Indianapolis International Airport

IND Airport or INDY 500?

May 23, 2016Harriet BaskasArt, Exercise, SportsAirport art, Indianapolis International Airport, Indy 500

Throughout May, Indianapolis International Airport is helping celebrate the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 with audio installations that include the traditional call to “start your engines,” the sounds of revving engines and Jim Nabors’ final performance of “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

Through June, two art exhibits in the ticket hall at IND airport celebrate the 100th Indy 500 as well:

One exhibition features work by two of the 33 artists commissioned by the Arts Council of Indianapolis to create their interpretations of the “Welcome Race Fans” signs that appear throughout the city during May. A video running above the escalators leading down to the baggage claim is showing a video featuring the work of all 33 artists.

Also featured is an exhibit with work by Indianapolis painter Rene Crigler. Crigler, who works part-time as a race official at major events around the country.

New vintage race car at Indianapolis Int’l Airport

August 20, 2014Harriet BaskasExhibits, Museumsaiports, Indianapolis International Airport, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, Indy 500, Race cars

Cars inside an airport?

That’s a regular thing at Indianapolis International Airport, where the Dowgard Special #2 – known as The Grey Ghost – has joined the line-up of classic racing cars on loan from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.

Here’s some information about the car:

It was built in 1958-59 by Eddie Kuzma and was driven on one-mile tracks by Jim Rathmann, Ed Elisian, Bobby Grim, Jimmy McElreath and two-time National Champion Tony Bettenhausen, who won with it at Phoenix in 1959.

It became known as “The Grey Ghost” after a rush repair job in 1962 led to an appearance at a track in gray primer. Look for it on Concourse B near the exit to Civic Plaza.

The airport’s release also refers to the racing car as a ‘dirt car’ – and says that, according to the museum, other than the Indianapolis 500, most National Championship races held between the early 1930s and the late 1950s were dirt track “100-milers,” with the popular events still counting toward the national title as late as 1970. These dual-purpose, solidly built cars won the 500 in 1950, ’51 and ’52, and were still in the lineup as late as 1956.

Fresh art at IND Airport

January 11, 2014Harriet BaskasAirports, ArtAirport art, Indianapolis International Airport

The video above is the latest addition to On Screen, the video-based component of the art program at Indianapolis International Airport (IND).

Time Lapsed, by Flounder Lee, takes “as-it-happened” footage of activity at IND over a three-month period in early spring of 2013 to create a multi-dimensional portrait of how and where people move through time and space.

Look for Time Lapsed on the IND video wall through June 2014.

Fresh Art at Indianapolis International Airport

May 5, 2013Harriet BaskasArtaiport amenities, Indianapolis International Airport

David Kleeman, Jump-Flyer, found objects, 2012

A fresh batch of art has been installed at Indianapolis International Airport (IND) and among the work that will be on display through August 4 are some of the odd and endearing creatures created by Indianapolis-based David Kleeman, a painter and sculptor who combines found objects with clay and wood elements.

David Kleeman, Naked, wood, stone, copper and found objects, 1996

You can find more of Kleeman’s work here.

The new batch of art also includes work by Walter Lobyn Hamilton,, who makes art out of vinyl records, and a selection from Brigid Manning-Hamilton’s 2011 Elements in the Landscape series, for which she photographed natural objects and man-made structures in the Indiana landscape, altered the images with Photoshop, printed them on silk using freezer paper and a digital printer and stitched through layers of the printed silk with rayon, silk, and cotton threads.

Brigid Manning-Hamilton, Oasis on U.S. 41, silk with silk and cotton thread, 2011

Fresh art Indianapolis International Airport

January 28, 2013Harriet BaskasAirports, ArtIndianapolis International Airport

There are several fresh art installations at Indianapolis International Airport, including video animation, photography, videography, hand-blown glass, metal sculpture, paintings, beadwork and more.

Here’s a preview:

Barry Anderson’s Lawn Ornaments will be displayed on the airport’s video wall through June.

“In Lawn Ornaments, Anderson creates a bug’s-eye view of a slow march across a suburban lawn, with roiling clouds above, subtle images in the grass, and the occasional leap of a snail shell. The original version is 3-1/2 minutes long, with five computers taking the better part of a week to render it for the On Screen program.”

In addition to hand-blown glass and metal sculptures by Lisa Pelo and other new pieces, IND airport will be displaying Rights of Passage , by Anila Quayyum Agha. The work (sample above) incorporates “motifs from the graves of women at the Makli Hill necropolis near the Indus River Delta in Pakistan, where the designs on the graves resemble the embroidered garments and jewelry the women wore in life.”

More information about what’s up, art-wise, at Indianapolis International Airport here.