Now through April 29, the airport’s Spring 2025 Performing Arts Resident, Poets Underground, will be onsite in the terminals at their luggage-inspired stage called The Great Poetic Baggage Exchange.
The artists will be inviting and enticing travelers to engage in conversations and mural paintings around five travel-inspired themes: Adventure, Baggage, Connection, Checkpoint and Rise.
The stories and images gathered at SAN will help the arts residents create poems and other artworks that will be then be featured in three airport performances on May 2, 6, and 8.
Mirror, Mirror exhibition at San Diego Int’l Airport
Mirror Mirror, the newest temporary exhibition on display at San Diego International Airport (SAN), features more than 100 works by 16 contemporary artists from the region, all exploring the fascinating interplay between light, color, and space.
(Artist: Sophia Allison)
SAN’s Mirror, Mirror exhibition draws on the legacy of the California artists who were part of the 1960s Southern California Light and Space movement.
According to exhibition notes, artists were inspired by the unique quality of Southern California’s light “revolutionized minimalism” by using then-new light-interactive materials such as resin, plastics and neon.
The light-interactive materials were handy, thanks to the local aerospace manufacturing and industrial design industries.
Look for the Mirror, Mirror exhibit at San Diego International Airport in both the pre- and post-security areas of Terminal 2 throughout 2025.
Here are some travel tidbits to get the week started
(The night sky above Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Burrell Schmidt Telescope. Courtesy KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J.Dai)
Things are looking up in Tucson
You’ve likely heard of Donut Trails, Cocktail Trails, Pie Trails and Barbecue Trails.
They are all good ways to explore a city or a region.
Now there’s an Astro Trailin Tucson, Arizona that highlights night sky viewing options.
Available as a web app and printed guide, the Astro Trail is billed as your “personal guide to the galaxy,” exploring all the dark-sky-related stops in Tucson.
The trail includes world-class astronomy institutes such as Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Richard F Caris Mirror Lab where the largest telescope lenses in the world are made, to casual stargazing at national and state parks.
We’re planning our trip there now.
San Diego Int’l Airport Presents Dance Performances Inspired by Travelers’ Stories
As part of San Diego International Airport’s (SAN) Performing Arts Residency Program, San Diego-based dance company Malahock Dance will present newly choreographed works in Terminal 2 West on January 27, 29, and February 3 at 2 p.m.
The dances are inspired by the diverse stories of nearly three dozen passengers who have traveled through the airport and reflect the dance company’s three-month residency inside the airport.
During the residency, the dancers talked with nearly 300 travelers and ultimately collected 30 oral histories from passengers of all ages about their San Diego experience. The dancers interpreted these histories into dance, developing their choreography in the airport where travelers and visitors could witness the creative process unfold.
Airports helping to save the earth
Airports pretty much everywhere are doing what they can these days to be light on the earth.
Recycling bins at airports were once a rare sight, but now you’ll see them pretty much everywhere.
But figuring out which bin to put your discards in can be confusing.
We’ve stood in front of bins trying to figure out if our coffee cup is compostable or recyclable. And what about the lid?
The airport uses an AI-assisted tool called Oscar, from Intuitive AI, that helps passengers sort waste items into the proper compost, recycling, or trash bins.
When someone walks up to the machine, which is mounted over the bins, they place an item in front of a camera for the system to analyze. Oscar then tells the user which bin to use to dispose of the item. For those worried about privacy, the cameras only capture images of the waste items presented and not the person presenting the item.
Look for the Oscar at SEA Airport in the Central Terminal, the North Concourse, the South Concourse near gate S2, and in the C Concourse near gate C17.
This is Oscar, the new AI waste-sorting technology that will help you sort your waste. When users walk up to the machine, they place an item in front of a camera for the system to analyze. Oscar then tells the user which bin to use to dispose of the item. 🗑️♻️ pic.twitter.com/1eWojZTkB7
California’s Long Beach Airport (LGB), which officially identifies as “America’s coolest airport,” is also doing its part to save the earth and recently shared this video about all the food waste it has been keeping out of landfills.
🌱 We’ve diverted 35 tons (70,000 lbs) of food waste from landfills since 2021, thanks to our food scrap recycling program with @PLshopdinefly! ♻️ Together, we’re reducing greenhouse gas emissions and turning scraps into compost. ➡️ https://t.co/R3i5LnTzwppic.twitter.com/M3mTE7GOR5
A Necessary Departure is a collection of works from 17 local artists and organizations that examines personal transformations and how the community has remade itself after the pandemic.
Featured work in the exhibition includes sculpture, painting, photography, ceramics, site-specific installation, and more. All exhibition pieces will remain on display through 2023.
Here is a sample of artwork from the show.
[“Oneness.” Artist: San Diego MTO School/Kerry Soori McEachern. Location: Terminal 2 East, Pre-Security, Gallery]
(“The Wonders of Plastic”/ Artist: Terri Hughes-Oelrich/Location: Terminal 2 East 2nd floor, Post-Security, gate 24)
Back in 2019 San Diego International Airport (SAN) partnered with local brewery Ballast Point and an industrial water purification company to create a special beer called SAN Test Pilot.
The beer was a sellout. Even though (or perhaps because) the water for the beer came from condensate that was dripping from the bottom of air conditioning units attached to the airport jet bridges.
Now SAN is at it again. The East Village Brewing Compan has two beers made with purified condensate collected at the airport.
Hoppy Travels IPA is a West Coast IPA with flavors of grapefruit and guava. Pre-Flight Pils is a German-style pilsner with bready and lemon zest flavors.
Both beers are currently on tap at The East Village Brewing Company and will soon be available at San Diego International Airport’s Terminal 2.
We can’t wait to taste them.
Here’s a video that explains how air-conditioning drippings at San Diego International Airport (SAN) become great-tasting, good-for-the-planet beer.
