Exhibits

Photos of San Francisco’s Fillmore District at SFO

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SFO DAVID JOHNSON PHOTOS

Carousel/Father & Daughter, 1950 by David Johnson

My buddy Michael Johnson sent me a note last week:

“My dad’s photography work is up at SFO’s international terminal.”

Boy is it!

Not sure why I didn’t know this before, but Michael’s dad is David Johnson. And David Johnson “was the first African American student of Ansel Adams. In Adams’ school, Johnson was advised to photograph his own neighborhood and document the faces and places with which he was most familiar. He subsequently became an important chronicler of black life in San Francisco in the middle part of the 20th century.”

SFO DAVID JOHNSON Couple Dancing


Couple Dancing, SF c.1952; David Johnson

An exhibition of Johnson’s work “San Francisco’s Fillmore District 1940s -1960s”  is at San Francisco International Airport, in Terminal 1, B3-Gate 36 through the end of January.

Go see it.

Museum Monday: History of 3D photography at PDX

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If you’re traveling to or through Portland International Airport (PDX) this week, make sure to take a look at the exhibit in Terminal E focusing on the history of 3D photography and film in Oregon.

3D photography exhibit at Portland Airport

The exhibit features 3D technology from the invention of the stereoscopic viewer to the View-Master, which was invented and manufactured in Portland.

(Courtesy: The Passenger; via Creative Commons)

Also included is a ¼ scale garden set and puppets from the movie Coraline, by LAIKA, a Portland-based  animation company. Coraline was the first stop-motion feature to be conceived and photographed in stereoscopic 3D.

PDX Coraline

Fresh art at Tampa International Airport

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Tampa International Airport is one those airports with an extensive, eclectic and very valuable, collection of permanent public art.

Some of my favorite pieces in the collection include the 22 tapestries in the baggage claim area made by 20 women from Phumalanga, Swaziland in Africa.

Tampa Airport Tapestries

(Photo courtesy Tampa Airport)

And the seven WPA-era murals by George Snow Hill depicting the history of flight.

Tampa airport murals

These murals are especially incredible to see because they were ignored for years and almost destroyed.

From the airport’s website:

In the late 1930’s, local artist George Snow Hill was commissioned to create these murals to adorn the walls of Tampa’s newly built Peter O. Knight Airport. Hill artistically interpreted the history of flight through the contributions made by Icarus and Daedalus, Archimedes, The Montgolfier Brothers, Otto Lilienthal, Tony Jannus, The Wright Brothers, and a triptych, capturing the first scheduled airline flight in history.

The murals were removed from the walls of the Peter O. Knight Airport upon demolition in 1965, and restored by George Snow Hill himself. In 1971, they were relocated to the new terminal building, where only the triptych and the Wright Brothers mural hung in the airport’s executive suite. The others were rolled and placed in storage, untouched for years.

You can read more about the Tampa airport’s art collection here, but be sure to scroll down to the notes about a brand new temporary exhibit featuring blown glass vessels and sculptures by Owen Pach, on display in the airport’s renovated art gallery.

Owen Pach glass art at Tampa

“Fiery Passion – The Beauty of Glass”will be on display through March 2011.

For more information about Owen Pach, see this website.

And for a general guide to Tampa International Airport, see my list of airport guides on USATODAY.com.

Daylight Saving Time: where to watch the clock

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Clock turn back time

(Boston: courtesy Marriott’s Custom House)

Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at 2 a.m. Sunday morning when we “fall back” to standard time by turning our clocks back one hour.

As you rush around resetting the clocks on the microwave, the TV and the bedside alarm, imagine yourself watching time fly in one of the clock-worthy cities I included in the slide-show-style story I put together for msnbc.com this week: How time flies! Where to see the world’s clocks.

Grand Central Terminal clock

(Courtesy Metro-North Railroad)

The story includes the information booth clock at New York City’s Grand Central Station, clock and watch museums in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, what may be the oldest continually running town clock (in Winnsboro, South Carolina), and the Bily Clocks Museum in Spillville, Iowa, which is home to 43 intricately carved clocks, some more than ten feet tall, made by Joseph and Frank Bily over the course of 45 years.

Dvorak clock Bily Brothers

The Bily Brothers’ clocks have themes ranging from art and religion to history and culture. The collection includes an American Pioneer History Clock, an Apostle Clock, a violin-shaped clock honoring Czech composer Antonin Dvorkak (above) and an airplane-shaped clock (below) made to commemorate Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight. (That propeller moves!)

Lindbergh Bily Clocks Museum

(Courtesy: Bily Clocks Museum)

In researching the story, I also came upon this film documenting the incredible video mapping project done to mark the 600th anniversary of Prague’s astronomical clock in Old Town Square.

Museum Monday: 75 years at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

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There are more than 700 aviation and space-related museums in this country. Each Monday we try to profile one of them.  Eventually we’ll visit them all.

This week, we’re stopping at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which has an exhibit of photos, videos and historic memorabilia celebrating its 75th anniversary.

History exhibit at Phoenix Sky Harbor

According to airport history notes, the city of Phoenix purchased Sky Harbor Airport on July 16, 1935 for $100,000. That November, a dedication event took place that included speeches, an aerial circus performance and a dinner dance.

The original terminal building, hangar and tower were located on the north side of today’s airport property and at one time a chapel with a bell stood at the entrance of the airport.

Sky Harbor wedding chapel

Arizona didn’t require a three-day waiting period for couples wanting to get married, so the airport hoped to generate business by having an on-site wedding chapel for couples wanting to tie the knot as soon as possible.

Interested in learning more about the history of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport?

75 Years of Nonstop Service will be on exhibit until March 13, 2011 in the pre-security area of Terminal 3.  You can also go online, to Sky Harbor’s History section to watch video clips and read excerpts from research done for the airport’s 50th anniversary.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport pilot log

Museum Monday: Liverpool John Lennon Airport

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On Saturday, October 9th, fans around the world will mark what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday.

One place they remember Lennon year-round is at the Liverpool John Lennon Airport:

Outside the airport, they’ve got this Yellow Submarine:

Inside the airport, there’s a statue of John Lennon

Johh Lennon Statue liverpool Airport

Song lyrics written by John Lennon

And even some of this suits:

Museum Monday: Discover the Airport! Exhibit at Syracuse Airport

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There are more than 700 aviation and space-related museums in this country.

Each Monday we visit one of them.  Eventually we’ll hit them all.

This week’s pick: the Discover the Airport! Exhibit at New York’s Syracuse Hancock International Airport.

The exhibit is located right there in the main lobby of the airport terminal and includes the cockpit of a Boeing 727, landing gear, a baggage tug, a mock air control tower and a “marshaller” display that lets you learn about – and practice – signaling techniques needed to help aircraft take-off and land safely.

Sounds like fun!

Know of another great aviation or space museum? Let us know and it may be featured on a future edition of Museum Monday here at StuckatTheAirport.com.

Syracuse Hancock Airport luggage tug

Polar Bears and Musk Ox at Anchorage Airport

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Ted Stevens, the former senator from Alaska who died in a plane crash earlier this week, had the pleasure of seeing a lot of things named for him while he was alive.

The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is one of them. 

Ted Stevens Anchorage Airport

The terminal offers free wireless Internet access and is home to the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame and an impressive display of Alaska Native Art.

Alaska Native Art at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport

photo courtesy Kathy Gronau

Photo courtesy Kathy Gronau

It’s been a while since I’ve been up there, but I’m planning to head that way soon.

If for no other reason than to wander the terminal checking out the airport’s collection of taxidermy Black Bears, Kodiak Brown Bears, Polar Bears and a Musk Ox.

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Polar Bear

Who says airports must be boring?

Musk Ox on display at Anchorage International Airport

Book art at Albany International Airport (ALB)

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In New York, the Albany International Airport (ALB) Art and Culture Program has just kicked off “The Imaged Word,” an exhibition featuring works by a variety of artists all on the theme of books and the words inside them.  Most of the work is in the airport’s (pre-security) third floor gallery, the same floor as the Observation Gallery, but at least one piece makes impressive use of the stairwell leading to the gallery.

Here are a few samples of what you’ll see.

Imaged Word at Albany Airport - Building Bridges

Detail from Aaron Stephan's "Building Bridges"

Aaron Stephan’s Building Bridges installation is made up of eight foot high arched columns of books arranged so that they seem to recede into the distance of a darkened room.

In See No Evil, an altered book by Robert The, a scarab (talisman for warding off evil) seems to be escaping from a book filled with photographs of New York State politicians and influential people.

Robert The's "See No Evil"

Robert The's "See No Evil" - altered book

And in Hanging Index #20:Last Lines, by Scott McCarney, pages of a book have been cut, line by line, so that they cascade out of the book into a cloud of text that hovers over the stairwell leading to the gallery.

Work by Scott McCarney

Scott McCarney's "Hanging Index #20: Last Lines"

The Imaged Word will be at New York’s Albany International Airport through January 9, 2011.

Museum Monday: LAX Flight Path Learning Center and Museum

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There are close to 700 aviation & space museums around the county and in my recent msnbc.com column Aviation and Space Museums that Soar, I only had room to list six of them. The best of the rest we’ll get to know here, during Museum Mondays on StuckatTheAirport.com.

Last week, it was the New England Air Museum at Bradley International Airport in Windsor, CT.  This week, we’ll take a look at the Flight Path Learning Center and Museum, in the Imperial Terminal (once the home MGM Grand Airlines) on the south perimeter of Los Angeles International Airport.

LAX FLIGHT PATH Museum

(Photo courtesy: Kate Sedlmayr, KES Consulting.aero)

In addition to special exhibits, Flight Path features historic murals that depict the history of aviation in Southern California along with model airplanes, photographs, airline uniforms and a wide variety of artifacts and memorabilia that tell the story of Southern California-based airlines, aircraft manufacturers, and aerospace companies.

LAX Flight Path Museum airplane models

The exhibits inside the museum are great, but for many the real attraction is what passes by the museum’s windows:  the museum looks out onto LAX runways and visitors can watch airplanes take off and land.

LAX - A380 visits

(Photo courtesy Paul Haney)

Want to visit? The Flight Path Learning Center and Museum is located on the south perimeter of Los Angeles International Airport, a very short drive or cab ride from the airline terminals. Admission is free. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A great time to visit the Flight Path Learning Center and Museum would be on Saturday July 17th, 2010 at 10 a.m. when the museum presents an audiovisual salute to 50 years of jet passenger service at Los Angeles International Airport that will include are photos and archival film clips of early passenger jets and jet terminal development at LAX.

(Photo courtesy: Kate Sedlmayr, KES Consulting.aero)

Do you have a favorite aviation or space museum? If so, please tell us about it in the comments below and it may end up featured on a future edition of Museum Monday at StuckatTheAirport.com.

Thanks to Paul Haney and Kate Sedlmayr for help with this week’s Museum Monday