 1913. He was the first to perform a loop-the-loop in the U.S. and his repertoire of heart-stopping stunts made him the leading pioneer of aerial acrobatics #52Objectspic.twitter.com/jYrWmsqMS9
architectural drawing: Mills Field Municipal Airport of San Francisco, Contract No. 1, progress chart for grading; 1927 Transfer from San Francisco International Airport 1997.52.001 #52Objectshttps://t.co/dEXu0tktcR
An unusual object in our collection is a disposable obstetrical kit. Although a rare occurrence, babies are delivered onboard planes. This kit includes a disposable scalpel, a bulb aspirator, and a receiving blanket among other things needed to deliver a baby. #52objectspic.twitter.com/1UK2ISGLVS
When the new 1-million-square-foot terminal at Kansas City International Airport (MCI) officially opens on February 28, $5.6 million in newly commissioned art will be on display.
Alaska Airlines canceled our direct flight from Washington, DC to Seattle, WA on Sunday. And the rebooked route home gave the Stuck at The Airport team the gift of a 7-hour layover at New Orleans International Airport (MSY).
That gave us plenty of time to check out the fun shops, the bars, and the restaurants.
And all of the art.
We could identify just a few of the people pictured in this three-panel mural. And we’ve reached out to the airport for a key or list of them all.
In the meantime, let us know how many musicians you can ID in this great mural by Richard C. Thomas, called The Roux, which depicts 100 music legends from New Orleans.
Both murals are visible to passengers arriving and departing from Gates 7-11 and Gate 12.
Leo Gomez’s mural “GO EASY” features a dreamy Tampa Bay sunset, with welcoming colors, bold text, and silhouettes that evoke travel and nature.
Laura “Miss Crit” Spencer’s mural is inspired by Florida native flowers and is inhabited by a variety of bees, butterflies, and pollinators.
These new murals join the other amenities we love at PIE airport, including a great art collection, the PIE Pups animal therapy program, and the outdoor Bark Parks animal relief areas.
PIE Airport is also a great place to learn some aviation history.
PIE airport’s location on Tampa Bay, north of St. Petersburg lays claim to being the birthplace of commercial air transportation.
On January 1, 1914, barely a decade after the Wright Brothers’ pioneer flight at Kitty Hawk, the first ticket for air travel was sold by the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airport line to a fare-paying passenger.
St. Petersburg mayor A.C. Phiel (center in the photo below) paid $400 to be the first passenger on the St. Petersburg Tampa Bay Airport Line. That flight marked the beginning of commercial air transportation.
Courtesy Courtesy National Air and Space Museum Archives
A replica of the Benoist amphibious airplane flown on that inaugural flight is on display in the PIE baggage claim.
Except where noted, all photos are courtesy PIE Airport.
Fans of toy airplanes will enjoy the Toys Take Flight exhibit on view through the end of March 2023 in the Lambert Gallery at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL).
“Toy airplanes have been around longer than airplanes themselves,” the exhibit notes tell us. “The earliest model airplane, a glider powered by a rubber band, was created in 1871, 32 years before Orville and Wilbur Wright took their first flight. Through countless fads, innovations, and technological advances, toy airplanes have endured as a testament to humankind’s fascination with flight.”
Here are just a few of the toy airplanes on display at STL Airport.
Look for more toy airplanes on exhibit at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in the Lambert Gallery. It is located in Terminal 1 near Exit 11, close to the C Concourse Exit and is accessible to the public.
We’re not sure how we missed the announcement of this cool exhibit at Denver International Airport (DEN). But if you’re passing through DEN this month, be sure to take a moment to visit the Colorado Clay exhibit near the A-Bridge checkpoint.
Catch the Colorado Clay exhibit at DEN before it ends in mid-October. The exhibit is an exploration of the rich history and popularity of clay in Colorado. It's located near the A-Bridge checkpoint in Ansbacher Hall. https://t.co/BGAWPh6eyu#DENartpic.twitter.com/oZCUIqfnQ1
Houston Airports owns one of the country’s largest public art collections. Now it has an Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program.
During a three-month-long residency, visual artist and educator Jaymes Earl will work with textiles at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). Visual Artist and educator Mathieu JN Baptiste will paint at William P. Hobby Airport (HOU).
Houston Airports will provide each artist with an easel, a workstation, and a monthly stipend to cover their art supplies. And the traveling public will get to see artists at work. Both artists will be working in prominent spots in the airport and, to maximize interaction with travelers, they’ll be doing much of their work in the evenings and during weekends.
“As air travel returns to pre-pandemic levels and with these artists in the airports during the holidays, our travelers will have an extraordinary experience to enjoy art and culture without ever having to leave the airport,” said Alton DuLaney, Curator of Public Art for Houston Airports.
New York’s Albany International Airport (ALB) is getting ready to debut a new exhibition.
The sculptures and prints in the Lumen exhibition are by Shaina Gates, Heather Hutchison, and Ben Godward. And all the works in the exhibition are engaged with or activated by light.
“Visitors will experience shifts in the dimension and character of the artwork as sunlight and weather change over the course of a day or a season,” said Kathy Greenwood, Director of the Airport’s Art & Culture Program. “Each artist harnesses light and color through complex and somewhat mysterious processes.”
Assemblies of small, gem-like sculptures by Shaina Gates are made from expired black and white photographic sheet film.
The range of hues results from sun exposure and a host of chemical and chance conditions.
Ben Godward’s hand-pigmented resin sculptures are composed of translucent layers of brilliant color.
In the presence of light, these sculpture project radiant effects on the surfaces around them.
And Heather Hutchison’s minimal forms contain meticulously constructed optical shifts that are produced with layers of transparent and opaque materials conditions.
Lumen will be on display in the Albany International Airport Gallery, located pre-security on the third floor of the terminal, from September 24, 2022, through February 27, 2023. Hours: 7 am – 10 pm daily.
Your Body Is A Space That Sees” by Lia Halloran. Photo by SKA Studios LLC
Passengers traveling to or from Terminals 2 and 3 at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will see some new art in the terminals, courtesy of the airport’s partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
You Body is a Space That Sees
“Your Body is a Space That Sees” is by Los Angeles artist Lia Halloran and includes cyanotype images inspired by women’s contributions to science. Cyanotype is an early photographic printing process, invented in 1842, that creates blue “echoes” of the original image.
These pieces are part of a 40-part series that recalls telescopic views of the night sky first captured in photographic emulsion on glass plates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The images honor the discoveries of the Harvard Computers, who were a women who worked to process data collected by the Harvard College Observatory. The team developed a way to measure distance in space and created the star-classification system on which our current system is based.
Look for this work in the Terminal 2, Level 3 Hallway through Fall 2024.
Just What is Your Position
“Just What Is Your Position” by Renée Petropoulos. Photo by SKA Studios LLC.
“Just What Is Your Position”by Renée Petropoulos is now a permanent feature in the new Terminal 2/3 ticket lobby. The large-scale abstract painting was originally commissioned for the Fox Studio Lot and is made of acrylic on plywood panels. At 20-feet high by 38-feet long it will be hard to miss.
Little Wing
“Little Wing”by Krysten Cunningham is a site-specific, three-dimensional wall drawing made with white rope against a sky-blue painted wall. Look for this work in the Terminal 2, Level 3 lobby.
“Little Wing” by Krysten Cunningham. Photo by SKA Studios LLC
A Universal Shudder
A Universal Shudder” by Eve Fowler. Photo by SKA Studios LLC
And you’ll find “A Universal Shudder” by Eve Fowler, in the baggage claim level of Terminal 2.
This set of four site-specific murals uses phrases from author Gertrude Stein’s book of poetry “Tender Buttons.”
All images courtesy of Los Angeles World Airports and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Throughout and around the airport, passengers see art that draws on and invokes the themes of land, sea and sky.
This week, the Vancouver Airport Authority righted a past cultural wrong in the airport art program by installing a new Musquem Indian Band welcome figure near the International Arrivals Area, in Chester Johnson Park.
The newly raised welcome figure, carved by ʔəy̓xʷatələq (Musqueam artist Brent Sparrow), is visible when you exit YVR’s International Terminal and is in a spot significant to Musqueam culture.
Courtesy Vancouver Airport Authority
Musqueam are the original stewards of Sea Island, which is the land where the airport is now located. And, per an agreement made between the airport and the Musqueam in 2017, the Indigenous artworks at the airport and on Sea Island are to be created by Musqueam, reflect their culture and tradition, or be approved by the Musqueam.
That’s why the airport also moved three traditional Gitxsan poles from the airport to a nearby park.
The poles were created in 1970 by Gitxsan hereditary chiefs and students, and have been on loan to YVR from the Museum of Vancouver since 1995. The poles at YVR predate the airport’s agreement with Musqueam and were moved because, while Indigenous artwork, they do not represent the Musqueam, whose land they were on.
Barnes spent a year photographing and collecting specimens from over 150 plants growing in the Sharker Heritage Society’s herb garden, which is on the site of the first Shaker settlement in the United States.
The herb garden, and historic Shaker ‘gift’ or ‘spirit’ drawings, are the inspiration for the images and prints Barnes created during her year-long project going on view at Albany International Airport on July 16. There’s also a companion site-specific installation at the Shaker Heritage Society, which is a short walk from the airport.
At the Shaker Heritage Society’s 1856 Drying House, Barnes’ installation includes temporary murals on the exterior of the historic brick building. The images are stark blue and white silhouettes of herbs in bloom climbing the outside of the red brick walls. Inside, there are prints on fabric and hanging bunches of herbs from the garden. The murals and the installation will remain on view through summer 2023.
For the installation at Albany International Airport, Barnes made eight cyanotype paintings on paper with plants collected from the Shaker herb garden. (Cyanotype is an old photographic printing process that creates dark greenish-blue prints.)
These paintings are reproduced on aluminum panels that will be on view for three to five years in the pedestrian corridor linking the new south parking garage with the ticketing area.
On July 16, ALB Airport will also debut a six-month-long exhibition, called Planting Utopia, in the post-security Concourse A Gallery with artwork, preparatory sketches, and a documentary video about the collaboration.
(All images courtesy Albany International Airport)
