Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

$500,000 terminal art backstory

Contract to clean and maintain airport art up for bid
Contract to clean and maintain airport art up for bid

It’s a big month for art at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, which over the years has spent millions on a controversial collection of creative adornments to distract travelers from long lines, prying TSA agents, and various other inconveniences of 21st-century air travel.

Examples include Ben Darby’s Puff (2010) in Terminal One, described by the airport authority’s website as “An Elephant’s Fountain of Youth. Bold, whimsical, vibrant and textural images of elephants blowing daisy petals relates to both real life and the artist’s imagination.” Another, Inflight (2009), by Mike Mandel, also in Terminal One, is “a suite of four Italian glass mosaic murals detailing a metaphor for the flying experience; a woman in transit, an informal family portrait, and a variety of carry-ons are depicted in a renovated rotunda of the airport.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Sheryl Oring’s Travel Desk (2015), in the East Lobby of Terminal Two East, is an “an inviting communal table” that has been “inscribed with excerpts of individual travel stories collected during a unique, participatory performance.” In December 2013, Oring, a onetime San Diegan and ex–newspaper writer and editor, explained the deeper meaning of her $118,000 project to airport board members: “Initials carved into a tree trunk along a favorite trail or into a wooden picnic table at a beloved spot serve as poignant reminders that we were here, providing an indelible physical mark in an increasingly transitory, digital world.”


Great art gets dirty, so the airport authority is currently looking for a contractor to take charge of “cleaning, maintenance, appraisal, installation, de-installation, conservation, and restoration services for the Authority’s public art collection located at the Airport,” according to a July 6 request for proposals. A separate offering seeks “services needed to provide on-call art handling, installation, fabrication and off-site storage services.” No budget is provided.

Meanwhile, the airport is looking to augment its collection with a $500,000 creation at the new Palm Street park being developed on the site of the now-demolished Jimsair private terminal and public bar on Pacific Highway, where Charlie (Kelly McGillis) slugged down drinks with Maverick (Tom Cruise) in Top Gun.

“The park is envisioned as a multi-faceted space in an urban context,” says the airport’s advertisement for would-be artists. “Transit users of the Middletown light rail station at Palm Street will be guided to walk through the park to access a complimentary shuttle to Airport terminals.” According to a solicitation for qualifications, due July 31, the new venue “will increase the appeal of the newly landscaped area of Pacific Highway for pedestrians and provide the public with a unique site from which to observe aircraft approaching and departing the Airport’s runway.” As for artwork, “The artistic interventions should be multi-dimensional, and feature sculptural elements that heighten the functionality and exploratory potential of the park.”

Continues the all-media call: “This may include seating, integrated landscape elements, canopies, lighting fixtures, and/or walkway enhancements. Furthermore, the artwork design should create a unifying theme that defines the character or identity of the park. The artist may draw upon the proximity to the airfield and/or the distinctive characteristics of the San Diego’s natural environment as inspiration.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Contract to clean and maintain airport art up for bid
Contract to clean and maintain airport art up for bid

It’s a big month for art at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, which over the years has spent millions on a controversial collection of creative adornments to distract travelers from long lines, prying TSA agents, and various other inconveniences of 21st-century air travel.

Examples include Ben Darby’s Puff (2010) in Terminal One, described by the airport authority’s website as “An Elephant’s Fountain of Youth. Bold, whimsical, vibrant and textural images of elephants blowing daisy petals relates to both real life and the artist’s imagination.” Another, Inflight (2009), by Mike Mandel, also in Terminal One, is “a suite of four Italian glass mosaic murals detailing a metaphor for the flying experience; a woman in transit, an informal family portrait, and a variety of carry-ons are depicted in a renovated rotunda of the airport.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Sheryl Oring’s Travel Desk (2015), in the East Lobby of Terminal Two East, is an “an inviting communal table” that has been “inscribed with excerpts of individual travel stories collected during a unique, participatory performance.” In December 2013, Oring, a onetime San Diegan and ex–newspaper writer and editor, explained the deeper meaning of her $118,000 project to airport board members: “Initials carved into a tree trunk along a favorite trail or into a wooden picnic table at a beloved spot serve as poignant reminders that we were here, providing an indelible physical mark in an increasingly transitory, digital world.”


Great art gets dirty, so the airport authority is currently looking for a contractor to take charge of “cleaning, maintenance, appraisal, installation, de-installation, conservation, and restoration services for the Authority’s public art collection located at the Airport,” according to a July 6 request for proposals. A separate offering seeks “services needed to provide on-call art handling, installation, fabrication and off-site storage services.” No budget is provided.

Meanwhile, the airport is looking to augment its collection with a $500,000 creation at the new Palm Street park being developed on the site of the now-demolished Jimsair private terminal and public bar on Pacific Highway, where Charlie (Kelly McGillis) slugged down drinks with Maverick (Tom Cruise) in Top Gun.

“The park is envisioned as a multi-faceted space in an urban context,” says the airport’s advertisement for would-be artists. “Transit users of the Middletown light rail station at Palm Street will be guided to walk through the park to access a complimentary shuttle to Airport terminals.” According to a solicitation for qualifications, due July 31, the new venue “will increase the appeal of the newly landscaped area of Pacific Highway for pedestrians and provide the public with a unique site from which to observe aircraft approaching and departing the Airport’s runway.” As for artwork, “The artistic interventions should be multi-dimensional, and feature sculptural elements that heighten the functionality and exploratory potential of the park.”

Continues the all-media call: “This may include seating, integrated landscape elements, canopies, lighting fixtures, and/or walkway enhancements. Furthermore, the artwork design should create a unifying theme that defines the character or identity of the park. The artist may draw upon the proximity to the airfield and/or the distinctive characteristics of the San Diego’s natural environment as inspiration.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Croome Brothers Trio, Jack Tempchin, Ricky, Swami & the Bed Of Nails, Kahlil Nash

Acoustic and electric in Del Mar, La Jolla, Little Italy, and City Heights
Next Article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.