Arts in the Airport
In 15 years, Nashville has grown its program into one of respectability
By John F. Infanger, Editorial Director
May 2001
NASHVILLE — The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority recently unveiled what is to date the crowning achievement in its developing arts program, a $90,000 lumetric sculpture which guides travelers along the moving walkway from the airport’s new parking lot to the terminal. The high-tech visual passageway symbolizes how far the airport’s cultural initiative has come since it was started in the late 1980s.
To label the latest piece of airport art
a sculpture may seem to many a misnomer. It might be better described
as a series of flashing tubes guiding one along a sea of light. Nashville
International Airport (BNA) describes it thus, "the lumetric sculpture
is composed of four spiral forms that intertwine in pairs, creating helixes.
Each helix captures and emits light with the use of LED technology."
The work spans some 134 feet through the third-floor walkway. Travelers
who have traversed the neon underground walkway to the United terminal
at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport will recognize the
work of renowned light artist Michael Hayden.
For Carole M. Willis, director of communications and marketing for BNA, the Hayden sculpture represents
another stage in the cultural and performing arts program, known officially
as Arts in the Airport. She has been with the airport authority some 14
years, about the same tenure as the arts program itself, which got its
start with development of a new airline terminal in 1987.
Explains Willis, "Robert Lamb Hart
was our lead (terminal) architect from New York, and he actually built
into his budget money for an arts in the airport program, which was quite
visionary. It was wonderful that our board also saw the vision in that.
"This was just beginning to occur at
other airports around the country, but certainly not at the level it is
today. Hart enabled us to have seed money to begin an arts program in
the airport, and that money has been perpetuated through the years. The
seed money was $50,000 and it was then up to the authority to build the
program with additional monies." Since the program was officially
begun in 1989, the authority has continued to budget the annual sum of
$50,000 for the program," she says.
Scope of the Program
The BNA arts program began to develop, says
Willis, after authority chair Bob Mathews sought out a local arts patron
to head up an arts committee that would visit various airports in the
U.S. which had programs already in place. Of those, she says, ones at
Orlando, San Francisco, and St. Louis stood out.
"The thing that most impressed them
in those cities was that they seemed to be better organized because they
were affiliated with a city agency," she says. "Their suggestion
to our board was that we contract the actual production of the program
with an arts commission, which the city had in place with the Metropolitan
Nashville Arts Commission.
"We do airports; we don’t do art,
but we wanted art in the airport and in public places. We believed in
it, so we did contract with the commission."
Susan Knowles, who has a masters in arts
degree and had worked with local museums, was then an employee of the
Arts Commission, and became involved in starting up the Arts in the Airport
program, which today is a non-profit foundation. She now contracts directly
with the authority to serve as the part-time curator, accounting for one-fifth
of the arts budget.
Explains Knowles, "It’s not enough
and that’s a problem because the airport arts program could be a
full-time job."
As a result, Willis and Knowles say the
airport has learned how to make that $50,000 budget "grow" by
way of getting grant monies.
Says Knowles, "There’s an art
to that, too."
Adds Willis, "The program has become
so successful that usually when we apply for grants we are successful,
and that’s helped grow that $50,000. Becoming a respected program
helps a lot; then when you have the artists behind you, it speaks volumes."
Community involvement
The Nashville airport program is guided
by an arts committee made up of local artists and art patrons, according
to Willis. Her staff and Knowles make recommendations on the rotating
exhibits each year to the committee, which then makes final recommendations
to the airport board. Committee members are volunteers. "They’re
people who are in a position to be involved with public art issues, and
they serve with no compensation," explains Knowles.
The emphasis of the program from the beginning
has been to highlight Tennessee artists and performers, according to Willis.
Consequently, to be considered by the program an artist needs to be a
Tennessee native or have lived or worked in the state.
The intent, says Willis, has been to get
the community vested in the arts initiative, while also serving as a positive
impression to travelers.
"We truly believe that the airport
is the first and last impression of the city," explains Willis, "and
that’s a big draw for artists because such impressions can be lasting
ones. The natural light in the terminal also lends itself to public display."
Adds Knowles, "We’re really trying
to be public about this, so we do selection by a public process. We really
try to run this program so it not only means exposure for artists but
it’s chosen by people who are representing the public.
"The connection to what’s happening
in the arts communities is key. That, and we try to adhere to the principles
of public review that started with the Metro Arts Commission involvement
— making everything open to anyone who wants to know."
The multifaceted Arts in the Airport program at Nashville International includes permanent works such as the Dancing on Air moguls by a Tennessee artist, and rotating exhibits like the Flying Solo prints by Sheri Fleck Rieth.
Since the program began, the airport has
collected some 80 works of art in its permanent collection, some of which
are used to enhance the airport offices located in the upper level of
the terminal. In time, says Willis, permanent works will rotate back to
the main passenger areas.
For Willis and Knowles, a very important
aspect of the Arts in the Airport program from day one has been to make
it a program of diversity and mixed media. In a city known as a national
music center, it is only natural that performing artists are central to
the program, and in fact are featured each Friday afternoon in the terminal
complex.
Explains Willis, "Unfortunately, we
can only afford to have performing arts every Friday from noon to 2 p.m.
It has become well-known, and local musicians and writers and (recording)
labels recognize the Arts in the Airport program.
"The passengers love it. We have had
musicians go through the terminal and literally put down their luggage
and pick up an instrument. That’s a thrill for passengers, seeing
Mark Knoffler or Johnny Cash. It’s not just country music, it’s
everything from gospel to jazz to strings to piano."
Many of the art exhibits in the airport
are changed out quarterly, and both Willis and Knowles favor a mix of
permanent and rotating exhibits. "I would never want to see the rotating
exhibits stop and just rely on permanent exhibits," comments Willis.
"It’s a way to ensure that there’s always going to be opportunities
for other artists and different media to show at our airport. I think
that’s what keeps the program alive. Every three or four months there’s
something new."
Among those new artists are students, says
Knowles, who are often at the airport via workshops put on in conjunction
with local events and airport art displays.
"When we hosted the National Figure
Skating Championships in Nashville," says Knowles, "we had kids
out here and held class workshops for them. We had a group doing live
drawings, another group doing clay sculptures. It made quite an impression
on the people coming to town for the figure skating events.
"If there’s a way that we can
be a part of something important that’s going on in Nashville, we
try," she explains.
A Nashville Sampler
Some of the exhibits from Nashville International Airport’s Arts in the Airport program, which has some 80 permanent pieces in its collection, include ...
• Michael Hayden’s lumetric sculpture, which features fiber
optics integration and five computer programs that continuously change
the light display, keeping the work from appearing static.
• A current display (through June 4)
featuring nationally recognized printmaking artists Sheri Fleck Rieth
and Cynthia Marsh. In conjunction with the display, the program sponsored
a student printmaking day with two local printmaking instructors.
• The Airport Sun Project by sculptor
Dale Eldred, known for his work displaying the properties of light, was
one of the airport’s first permanent pieces. It consists of glass
and metal panels mounted on structural beams and rafters in the terminal.
• Flights of Fancy, a mosaic bench
and play area by Sherri Warner Hunter, a Tennessee artist, located in
front of the terminal.
• Dancing on Air, by Tennessee artist
Jack Hastings, featuring two 15-foot aluminum mobiles that use the airport’s
vent currents to gingerly float above the traffic flow of passengers below.
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