SFO airport

America’s Cup artifacts at SFO Museum

Exhibits, Museums, Transportation, , ,
SFO SAILING TWO

Skipper Harold Vanderbilt and crew on deck of Enterprise 1930. photograph from the Edwin Levick Collection; Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Courtesy SFO Museum

A new exhibition featuring artifacts and historic imagery from the first sixteen campaigns of the America’s Cup contest is now at the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport, coinciding with the city’s hosting of the thirty-fourth contest for the America’s Cup.

SFO SAILING ONE

The exhibit offers a historical view of the first eighty-six years of the international sailing competition with great images, ship’s wheels, life rings, crew sweaters, navigational equipment and other artifacts.

Find America’s Cup: Sailing for International Sport’s Greatest Trophy pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport through February 2014.

Can’t make it to SFO but interested in the exhibition? Lucky you: many of the images are included in the on-line exhibition.

SFO Airport readies for possible BART strike

Transportation, ,

Portrait

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers may go on strike early Monday, August 5, 2013  (again…).

If they do, it will be a big pain in the neck for travelers heading to or from San Francisco International Airport (SFO).  To help out, the airport has issued some transportation options and advice, including:

Other transit and shared rides

SFO is recommending that travelers use shared van services, the Caltrain commuter rail or SamTrans bus to the airport and look for updates information on transit options on www.511.org or www.flysfo.com/bart-strike.

Other options include taxis and the ride-share services such as Lyft, UberX, Sidecar and InstantCab.

Free SFO buses

If there is a BART strike, SFO will operate free buses between the airport BART station and the Millbrae Caltrain center. Buses will drop off and pick up passengers at the departure level of the International Terminal, outside the airport BART station.

Free buses will also operate at regular intervals between the airport and the South San Francisco (Oyster Point) ferryboat terminal. A map of these bus routes, along with other supplemental transit options, can be found here.

Kiss & Fly; Cell Phone Lot

If you are getting picked up or dropped off at SFO by car, the airport encourages you to use the Kiss-and-Fly curb at the rental car facility. From there you catch the AirTrain to the terminals.

SFO also offers a free cell-phone parking lot. It’s next to the Long Term Parking surface lot five minutes north of the terminals.

 

Fresh art at SFO Airport: Classic Plastics

Exhibits, , , ,

A great new exhibit – Classic Plastics: 1870s-1970s  – opened this weekend at San Francisco International Airport, courtesy of the SFO Museum.
SFO RADIOS

The exhibit explores the world of man-made plastics, including celluloid and bakelite, which served as substitutes for materials such as tortoiseshell, horn, shellac and ivory.

sFO museum celluloid dolls

Celluloid, the material used to make the dolls above, was patented in 1870 by John Wesley Hyatt, who was trying to find an alternative to ivory for making billiard balls. That material turned out to be highly flammable.

SFO RADIO plastics

Bakelite, the first entirely synthetic plastic, came on the scene about forty years later and, as you know, today pretty much everything is made from the plastics that were invented after that.

Classic Plastics 1870s–1970s is located in the pre-security area of the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport and will be on view through January 5, 2014.

You can see more great images from the exhibit here.

(All photos courtesy SFO Museum.)

 

 

Imagine the excitement generated by the first man-made plastics. These moldable materials served as substitutes for dwindling supplies of natural plastics and precious materials such as tortoiseshell, horn, shellac, ivory, and even silk. Early plastics enabled manufacturers to introduce a host of affordable new products and allowed for tremendous technological advances. American John Wesley Hyatt patented celluloid, a semi-synthetic plastic, in 1870 after trying to find a replacement for ivory billiard balls.

Nearly forty years later, in an attempt to make an alternative electrical insulator to shellac, which derives from lac bug secretions, Belgian-born Leo Baekeland created the first entirely synthetic plastic, Bakelite, in 1907. Scientists continued to invent new types of plastics during World War II, while manufacturers and designers constantly found new uses for it. Early celluloid vanity sets, eyeglasses, jewelry, radios, vinyl records, cameras, handbags, and mid-century furnishings are some of the many important everyday items molded in plastic, which are displayed in the exhibition.

Selected images from the exhibition are available for download at: http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/sfo_museum/about/press_images/exh-plastics.html

Classic Plastics 1870s–1970s is located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby, San Francisco International Airport. The exhibition is on view to all Airport visitors from June 29, 2013 to January 5, 2014. There is no charge to view the exhibition..

– See more at: http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/about/news/pressrel/2013/sf1337.html#sthash.GY6DLw8u.dpuf

BART strike leaving travelers stuck at San Francisco area airports

ground transporation, ,
Portrait

Photo courtesy National Archives

Updated: July 1, 2013

A BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) strike in San Francisco started early Monday, July 1. And passengers are going to have a heck of a time getting to or from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Oakland International Airport.

To help out, the folks at SFO  outlined some alternate transportation options including:

Public transit & shared rides

Some options include the Caltrain commuter rail or SamTrans bus, to the airport. Shared-ride vans services are also available.

Free SFO buses

In there is a BART strike, SFO will operate free buses between the airport BART station and the Millbrae Caltrain center and between the airport and the South San Francisco (Oyster Point) ferryboat terminal.

Kiss & Fly; Cell Phone Lot

If you are getting picked up or dropped off at the airport by friends or family, consider using the Kiss-and-Fly option at the rental car facility. From there you can catch the AirTrain to the airport.  SFO also has a free cell-phone parking lot, which is located next to the Long Term Parking surface lot five minutes north of the terminals.

SFO has asked taxi, van and bus companies to prepare for increased demand. And although the airport’s cease-and-desist order to ridesharing companies such as Sidecar and Uber are still in effect, those companies are ready for increased demand as well.

Oakland International Airport normally operates an AirBART Shuttle Service to transport passengers between the airport and the Coliseum BART station, but that service is canceled due to strike, said OAK Airport spokesperson Kim Domerofski.  To help out, the airport has requested that additional ground transportation providers operate at OAK and on Monday the airport estimated that approximately 50% more taxis, shuttles and limos than usual were available to transport travelers.

More information about what’s happening with BART can be found at www.511.org.

“Sunburn” exhibit at SFO Museum

Airports, Art, ,
Sunburn, by Chris MCaw

Sunburned GSP #683 (Sunrise over San Francisco Bay in twelve negatives) 2013
Chris McCaw gelatin-silver paper negatives

The newest exhibit from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport features the work of photographer Chris McCaw and includes twelve one-of-a-kind gelatin-silver, black-and-white photographs.

To create each photograph, McCaw let the sun burn a path onto light-sensitive negatives during sunrise on the west side of the San Francisco Bay looking east, near San Francisco International Airport. According to the exhibit notes, “McCaw accidentally discovered this process when failing to close his camera’s shutter by sunrise after an all-night exposure of the stars during a camping trip in 2003.”

Look for Chris McCaw’s “Sunburn” series in SFO Terminal 2  – the D1 North Connector Gallery and find out more about the artist, his photography process and the exhibit here.

Fresh – recycled – art at the SFO Museum

Art, ,
Images of gallery exhibition spaces

Nemo Gould’s Catmonkey (saw handle, chair legs, food processor, bean scoop, vacuum cleaner motor cover); and Impala (electric sander, band saw, projector, vacuum cleaners, meat grinder, motorcycle clutch lever, antlers, garlic press, conduit cover). Courtesy SFO Museum

The latest gift to travelers from the SFO MUSEUM at San Francisco International Airport features work from 45 of the more than 100 artists who have participated in the Artist-in-Residence Program at Recology San Francisco.

The program, started by visionary artist and activist Jo Hanson in 1990, gives artists a stipend, studio space and scavenge rights to a Public Disposal and Recycling Area.

Art of Recology shows off the wonderful work they created with some junk and a lot of imagination. Look for it in Terminal 3, Boarding Area F at San Francisco International Airport through October 27, 2013.

Images of gallery exhibition spaces

Evening News, by Sandy Drobny, made of plastic bags used to deliver The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Courtesy SFO Museum

 

Fresh art at San Francisco International Airport

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Pan-Asian Ceramics: Export, Import, and Influence from the Collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Presented by SFO Museum

Courtesy SFO Museum

A new exhibition at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) features a selection of ninth- to eighteenth-century ceramics from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. On their own, these pieces are lovely. But notes from the SFO Museum explain how these pieces also tell the story of how “the exchange of ceramics, an important trade good, informed design styles and production techniques across a vast geographical region” and include Persian fritware, blue-and-white export porcelain, Korean and Thai celadon, and Vietnamese stoneware excavated from a shipwreck off the country’s central coast.

Pan-Asian Ceramics: Export, Import, and Influence is located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport through June 23, 2013.

Here’s a link to an online exhibition of a dozen images from the show.

Travel contests: you can’t win if you don’t play

Contests, ,

It’s true: you can’t win if you don’t play. So take a moment to throw your name in the hat for these contests. You never know…

Cathay Pacific Airways is hosting a Jingle All the Way … to Hong Kong luxury holiday sweepstakes.

Grand prize: two Cathay Pacific round trip flights to Hong Kong in Premium Economy class from one of four US gateways (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco); a four-night hotel stay at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental (a member of the Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel Collection); a $1,000 shopping spree on Saks.com; and 100,000 Asia Miles from Cathay Pacific’s loyalty program (good for anything from flights and hotels to Trek Bikes and iPads.)

The first runner-up will receive 75,000 Asia Miles and second runner-up will receive 60,000 Asia Miles.

Enter here. The sweepstakes runs through December 19, 2012.

San Francisco International Airport is holding a Postagram contest on Facebook and Twitter through December 21, 2010 with prizes that include an iPad mini and a GoPro camera.

If you’re flying through SFO you can get your photo taken at a Postagram photo station or enter here.

And if you participate in the Staybridge Suites hotels’ Twitter Chat about on the Art of Traveling Solo on December 13 from 6 – 7 p.m. EST (@Staybridge/#travelingsolo) you’ll be entered in a contest to win one of three prizes, including a two-night Stay at any Staybridge Suites hotel in the United States and a $500 American Express Gift Card; a $500 gift card to Mori Luggage and Gifts; or a Chef G. Garvin Prize Pack.

Good luck!

What every traveler needs: a remover of obstacles

Art, , , ,

The Hindu deity Ganesha c. 1200–1300. India;
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Avery Brundage Collection.
Courtesy SFO Museum

The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport is presenting an exhibition of Hindu sculptures from the collections of the Asian Art Museum from Saturday August 25th through Sunday, February 24, 2013, post-security in Terminal 3.

The exhibited objects range from seventh- and eighth-century temple images carved from stone to elaborately rendered wooden sculptures made more than one thousand years later for use in religious processions.

Among the sculptures in Deities in Stone is Ganesha, a remover of obstacles. It is said that the worshiper who honors him before any undertaking – including, we hope, travel – is ensured success.

Sleeping beauties: fresh art at SFO Airport

Art, Exhibits, ,

Headrest 20 th century: Southeastern Shona or Tsonga peoples, Zimbabwe and Mozambique wood; Fowler Museum at UCLA; The Jerome L. Joss Collection; Courtesy SFO MUSEUM

Next time you’re at the airport look around at all the sleepy people who would probably give anything for a place to rest their heads.

Too bad they can’t open the exhibit cases in the new Sleeping Beauties exhibit at San Francisco International Airport featuring headrests from around the world.

“People all over the world spend nearly one-third of their lives sleeping, employing some type of pillow when resting. From ancient periods to modern times, humans have made rigid pillows from a wide variety of materials, including stone, clay, wood, and bamboo. Headrests were once a staple of domestic furniture, not only in many parts of Africa, but also in Asia and Oceania. Within the constraints of their size and shape, these intimate objects reflect the aesthetics of their respective cultures and function in symbolic as well as utilitarian ways. From Zairian and Melanesian figurative, wooden headrests to Chinese delicately glazed porcelain and Japanese rattan-woven pillows, a variety of headrests are on display.”

Headrest 19 th–mid-20 th century; Imbuando peoples, Lower Sepik, Papua New Guinea wood, cane; Fowler Museum at UCLA; The Jerome L. Joss Collection: Courtesy SFO Museum

Sleeping Beauties: Headrests from the Fowler Museum at UCLA is located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport through December, 2012.

Sleep tight.