"Oakland Museum joins airport team"

Sunday, February 9, 2003

Oakland Museum joins airport team
Organization will help bring artwork to display in terminal's $1.4 billion
expansion
By Paul T. Rosynsky
The Tri-Valley (CA) Herald


OAKLAND -- The Oakland Museum of California will help bring art to the
city's international airport, through a $400,000 deal approved by the Port
of Oakland last week.

The three-year deal calls for the museum to coordinate the introduction of
artistic displays with the first design phase of the airport's $1.4 billion
terminal expansion and parking garage project.

The museum was hired as part of the port's new drive to make public art a
requirement for all its major construction projects and for private
development on land bought from the port.

In the last year, the port developed and approved a public arts policy,
hired a consultant to identify locations suitable for public art and
outlined a way to make room for displays at the new international airport.

"There just has never been a plan or a policy for how art is accepted and
placed," said Harold Jones, port director of communications. "As we
developed more public space and public access, we began to realize that
there is a place for art and there is a method and process that you should
follow."

That method included hiring the Oakland Museum as a $414,935 consultant on
the airport project. Despite charging the second-highest price, the museum
beat three other organizations that competed for the three-year deal.

Port officials said the museum was chosen because of the team it organized
to work on the project, its roots in Oakland and its plan to bring Oakland
artists into the airport.

"Looking at the team and the background of the team allowed us to have a
level of confidence," Jones said. "It is going to be forward thinking and
innovative."

Those who lost agreed the museum had a solid team in place to get the job
done, although some noted having the museum involved might result in artwork
that is too conservative to allow creativity. That view is shared by some
leading critics of both the city and the port's public arts policies.

"Are they going to put risky art out there?" asked Dan Fontes, an Oakland
artist critical of the city's program. "Given my experience with both
entities, the Oakland Museum and the Port of Oakland, my view is a little
pessimistic."

David Wagner, owner of Derix Arts Glass Consultants, which lost the
competition for the contract, said he felt the port was looking for an
organization that was going to be "safe."

"I think they really wanted somebody that no one is ever going to complain
about," he said. "The art just didn't seem to be the main thing."

In addition, critics say the museum's history of making decisions behind
closed doors could hurt the project.

While port officials and museum executives admit the nonprofit does not have
a stellar reputation for openness and creativity, they vowed to change those
perceptions through the airport project.

"What this could do for the museum is change that perception," said Cherie
Newell, director of professional services for the museum. "Most of what we
do is behind our own walls, so if you don't come here you really don't know
what we are doing."

Port Commissioner Darlene Ayers-Johnson, a major proponent of having public
art with port developments, agreed and promised the entire process will be
open to public view.

"They have the talent to get the job done," she said. "And just because I am
terribly pleased ... please do not think that I will not check in to see
what they are doing and ensure that the process they choose is as public as
the process that we are doing."

In fact, the museum hired four consultants to help with the airport artwork,
including Susan Pontious, who severed as senior project manager for the San
Francisco Public Arts Program.

While working there, Pontious took charge of placing art at San Francisco
International Airport's new international terminal, which received high
marks once it opened.

"It seems fitting," said Michael Lerner, senior projects manager for San
Francisco-based Community ARTS International, which also competed for the
contract. "It is the premier cultural institution in Oakland and I am
certain that they are qualified."

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