A Museum Visit at the Airport

Posted on | April 26, 2010 | No Comments

At the airport? Why not check out the latest exhibit? That’s right, the San Francisco International Airport is the only airport in the U.S. with a museum program accredited by the American Association of Museums. Exhibits are scattered through various terminals and change several times a month. At the moment, travelers can see 18th-century porcelain from Meissen, Germany, architectural models of Shanghai’s skyline, and precious jades from China, India and Russia.

I think this model is particularly exciting because it brings people into museums that wouldnt normally encounter them and makes the art available and accessible to an international audience. As national public radio reports on the experience of Wei Cong, a visitor returning home to China “It’s maybe my fifth or sixth time to the San Francisco airport,” he says, “and each time, I see different exhibitions about Chinese culture. There is an Asian art museum in San Francisco, but I’ve never been there.”

Moreover, it extends the lifeline of the airport by making it a multi-use space, therein making the space more dynamic and maximizing the public’s experience at the airport 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Here’s a great radio report from national public radio.

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