Barnstable Airport plan doesn't fly with artists

Jan. 10--HYANNIS -- Local artists are balking at plans to install donated or loaned works at the new Barnstable Municipal Airport terminal, arguing that art for art's sake doesn't pay the bills.

The dust-up is not only about the airport, according to artists and their supporters.

"It's about the bigger issue that artists are often asked to work for free," said Lauren Wolk, an artist and associate director of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in South Yarmouth.

Airport officials last month requested applications from artists interested in displaying their work in the new 35,000-square-foot terminal. Currently the only artwork in the building is located in a small on-site gallery operated by a local painter.

A task force on art at the airport has been meeting for eight months, said Kevin Howard, the executive director of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, who helped organize the group.

The task force's goals were to provide the new terminal with a "sense of place," as called for by the Cape Cod Times editorial board, provide artists a place to display their work and highlight the local history of aviation, Howard said.

Airport and town officials were up front in saying the budget for constructing the new terminal did not include money for art, he said.

"The goal here certainly was not to do something that was going to alienate people in the arts community," he said.

Artists object to not having the option to sell work displayed at the airport and argue that airport officials should have set aside funding for commissioned pieces.

"I would like to think that the airport would, in essence, become a gallery," cultural center Executive Director Robert Nash said.

If there were a mechanism for artists to sell pieces displayed at the airport they wouldn't feel as if their work was being "commandeered," he said.

Nash, who was on the arts task force but said he missed the group's last meeting, said he didn't believe the decision to ask for donated or loaned artwork was malicious.

"It sounds like our concept is the straw that broke the camel's back," airport Manager Roland "Bud" Breault said Monday.

The decision not to have "for sale" signs on artwork was based on questions surrounding insurance and how the transactions would occur, Breault said.

Larger, international airports with "huge budgets" are able to purchase or commission art, but that's not possible for the regional Hyannis airport, Breault said.

Philadelphia International Airport, for example, offers two art programs, director of exhibitions Leah Douglas said..

Airport officials work with artists to display their work during exhibits that last for six months at a time, Douglas said. Artist contact information is posted next to the work, which can be sold when an exhibition is over, she said.

The airport also has a permanent collection paid for with money the city requires be spent on art as a percentage of the cost of any new construction, she said.

At Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Ohio, officials have a similar approach, albeit it on a smaller scale.

A group of local artists painted a series of separate images that are combined into a large mural of the Mona Lisa. Another installation of multiple pieces forms an image of New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

The Ohio airport is expected to lease the Mona Lisa mosaic for about $100 a month and the money will go to a nonprofit organization, according to the project's lead artist, Susan Jacobs.

The second installation was given to the airport at no charge and provides exposure for the region's artists and art community, she said.

Barnstable Municipal Airport officials could host an event to raise money to buy art for the new terminal, said the cultural center's Wolk.

The idea that the $40 million budget for the new terminal, new air traffic control tower and associated roadwork included money for lighting and landscaping, but not for art, doesn't fly, Wolk said.

"To say there simply isn't any money in the budget to buy art is ridiculous," she said.

Artists are expected to meet to discuss the situation at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at Cape Cod Chat House on Route 6A in Dennis, Wolk said.

Wolk said she hopes to hold another meeting later -- possibly at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod -- that includes airport officials and artists.

Barnstable Municipal Airport officials and art task force members will now take a "step back" and reassess the art project at the airport in light of the feedback they've received, Breault and Howard said.

Copyright 2012 - Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.