RELEASE: 13th Arts in the Airports Conference at Love Field 4/22 to 4/24

13^TH ANNUAL ARTS IN THE AIRPORTS WORKSHOP
HELD AT DALLAS LOVE FIELD APRIL 22 TO 24, 2015

DALLAS: Dallas Love Field will host the 13^th annual Arts in the Airport Workshop, that will bring airport executives, art program directors and public art administrators from across the nation to Dallas to discuss the importance of arts and cultural programming for airports. The conference will showcase the Love Field Art Program, a collection of 12 new and 5 preexisting artworks installed in highly visible locations throughout Love Field. The Arts in the Airport Workshop takes place April 22 to 24, 2015. It will be held in the new Flight Deck Conference Center, across from Love Landing on the second floor of the airport’s main terminal. Love Field Airport is located at 8008 Herb Kelleher Way, Dallas, TX 75235.

“More than 9 million travelers experience the Love Field Art Program each year as they travel through the airport,” says Office of Cultural Affairs Interim Director, David Fisher. “Love Field is a gateway to the City of Dallas and the public art program reflects the high quality of art and cultural activities people will experience when visiting our city.” The agenda for the conference will touch on topics ranging from the Creation of a Master Plan, to The Balancing Act of Art and Business and The Local Artist’s Perspective on Place-Making. Those in attendance will receive a tour of the Love Field Art Program, which embraces themes related to the history of Dallas Love Field Airport. The collection of 17 works includes 11 new commissions, one relocated historic artwork, and 5 preexisting installations that were created by artists living in Dallas, throughout the state of Texas, and beyond. North Texas Sunrise, by Houston artist Dixie Friend Gay, was selected as one of the top public art installations in the country for 2013 by Americans for the Arts, Public Art Year in Review.

“These commissions make a tremendous impact to the experience of our customers while visiting the airport and are the result of a dynamic partnership between the Department of Aviation, the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and Southwest Airlines." says Dallas Love Field’s Director of Aviation, Mark Duebner. “The new works of public art have had a significant visual impact on the renovated terminal and reflect the work of the many citizens who served on panels to review and select this work in addition to the artists whose work not only achieved the goals of the Love Field Art Program, but will continue to enrich the experience of airport travelers for many years to come,” says Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs Public Art Manager, Kay Kallos.

The unveiling of the first phase of the Love Field Art Program began in the spring of 2013, with work ongoing through the spring of 2015 with the installation of the rescued and restored Campanile Window by Octavio Medellin. The Art Travelers Gallery features rotating exhibits spotlighting the work of Dallas ISD students and local university students. The Love Field Art Program is part of the City of Dallas Public Art Collection. The commission value for new works is $2.4 million dollars.

For more information, please contact Margaret Fullwood by email at Margaret.Fullwood@dallascityhall or by phone at 214-670-4428.

About the Artists

David Newton created the Dallas History Medallion for the Love Field Art Program, in the ticketing area on the lower level. Newton is a classically trained sculptor who has dedicated his craft to transforming ordinary people and historical moments into unforgettable, timeless moments of beauty. Newton also created the sculptures at The Freedman’s Memorial, also in Dallas. http://www.davidsnewtonsculptor.com/-bio-information.html

Dixie Friend Gay’s 60-foot mural of the North Texas sky and Texas wildflowers dominates the wall near the security checkpoint. North Texas Sunrise brings a heightened awareness of the Texas landscape. Gay’s work is fueled by observations of the natural world. She loves to travel to rural areas and explore landscapes, and hopes viewers will take away a heightened awareness of our beautiful wildflowers. Gay has created other works of public art for airports, universities and the Port of Miami. http://dixiefriendgay.com/

Lane Banks is a Dallas artist whose work is exclusively abstract. His Untitled piece at the entrance tunnel to the ticketing hall is completely geometric. The terrazzo floor design is a series of rectangles. He describes the work as “completely conceptual and systematic in practice.” Banks work has been featured in exhibits at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, the Dallas Public Library, the Trammel Crow Center, the Bath House Cultural Center, and can be found in the Neiman-Marcus Collection. http://lanebanksart.blogspot.com/

Martin Donlin works in glass. His piece for the Love Field Art Program relates to the physical characteristics and historical heritage of the airport. Blueprint of Flight is a glass wall mural near the terminal exit and can be viewed from the public space on the Love Landing. It features an image of Moss Lee Love, for whom the airport is named, overlaid with poetry throughout. Donlin creates works that are welcoming and accessible, with a sense of adventure. http://www.martindonlin.com/

Diana Goldberg and Julie Cohn’s six, ten-foot high, steel Luminaria parallel the street at the airport terminal entrance. The six individual pieces reflect an illumination of ideas and innovations from underlying technologies critical to contemporary air travel such as thermodynamics, routing systems, and weather maps. The Luminaria are fabricated of pierced stainless steel with florescent interior lighting.  Patterns in the cylinders represent flight routes, weather patterns, aerodynamics, airfoils, computer circuitry and Quantum Mechanics. Diana Goldberg’s background is in painting, printmaking and design. Her public art projects with husband Brad Goldberg can be seen throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Julie Cohn was trained as a painter and printmaker. Her creative path includes work in jewelry, textiles and wall coverings, collaborations with architects, and public art. For more information see: http://www.bradjgoldberg.com/ and http://juliecohndesign.com/

Tom Orr’s Intersected Passage was inspired by the 1958 entrance sign to Dallas Love Field Airport, which was reinstalled in 2013 at the corner of Denton Drive and Mockingbird Lane. Orr’s piece is made of powder-coated panels of colored and mirrored aluminum. Tom Orr is a Dallas-based artist whose work can also be seen at DFW Airport, on White Rock Lake and in many corporate collections in Dallas and cities throughout Texas. He received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and exhibits his work at Barry Whistler Gallery in Dallas. Additional information is available at http://www.tomorr.net/

Sherry Owens is a Dallas artist known for her crepe myrtle sculptures and other outdoor works in bronze. For the work Back in a Moment, Owens created a meditative space where viewers can enjoy the peacefulness of the trees and contemplate the WWI vintage goggles and jacket of Moss Lee Love, who was killed in a flight training accident prior to WWI. Owens’ work is in many corporate and private collections throughout Texas and in Hawaii. http://www.psgart.com/artists/sherryowens.html

Paul Marioni creates art that sometimes appears to him in dreams. In Flight is a terrazzo floor installation of birds flying over a changing skyscape. A glassworker who enjoys pushing the limits of the technique, he enjoys the way glass captures light in service to the image. Paul is a Fellow of the American Crafts Council and the recipient of 3 fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts. http://www.cmog.org/bio/paul-marioni

Brower Hatcher created Sky for the Love Field Art Program. A whimsical torus of intertwined fiberglass rods, the sculpture is embedded with 3000 flying objects ranging from modern airplanes and biplanes to birds, bees and clouds, with small LED chip lights that create atmospheric effects. Brower has built more than 50 public art projects throughout the U.S. He is the recipient of 3 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship and an honorary Ph.D. from the State University of New York. http://www.midoceanstudio.com/the_artist/artist_profile.htm

Tim Prentice and David Colbert created Line Dance, a kinetic sculpture on view in the baggage claim area of Dallas Love Field. Inspired by the work of Alexander Calder and George Rickey, the piece consists of 13 ribbons of kinetic mirror-finished aluminum suspended above the baggage claim area. The pieces are free to rotate 360 degrees and reflect the movement of baggage on the carousel and passengers below. http://www.timprentice.com/

Stephen T. Johnson’s work for the tunnel leading to the parking garage is a Muybridge-inspired series of 36 digital prints on glass. Reading from left to right, Giddy-up! begins with Love Field symbolized as a heart from which Dallas’ iconic Pegasus emerges, ascends and flies over the emerging Lone Star of Texas. http://www.stephentjohnson.com/

Octavio Medellin was an important cultural founding father to North Texas artists whose work is represented in museums throughout the country, including the Dallas Museum of (Fine) Art, the Meadows Museum at SMU, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, the Witte Museum in San Antonio, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. An important arts educator, he taught at North Texas State Teachers College (now the University of North Texas), Southern Methodist University, and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts School. The fused glass Campanile Window was rescued from an East Dallas church, restored by Michael Van Enter Studio and installed in the spring of 2015. https://sites.smu.edu/cul/hamon/bywaters/

The preexisting works include One Riot, One Ranger, by Waldine Tauch, which returned to Love Field after a three year hiatus due to remodeling. The Spirit of Flight statue, by Charles Umlauf, has been a permanent figure near the main entrance of the airport since its installation in 1961. The world map, installed by Luighi “Tony” Flabiano, can be found on the floor outside of the new security checkpoint. Originally installed in the 1950s, it was the largest terrazzo design of its time. The map was restored during the construction. Dallas artists Susan Magilow and Phillip Lamb created the vinyl wall mural along the pedestrian walkway from the parking garage to the terminal. The Love Field Pedestrian Concourse featuring photography of Texas was installed in 2003.

ABOUT LOVE EVOLUTION

The Love Evolution improvement program oversaw the dramatic evolution of Dallas Love Field. The Love Field Modernization Program (LFMP), focusing on construction, transformed the beloved airport and turned it into one of the nation’s premiere and modern airport facilities. The original concourses were consolidated into one, centrally located concourse for all airlines. From more efficient travel to an increased number of airport concessions and lifting of the Wright Amendment, the modernization of Dallas Love Field has resulted in tremendous benefits for travelers to and from Dallas/Fort Worth. http://www.lovefieldartprogram.com/

ABOUT THE PUBLIC ART PROGRAM

The Public Art Program works to enrich the quality of life for the citizens of Dallas and enhance the cultural appeal of the City to visitors by overseeing the integration of high-quality visual art into public spaces. The Program provides opportunities for local and regional artists as well as visual artists from around the globe through commissions of works of public art. The program also supports donations of public art to the City of Dallas that are subject to a review process for acceptance that includes members of the Public Art Committee and the Cultural Affairs Commission. The Public Art Program is a division of the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. http://www.dallasculture.org/publicArt.asp

ABOUT THE OFFICE OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

The Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) provides opportunities for all Dallas citizens and visitors to have access to the arts and the means of cultural expression. The Office of Cultural Affairs works with its citizen advisory board, the Cultural Affairs Commission, to foster the development of the cultural system in Dallas. OCA provides a variety of programs and services, including the management and operations of seven cultural facilities, a public art program, cultural funding programs and WRR Radio. More information on the Office of Cultural Affairs’ programs can be found on its website at http://www.DallasCulture.org.