Museums

New SFO Museum exhibit features Chinese ceramics

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If you’re heading to or through San Francisco International Airport (SFO) anytime soon, be sure to look for some of the permanent and temporary exhibits offered throughout the terminals by the SFO Museum.

One of the newest, titled Everyday Elegance in Chinese Ceramics, features an assortment of functional wares from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries representing various regions in China.

The exhibit includes oil lamps in the shape of animals, colorful hat stands, lively guardian lions or “foo dogs,” blue-and-white porcelain, rustic food storage jars, and more.

According to the exhibition notes:

Everyday objects are frequently embellished with a host of auspicious symbols to increase the likelihood of wish fulfillment. Rebuses or pictorial puns found on ceramics convey a variety of desires, from a harmonious marriage to the securing of rank, wealth, and longevity. Decorative motifs often take the form of flowers, birds, animals, children, or geometric designs. 

Looke for Everyday Elegance in Chinese Ceramics, in the pre-security area of the International Departures Hall (Gallery 4D) at San Francisco International Airport through mid-August.

All images courtesy of SFO Museum

Snaps from the National Neon Sign Museum

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On a recent road trip through Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, the Stuck at the Airport museum reporter came upon the National Neon Sign Museum in the charming town of The Dalles, Oregon.

Unfortunately, the museum was closed the day were were in town. Fortunately, museum director David Benko answered the phone when we called and agreed to open the museum for a special tour.

Benko is a longtime neon sign collector, a neon expert, and a skilled neon sign designer who has amassed more than 300 neon signs as well as a vast collection of artifacts related to the invention of neon and its evolution as an advertising tool.

He’s turned the Elks Temple in The Dalles into a neon sign shrine, with a movie theater for showing films about neon; an exhibit devoted to Georges Claude, the French engineer who invented neon tubing; rooms filled with brightly lit neon advertising signs; and an event space designed to look like a small town Main Street in the era when every shop had a neon sign.

This one’s a winner and a great reason to plan a trip to The Dalles, Oregon.

Museum Monday at LAX and SFO airports

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Say “Hi, Barbie!” at Flight Path Museum at LAX

A visit to the Flight Path Museum and Learning Center at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is an avgeek delight anytime.

Located on LAX property, a short drive or taxi ride from the terminals, the museum includes one of the largest airline uniform collections, as well as space exploration memorabilia, a great research library, and a wide range of commercial aviation artifacts.

Right now is an especially good time to visit because the museum has Barbiemania. In honor of the new Barbie movie, the museum is showing an exhibit of aviation-themed Barbies and Barbie accessories, including Barbie dolls inspired by famous aviators, including Bessie Coleman and Amelia Earhart.

Unconventional enamels at SFO Airport

The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) oversees twenty-five sites throughout the airport terminals. So if you’ve got a long walk to your gate or a long layover at SFO, it’s a good bet something will catch your eye.

One of the newest exhibitions at SFO features the unconventional enameled art of June Schwarcz (1918–2015) on view in the Harvey Milk Terminal 1, Departures Level 2, Galley 1 E now through early May 2024.

Here’s an intro to Schwarcz’s work from the SFO Museum;

Inspired by nature and fashion, as well as abstract, African, and Asian art, Schwarcz developed unique metalworking techniques, always experimenting and embracing complex technical challenges. She initially worked with copper panels and spun-copper bowls, infusing them with her own interpretation of traditional enameling. During the 1960s, Schwarcz pioneered electroforming, an innovative method that involved electroplating pieces made from thin copper foil. Schwarcz focused on sculptural vessels and when asked about her abstract forms, she explained, “They simply don’t hold water.” 

(Images of June Schwarcz’s artwork courtesy of SFO Museum and the collection of Forrest L. Merrill)

Museum Monday: Posters for Boeing’s canceled supersonic transport (SST) aircraft

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They are easy to miss as you cross the pedestrian bridge connecting the main campus of Seattle’s sprawling Museum of Flight to the museum’s Space Gallery and Aviation Pavilion across the street.

But as part of the delightful Art+Flight exhibit currently underway at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, there is a display of charming motivational posters created for the Boeing Model 2707, a supersonic transport (SST) aircraft developed in the 1960s to compete with the British and French Concorde.

Boeing had a government contract to develop and build the supersonic airliner, but the contract was canceled in 1971 before the prototypes were even completed.

These posters are from the archives of the Museum of Flight, which says all it really knows about them is that they were made as motivational posters for employees working on the 2707 SST program during the 1960s. The colors and imagery clearly take influences from the pop art of the time. And the messages and slogans are all about making the plane as light as can be.


Images are courtesy of Seattle Museum of Flight’s Holden Withington Boeing SST Poster Collection and the Clarence S Howell Collection of Boeing SST Posters

The Days of Drag Racing at John Wayne Airport

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In the 1950s, when ‘hot rods’ were all the rage in Southern California, and John Wayne Airport (SNA) was officially called the Orange County Airport, sanctioned drag racing took place on one of the airport runways.

According to the Lyon Air Museum, an aviation and automobile museum on the west side of the airport, in June 1950 Santa Ana local C.J. “Pappy” Hart struck a deal with Orange County to use a portion of an unused runway for drag racing.

He promised to give 10% of the proceeds to the county. And the country’s first official commercial drag strip was born.

Racing was held every Sunday, from dawn to dusk, on what became known as the Santa Ana Drag Strip and continued until Sunday, June 21, 1959. 

The Lyon Air Museum is paying tribute to those drag races with a new exhibit, Santa Ana Drags and Beyond: America’s First Official Drag Strip, running July 1 through September 4, 2023.

Bean Bandit Dragster

Joining the history-making drag racing cars on display during the Santa Ana Drags and Beyond exhibit is the famed Bean Bandit Dragster. 

The Bean Bandits was one of the earliest drag racing teams and was organized in San Diego in 1949 to pool its member resources so they could afford to go drag racing.

Known for its Mexican membership, the Lyon Air Museum says the club in reality consisted of multiple ethnic groups, including Anglo, African-American, Asian, and Lebanese members.

“A few months after Santa Ana Drag Strip opened, the Bean Bandit Dragster was built. Within a short period, the dragster was winning races at Santa Ana Drag Strip, as well as all over California. The Bean Bandits went on to win hundreds of races and are still racing on the dry lakes, salt flats, and select drag strips where they continue their tradition of breaking records.”

(All photos courtesy Lyon Air Museum)

The latest from the SFO Museum

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If you miss your flight at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) blame it on the curators of the SFO Museum.

At any one time, there are perhaps 20 top-notch exhibitions on view throughout the terminals, spanning everything from vintage radios and Victorian wallpaper to all manner of aviation history.

And each exhibit will make you want to stop and stay a while.

One of the newest exhibitions, Recollections… From the Unkown Museum, on display through March 2024 in Terminal 2, offers selections and creations culled from a quirky collection of vintage pop culture artifacts.

A well-known ‘secret’ museum in Mill Valley, CA since the mid-1970s and now artist Mickey McGowan’s private collection, the Unknown Museum is filled with a mass amount of objects dating from the 1940s to the 1980s. The museum is an “exploration into America’s brain” and a “complete immersion in conceptual art and American consumerism.”

Among other things.

 Recollections… from the Unknown Museum at SFO Airport is a sampling of the many fantastic art and object installations on display at various locations of the museum from the mid-1970s through the present.

“My original intent was to rescue these items, to provide them with a rest home for the remainder of their days,” museum curator and archivist Mickey McGowan said back in 1988.

Thank goodness he did.

Here are some snaps from the exhibit, courtesy of SFO Museum, and Mickey McGowan.

Visiting: Indiana Medical History Museum

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“Are you SURE you want me to drop you off here?” the Uber driver said as she turned left onto the road to the abandoned-looking grounds of the former Central State Hospital near the west side of Indianapolis.

“This doesn’t look right.”

But that is exactly where were wanted to be.

Central State Hospital, which opened in 1848, was originally known as the “Indiana Hospital for the Insane,” and the grounds sprawled across 160 acres. During the 150 years the hospital was open, people diagnosed with everything from schizophrenia, depression (melancholia), and hysteria to alcoholism, and epilepsy were patients here.

The hospital’s Pathology Department building, which first opened in 1896 for the purpose of studying the conditions of the hospital patients, is now the Indiana Medical History Museum.

Courtesy IMHM

It’s also the oldest surviving pathology facility in the nation. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. And it still has much of its scientifically equipped interior intact.

Courtesy IMHM

We joined a tour that made stops in the teaching amphitheater, various laboratories, the library, the autopsy room, and the early-day anatomical museum which houses preserved specimens–mostly brains, organized by pathology.

Laboratory – courtesy IMHM

Here are some more images from the museum.

Autopsy table

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Visiting: Indy’s Teeny Statue of Liberty Museum

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Indy’s Teeny Statue of Liberty Museum, on East Tenth Street in Indianapolis, IND, is home to Tim Harmon’s collection of about 1000 items portraying or bearing the image of the Statue of Liberty.

The museum is about 10 feet by 16 feet (hence, “teeny”, says Harmon) and resides in the front room of a building created by enclosing an alley.

Harmon says his collection started innocently with a handful of Statues of Liberties arranged on the back of his toilet tank. “Then there was no reason to stop,” he said. “And when you collect you get a shelf, then you get a couple of shelves, then people start giving you things. And in my case, it was Statues of Liberties.”

And then it was Indy’s Teeny Statue of Liberty Museum.

“The museum’s not patriotic,” says Harmon. “The museum just is what it is. It’s a museum filled with Statues of Liberty.”

Here are some snaps from our tour of Indy’s Teeny Statue of Liberty Museum.

Statue of Liberty tape measure
Statue of Liberty door knob
Teeny Lego Statue of Liberty

Visiting: the World’s Biggest Children’s Museum

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Courtesy The Children’s Museum

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis dates back to 1925 and now, with more than 130,00 artifacts and more than 4,00 programs, is the world’s largest children’s museum.

Highlights include the Dinsophere, the historic carousel, a 55-ton steam engine, cultural exhibits, a 43-foot tall tower of Chihuly glass, an international space station exhibit, and a plethora of sports-themed, interactive outdoor exhibits.

If you visit, be sure to set a good part of your day, because it’s the kind of attraction that offers something surprising and engaging at every turn for both kids and adults.

Behind The Scenes At The Children’s Museum

Like most museums, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis can only display a very small part of its collection. And with such a large collection, that means that a lot of really great stuff is kept in storage.

Lucky for us, Chris Carron, the museum’s Director of Collections, offers occasional behind-the-scenes tours of the treasures.

Here are just a few of our favorites.

The Children’s Museum has the world’s largest collection of Mr. Potato Head memorabilia

Inside this matchbox is a diorama of a village populated with dress fleas. It is one of the smallest objects in the collection.

This Steiff bear was once used as a store display. It’s big, but the museum’s dinosaurs are far bigger.

February is Museum Month in Seattle & San Diego

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If you love visiting museums, you probably love visiting museums for free.

(Who wouldn’t?)

And during February visitors to both Seattle and San Diego can take advantage of special Museum Month programs that offer great savings on museum visits.

Seattle Museum Month

February is Seattle Museum Month. And during this promotion, any guest who stays just one night at one of the participating downtown hotels receives a pass that offers half-price admission at more than 30 museums and attractions around the region.

The pass is good for up to 4 guests for the entire month.

In Seattle, the list of participating museums includes the Burke Museum, Chihuly Garden and Glass, the Museum of Pop Culture, the Seattle Aquarium, the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Flight, the Woodland Park Zoo, and many more. The participating hotels range from budget to swanky.

February is off-season in the Emerald City and there are already great hotel deals pretty much everywhere. Add in a pass that gets you half-off many of the museums and attractions in Seattle and other cities in the region and it’s just a super great deal.

That goes for locals seeking a ‘staycation’ or anyone considering a visit.

San Diego Museum Month

San Diego Natural History Museum – Fossil Mysteries

 San Diego Museum Month is back this February for its 34th year.

This year the popular program has more than 60 museums historic sites, gardens, aquariums, and other cultural destinations and attractions throughout San Diego County offering half-priced admissions all month.

In San Diego, the list of participating museums includes the Comic-Con Museum, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego Air & Space Museum, the Maritime Museum of San Diego, and dozens more.

The free San Diego Museum Month pass can be downloaded here.

Public libraries in San Diego County also have passes to distribute.

Each Museum Month pass can be used for up to four half-priced admissions at any of the participating museums until February 28, 2023.

Have fun!