airport exhibitions

Victorian Wallpaper at SFO

Art, , , ,

Is SFO an airport or a museum?

Now that we’re back to traveling more, we’re delighted to have the opportunity to visit San Francisco International Airport (SFO), home to the SFO Museum, which is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

SFO is both an airport AND a museum. So, we always make sure to choose the longest layover we can when changing planes at SFO. Not just because we love airports, but because we also love museums. And the SFO Museum always has multiple exhibitions scattered throughout the terminals.

One of the newest exhibitions is The Victorian Papered Wall, which is on view in the International Terminal Main Hall.

Why have an exhibition about wallpaper?

From the press release:

From its inception, wallpaper imitated luxurious materials, providing a more affordable alternative to tapestries, fabrics, mural paintings, and architectural elements. Crafted in repeating rolls and pasted to walls, this decorative art has an ephemeral quality unlike any other. Wallpaper reflects the design styles popular at the time, and in the late nineteenth century during the Victorian Era (1837–1901), walls richly came to life. English “design reformers” insisted on abstract, flat patterns, opposing fashionable French three-dimensional designs. Meanwhile, the Aesthetic Movement, which burgeoned in England, emphasized artful interiors in the 1870s and ‘80s. Eclecticism prevailed—designers drew freely from world cultures and centuries past.

This exhibition features art wallpapers created by Bradbury & Bradbury, based in Benicia, CA. The company hand silkscreens hundreds of historic designs using oil-based paints. Their most complex paper, St. James, requires seventeen individually applied colors. In addition to Victorian-era patterns, the company makes wallpaper using patterns from the Art Deco era, the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. We’re hoping to find the wallpaper from our childhood home in there somewhere.

Here are more samples of the wall and ceiling papers you’ll see in six Victorian-era room sets at SFO.

All images courtesy SFO Museum.

Exquisite airplane models on view at SFO Museum

aviation, Aviation history, Exhibits, Museums, , , ,

Hughes H-4 Hercules (“Spruce Goose”) model. Courtesy SFO Museum

A new exhibition from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport features almost  three hundred 1:72 scale (one inch = six feet) models of pioneer, sport and commercial aircraft made with plastic, wood, metal, wire, string, and epoxy and detailed with paint and decals.

Air France Concorde SST (Super Sonic Transport) model aircraft. Courtesy SFO Museum

The models come from the collection of Jim Lund, a Bay Area native who made aircraft models as a kid and returned to the practice as an adult.

“Numerous models were constructed or modified from kits produced by manufacturers worldwide,” exhibit notes tell us,  and “In the many instances when no kit was available, Lund crafted the model parts from scratch based on manufacturers’ plans using the ‘vacuform’ process—a method that creates plastic parts from his hand-carved wood forms.”

Aviation Evolutions: The Jim Lund 1:72 Scale Model Airplane Collection is on view pre-security on Depatures Level 3 through May 13, 2018.

Here are some more examples of what’s on view.

 

American Airways Curtiss Condor T-32 airliner model aircraft. Courtesy SFO Museum

 

SCADTA (Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transporte Aéreo) Junkers F.13 airliner model aircraft . Courtesy SFO Museum

 

Dornier Do X flying boat airliner model aircraft. Courtesy SFO Museum

Vintage purses on display at SFO Museum

Exhibits, , ,

SFO VINTAGE PURSE ALLIGATOR

Alligator claws handbag early 1900s Courtesy SFO Museum

A new exhibition at San Francisco International Airport features vintage and antique bags from the 18th to the 20th century that will have you rethinking the way you carry around your everyday essentials.

SFO Vintage purse lady

Scenic beaded purse c. 1914. Courtesy SFO Museum

Once, both men and women wore purses attached to their belts or fabric bands that hung from waist.

Interior pockets were invented at the end of the 16th century, and men began discarding their purses and stuffing their money and personal items in their pockets instead.

That left women holding the bags, which evolved into the indispensable accessories and decorative art and fashion objects on view in the SFO Museum’s latest offering – Essential Style: Vintage and Antique Purses- in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at SFO Airport through July 24, 2016.

Items on exhibit are on loan from the Antique Purse Collectors Society.

Here are some more images of the vintage bags and purses on display:

SFO VINTAGE PURSE3

Arts and Crafts-style handbags c. 1920s. Courtesy SFO Museum

SFO Museum purse colored

Spiderweb design needlework purse c. 1820. Courtesy SFO Museum

 

 

 

 

Museum Monday: Toy Story at SFO Museum

Exhibits, family travel, Fun Stuff, , , ,

Woody Bud Luckey reproduction of marker on paper Courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios -

Woody
Bud Luckey
reproduction of marker on paper
Courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios –

A new exhibition from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the Toy Story film with a presentation of artwork and artifacts from Pixar.

Early Woody and Woody - cast urethane resin Courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios -

Early Woody and Woody – cast urethane resin
Courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios –

Included in Toy Story at Twenty are maquettes, modeling sculptures, creative props and images that illustrate the development of Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang. Look for the fun exhibit, pre-security, in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby through May 22, 2016.

Aliens - Courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios

Aliens – Courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios