A striking feature of the Airport’s Terminal Area Improvement Program will be the character of its public art. A changing Art & Technology program at the Airport will showcase San José as a diverse global center for innovation and change. The goal of this program is to commission artwork that will reflect the character of the Silicon Valley and provide an engaging introduction to the region, highlighting the histories and stories that are a foundation of San José's place in today's global economy.

The Airport Art & Technology program is the product of a four-year master planning effort involving community members and policy makers to model a public art program that is unique to this region. The result is the Mineta San José International Airport Public Art Master Plan.

The San José Office of Cultural Affairs Public Art Program (OCA) is managing the program in close collaboration with the Airport. The Airport Art Program Oversight Committee (AAPOC) is the advisory committee that provides technical and aesthetic review of artwork projects developed for the Airport.

Funding

The City’s Public Art Program is funded through an ordinance that allows 2% of municipal capital improvement project budgets to be set aside for public art.

Current Status

The Airport Public Art Master Plan anticipates that there will be two types of art at the Airport: 1) permanent iconic artwork that will remain in place permanently and 2) temporary changing artwork that will be installed for shorter periods of time.

There are three phases to the implementation of the program: master planning, art activation, and artwork commissioning. The master planning phase has been completed and the program is currently in the Art Activation phase. During this phase, OCA and the Airport will determine locations for different kinds of art, create the infrastructure for placing the art in those locations, and recommend the types of artwork that will be commissioned.

In May 2005, the Office of Cultural Affairs hired the multi-disciplinary team of Gorbet+Banerjee to develop the Arts Activation plan. The team is currently designing the appropriate infrastructure to accommodate the Airport Public Art Program. In addition to designing the infrastructure for public art, Gorbet+Banerjee will collaborate with other artists to design a number of temporary pilot artworks to demonstrate the artistic potential of the Art & Technology infrastructure. Other artists will be commissioned to create the Airport’s permanent, iconic artworks and future temporary artworks.

In July 2006, the Arts Commission recommended approval of the Art Activation Team’s Design Development Proposal for the North Concourse. The proposal focuses on defining sites and providing infrastructure (power, data, and structure) for future artwork installations. The Team is currently working with project architects to detail the integration of the planned infrastructure in construction documents.

For More Information

For general inquiries on the Airport Public Art Program, please contact Mary Rubin with the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs at 408-277-5144 x16 or mary.rubin@sanjoseca.gov.